“Bunk Didn’t Teach Me”

Abstract Bunk Johnson sprang unexpectedly from obscurity in 1939, when scholars began to take a keen interest in the early New Orleanian period. Johnson made many claims about his historic role that were later shown to be false. He put himself forward as Armstrong’s main mentor, and though Armstrong supported Johnson (see the Appendix), he also made clear in this article and elsewhere that he got very little from Johnson, musically or otherwise. Since Johnson’s contrary claims have continued to appear in biographies (as recently as 1997), it is worth reprinting Armstrong’s clear statement, which appeared in an article titled “Bunk Didn’t Teach Me,” with byline “as told by Louis Armstrong,” from The Record Changer in 1950. Reprinted here are passages identified as Armstrong’s words by quotation marks in the original article.