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Armstrong played the trumpet so powerfully that he often split his lip. Armstrong was obligated to leave school in the fifth grade to begin working. During this time, Armstrong taught the band how to swing. The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Louis Armstrong is considered a hero for many reasons. Born in 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Armstrong had a difficult childhood. There are two kinds of music, the good and the bad. Sources: Louis Armstrong Facts | Britannica Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. Armstrong was an African American child growing up in the slums of New Orleans, close to abandonment, impoverished, and with too few constant people, resources, or homes. How Did Louis Armstrong Impact Society I play the good kind (Armstrong). West End Blues by Louis Armstrong is one of the most important songs in jazz. Life & Legacy Louis Armstrong Society Jazz Band Although the ballad topped the 1968 charts in Great Britain, American sales were abysmal. If Armstrong never bought the cornet he would have never become famous. Between 1952 and 1955, Armstrong shed 100 pounds. He fused the jazz style of the place where he grew up with well known jazz of Broadway to coordinate a better than ever kind of jazz. While in New York, Armstrong cut dozens of records as a sideman, creating inspirational jazz with other greats such as Sidney Bechet, and backing numerous blues singers including Bessie Smith. As a trumpet virtuoso, his playing, beginning with the 1920s studio recordings he made with his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles, charted a future for jazz in highly imaginative, emotionally charged improvisation. Wiki User. While he still had to work odd jobs selling newspapers and hauling coal to the city's famed red-light district, Armstrong began earning a reputation as a fine blues player. He was then sent to the Colored Waif's Home for Boys. Armstrong's popularity continued to grow in Chicago throughout the decade, as he began playing other venues, including the Sunset Caf and the Savoy Ballroom. The song for which Pops is most widely remembered, What a Wonderful World, was almost never his song at all. Armstrong could make an audience cheer, but Roy Eldridge, made those top and bottom notes feel like a natural part of what the horn should do (Friedwald 21). They treat me better all over the world than they do in my hometown, he said. To earn money, Armstrong sang on street corners, sold newspapers, and delivered coal. In 16967, Armstrong recorded his most renowned tune, What a Wonderful Word that surprisingly featured no trumpet. (She was the second of his four wives.) Its popularity brought many people together, even through the years of racial discrimination and the Great Depression. Despite failing to make a new record for two years, Armstrong remained a fan favorite. Thereafter until his death in 1971, however, Armstrong never publicly addressed whether he was in fact Sharon's father. Heart and kidney problems forced him to stop performing in 1969. At His Majestys command, several of the biggest names in jazz took their talents to Buckingham Palace, and in 1932, Armstrong was requested for a royal performance. What was Louis Armstrongs childhood like? With the assistance of the jazz musicians, the music industry, Making his voice sound like a musical instrument and singing nonsense syllables with no words created Scat singing. Why was Louis Armstrong important to New Orleans? In July, Armstrong sailed to England for a tour. Louis Armstrong Biography, Songs, & Albums | AllMusic What A Wonderful World: Louis Armstrongs Iconic Ballad Louis Armstrong: History & Major Accomplishments Mob bosses from New York City and Chicago threatened Louis Armstrong in attempts to control his management contract. Even the scepter of Uncle Tom that shadowed the outsized Satchmo during his career, and that Ellington essentially concurred with in an interview with Carter Harman in 1964, has faded. Turns out, he was 13 months off. The Hot Five and Hot Seven were strictly recording groups; Armstrong performed nightly during this period with Erskine Tate's orchestra at the Vendome Theater, often playing music for silent movies. Only Charlie Parker comes close to having as much influence on the history of Jazz as Louis Armstrong did. In December of that year, he was called into the studio to record the title number for a Broadway show that hadn't opened yet: Hello, Dolly! Ironically, Armstrong later wrote the whole thing off as a big blunder on his part. Additionally, he became the first African American entertainer to host a nationally sponsored radio show in 1937, when he took over Rudy Vallee's Fleischmann's Yeast Show for 12 weeks. 