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painting of Louis Armstrong by Vakseen

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Iconoclast

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During the blaze at the Radio Flyer factory, Louis Armstrong was responsible for saving the lives of every man, woman and child on the ball bearing line.

The irony lay in the fact that the night before, he had applied for a job as an area supervisor at the Zippo lighter assembly plant, a whole note away. There, he would be allowed to pip-pip at will, while he blew his own horn at lunchtime.

This free form approach was forbidden at the Flyer factory, which led the front line to drop tempo on Louis behind his back. Literally.

After the blaze had cooled and all the little red wagons were declared safe, the firefighters lined up for Louis Armstrong’s autograph. Louis teared up as he tuned up, “Thank you, folks,” he said in his bellicose rasp.

Seconds later, at the corner of 125th street and Amsterdam avenue, Miles was rear ended in his Ferrari by Lee Morgan. Miles got in Lee’s face, “Motherfucker, if you’d stop playin’ all them extra notes this shit would not have gone down.”

Miles’ breath was so bad, Lee’s conk went back.

Be-boo, be-boo, be-boo.

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photo Christine Vlasak

Dig Wayne lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and two children. He is a former professional singer and songwriter. For the last several decades he has been a professional actor. Dig is now an acting instructor at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. He is proud to be a life member of the Actors Studio NYC and Los Angeles. His poetry and photography can be found in the online magazines Felix and Citron Review. His poetry has been published in the literary journals, Askew and Spillway. 

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Otha Davis III, also known as Vakseen, is a self-taught, museum-exhibited artist and a multi platinum music producer/songwriter.   His painting of Louis Armstrong is published with his gracious consent.  For information about that painting, click here.  To visit his website, click here

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Listen to a 1957 recording of Louis Armstrong (with Oscar Peterson, Louie Bellson, Herb Ellis and Ray Brown) playing “Moon Song”

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