1 slot in May 1964, and knocking the Beatles off the top at the height of Beatlemania. Armstrong was a busy man, he always had more than one thing going on, if he wasnt recording with Hot Five/Seven, he was performing in the Vendome theatre, playing music for silent movies.. In 1914, the home released him, and he immediately began dreaming of a life making music. The book was titled Swing That Music. ", Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in a neighborhood so poor that it was nicknamed "The Battlefield.". Seeing "the writing on the wall," Armstrong scaled down to a smaller six-piece combo, the All Stars; personnel would frequently change, but this would be the group Armstrong would perform live with until the end of his career. To untold millions, every note that he let loose made the world feel a bit more wonderful, and his music is still being discovered by new generations of fans. 2012-02-22 18:06:07. Why was Louis Armstrong important to the Harlem Renaissance? His resurgence in the '60s with hit recordings like 1965's Grammy-winning "Hello Dolly" and 1968's classic "What a Wonderful World" solidified his legacy as a musical and cultural icon. Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy | National Portrait Gallery "What a Wonderful World" peaked on the U.S. music charts after Armstrong passed away. Louis Armstrong was the first black man in the U.S. to host a radio show. In fifth grade, while being taken care of by his maternal grandmother most of the time, he left school to work. These views changed in 1957, when Armstrong saw the Little Rock Central High School integration crisis on television. He faced tremendous adversity, ignorance and hatred in his life, and fought back without sinking to the level of those who opposed him. Eldridge is the obvious link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. Without the jazz musicians, jazz music would not have been possible. His stop-time solos on numbers like "Cornet Chop Suey" and "Potato Head Blues" changed jazz history, featuring daring rhythmic choices, swinging phrasing and incredible high notes. Armstrong had a difficult childhood: His father was a factory worker and abandoned the family soon after Louis's birth. He began to grow artistically and perfected his improvisational method (Jazz Stars 2). The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of While not officially government-sponsored, there are some who believe the concert was arranged by the CIA, which would make this just one of the many taxpayer-funded appearances hed make abroad during the Cold War in an effort to strengthen diplomatic relations overseas. Show More. Contracted to OKeh Records, he began to make a series of recordings with studio-only groups called the Hot Fives or the Hot Sevens. During this period, he switched from cornet to trumpet. Louis Armstrong Louis Armstrong in The Civil Rights Movement Armstrong brought. He influenced other jazz musicians by his fearless trumpet styles and distinctive vocals. (Hakim, 58) Although Jazz was very popular itself, a majority of the fans and listeners were younger people. Here is one paragraph from the post: From the very first note of West End Blues, a tune composed by Joe King Oliver, one can immediately sense the shift that The story behind the jazz legends final hit and, quite simply, one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Revisiting Louis Armstrong in the Context Why Louis Armstrong was important? At one point in Heebie Jeebiesa 1926 song released by Armstrong and his "Hot Five bandthe singer vocalizes a series of nonsensical, horn-like sounds. Louis Armstrong was a jazz trumpeter, bandleader and singer known for songs like "What a Wonderful World, Hello, Dolly, Star Dust and "La Vie En Rose.. He studied music there and played cornet and bugle in the school band, eventually becoming its leader. He performed all over the world in the 1950s and '60s, including throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. With his amazing voice trumpet he created a band and made some records. He embarked on his first European tour since 1935 in February 1948, and thereafter toured regularly around the world. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Louis Armstrong was an outstanding jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance Era. Legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow followed Armstrong with a camera crew on some of his worldwide excursions, turning the resulting footage into a theatrical documentary, Satchmo the Great, released in 1957. He grew up in New Orleans where he introduced to jazz and he went on to spread jazz throughout different cities such as Chicago and New York. Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. He was an all-star virtuoso, and came to prominence in the 1920s playing cornet and trumpet with an excitingly new and improvisational style. That same year, he recorded with small New Orleans-influenced groups, including the Hot Five, and began recording larger ensembles. He was also a gifted singer, and his WebWhy Is Louis Armstrong Important. For live dates, he appeared with the orchestras led by Erskine Tate and Carroll Dickerson. WebLouis Armstrong was the protean genius that made African American classical music mislabeled as jazz the most important music event of the 20th century. Bebop, a new form of jazz, had blossomed in the 1940s. He popularized scat singing and was the first musician to have his solo on a recording (Rodgers 85). It won him a Grammy for best vocal performance. A series of new biographies on Armstrong made his role as a civil rights pioneer abundantly clear and, subsequently, argued for an embrace of his entire career's output, not just the revolutionary recordings from the 1920s. In 1936, Louis Armstrong became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography, Swing That Music. He returned to performing in 1970 but it was too much, too soon and he passed away in his sleep on July 6, 1971, a few months after his final engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. He was by far the most enduringly popular man of all the classical composers, and his influence on following Western art music was very good and intense., Intro Why was Louis Armstrong so important? Today, these are generally regarded as the most important and influential recordings in jazz history; on these records, Armstrong's virtuoso brilliance helped transform jazz from an ensemble music to a soloist's art. The family treated Armstrong like a member, bought him his first trumpet, and encouraged his musical aspirations. The single's B-side, and also a chart entry, was "A Kiss to Build a Dream On," sung by Armstrong in the film The Strip. They saw Armstrong's stage persona and music as old-fashioned and criticized him in the press. The way they are treating my people in the South, declared Armstrong, the government can go to hell.. In the 1950s, he was sometimes criticized for his onstage persona and called an Uncle Tom but he silenced critics by speaking out against the governments handling of the Little Rock Nine high school integration crisis in 1957. His rise to fame peaked in the 1920s, where he stunned the world with his bold trumpet style and idiosyncratic vocals. ", Armstrong's fully healed lip made its presence felt on some of the finest recordings of career, including "Swing That Music," "Jubilee" and "Struttin' with Some Barbecue.". When Louis Armstrong was placed in a boys home as a young boy, he was presented with the opportunity to play the cornet. By the end of the decade, the popularity of the Hot Fives and Sevens was enough to send Armstrong back to New York, where he appeared in the popular Broadway revue, Hot Chocolates. He soon began touring and never really stopped until his death in 1971. Louis Armstrong was an American jazz musician who was one of the most influential figures in jazz music. Personnel changed over the years but this remained Armstrongs main performing vehicle for the rest of his career. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Rock Icon KISS Is Saying Goodbye (For Real), Rihanna and 10 Other Great Pregnant Performances, Burt Bacharachs Legacy: 5 Notable Collaborations, 2023 Grammy Awards: Six Winners Who Made History. Evidently, the show went well. For the first time, Armstrong was really able to demonstrate his unique voice during those recording sessions. This newfound popularity introduced Armstrong to a new, younger audience, and he continued making both successful records and concert appearances for the rest of the decade, even cracking the "Iron Curtain" with a tour of Communist countries such as East Berlin and Czechoslovakia in 1965. He subsequently passed, so the duo contacted Armstrong in August 1967. As if it were not enough that Armstrong would rewire instrumental music for the rest of the century, his singing did the same for vocal music. "What a Wonderful World" peaked on the U.S. music charts after Armstrong passed away. He dropped out of school at 11 to join an informal group, but on December 31, 1912, he fired a gun during a New Year's Eve celebration, and was sent to reform school. This pop success was repeated internationally four years later with "What a Wonderful World," which hit number one in the U.K. in April 1968. Duke Ellingtons sense of musical drama was the one that made him stand out from all of the rest., Armstrong became the best jazz soloist on Broadway (Louis Armstrong 1). He performed in Europe for the first time in 1932 and returned in 1933, staying for over a year because of a damaged lip. WebWhy Is Louis Armstrong Important. He was raised by his mother Mayann in a neighborhood so dangerous it was called The Battlefield. He only had a fifth-grade education, dropping out of school early to go to work. Louis continued to spread his style by touring other countries. he put his soul and dedicated his life to his music. One of the first many New Orleans style jazz artists is Jelly Roll Morton. However, had his upbringing been different, his musical talents may never have been established to grow and thrive into one of the most internationally influential jazz musicians ever. Henderson also forbade Armstrong from singing, fearing that his rough way of vocalizing would be too coarse for the sophisticated audiences at the Roseland Ballroom. The civil rights movement was growing stronger with each passing year, with more protests, marches and speeches from African Americans wanting equal rights. It did not gain as much notice in the U.S. until 1987, when it was used in the film Good Morning, Vietnam, after which it became a Top 40 hit. He was arrested for firing a pistol in His influence, both as an artist and Mentored by the citys top cornetist, Joe King Oliver, Armstrong soon became one of the most in-demand cornetists in town, eventually working steadily on Mississippi riverboats. His charismatic stage presence impressed not only the jazz world but all of popular music. His music had had a major effect on "swing" and the big band sound. Louis Armstrong Musician Facts | Mental Floss Armstrong defined what it was to play Jazz. Is Louis Instead of doing strictly jazz numbers, OKeh began allowing Armstrong to record popular songs of the day, including "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "Star Dust" and "Body and Soul.". Released from the Waifs Home in 1914, Armstrong set his sights on becoming a professional musician. In 1993, it gained renewed popularity when it was used in the film Sleepless in Seattle. It is said that during a session, Armstrong dropped his sheet music and started mimicking the sounds of the horn with his voice. Similarly, many of his most influential recordings, like 1928's "West End Blues" and 1955's "Mack the Knife," have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1918, he married Daisy Parker, a prostitute, commencing a stormy union marked by many arguments and acts of violence. In fact, before marrying his fourth wife, he made sure that she could cook a satisfactory plateful. Armstrong sang his heart out on the number, thinking of his home in Queens as he did so, but "What a Wonderful World" received little promotion in the United States. Why Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" is Important He was known for both his joyous ways with the trumpet and his peculiarly touching and funny vocal style. WebLouis Armstrong was the protege of King Oliver and one of the best loved musicians of the Twenties. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Millions of people, starting in the 1930s until today, have agreed with Louis Armstrongs famous words and have been huge fans of the famous musician. One of the first soloists on record, Louis was at the forefront of changing jazz from ensemble-oriented folk music into an art form that emphasized inventive solo improvisations. He played dramatic works of simple structure in Orleans jazz style and with the accompaniment of Dick jazz music. Louis Armstrong. He was released on June 16, 1914, and did manual labor while trying to establish himself as a musician. By 1968, Armstrong's grueling lifestyle had finally caught up with him. (Biography.com), Many people knew Louis Armstrong as the first real genius of jazz(Shipton 26). A year later, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Armstrong used to say that hed been born on July 4, 1900. Related. The man was Louis Armstrong. In 1922, King Oliver sent for Armstrong to join his band in Chicago. Music historians recognize this as the first popular, mass-market scat ever recorded. He moved to the Fate Marable band in the spring of 1919, staying with Marable until the fall of 1921. He is remembered as the most influential artist in the early development of jazz. Between the two, Armstrong has been the more unsullied figure in historical treatments and biographies. In 1967, Armstrong recorded a new ballad, "What a Wonderful World." Best Known For: Louis Armstrong was a jazz trumpeter, bandleader and singer known for songs like "What a Wonderful World, Hello, Dolly, Star Dust and "La Vie En Rose.. (Cayton, 462) Armstrong was the king of jazz trumpet players. Why Is Louis Armstrong Important. But, as a Bayou State native, Armstrongs favorite dish was always rice and beans. That same year, his longtime manager, Joe Glaser, passed away. When Armstrong saw this as well as white protesters hurling invective at the students he blew his top to the press, telling a reporter that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had "no guts" for letting Faubus run the country, and stating, "The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell.". It was on the riverboat that Armstrong honed his music reading skills and eventually had his first encounters with other jazz legends, including Bix Beiderbecke and Jack Teagarden. The letters, dated as far back as 1968, prove that Armstrong had indeed always believed Sharon to be his daughter, and that he even paid for her education and home, among several other things, throughout his life. Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. He also learned to sing. During his span, he composed thousands of songs for everyone to hear. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. He adds, "He was also more than a jazz musician he was an enormously popular entertainer"(pp. By the mid-'40s, the Swing Era was winding down and the era of big bands was almost over. Armstrong was still a popular attraction around the world in 1963, but hadn't made a record in two years. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. This essay will have an introduction of the king of jazz music -- Louis Armstrong and his great influence on jazz history. Though he was the product's biggest cheerleader, Armstrong neither requested nor received any payment from its manufacturers.