He was taken under the wing of cornetist Joe "King" Oliver, and when Oliver moved to Chicago in June 1918, Armstrong replaced him in the Kid Ory Band. The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. As an artist, Armstrong was embraced by two distinctly different audiences: jazz fans who revered him for his early innovations as an instrumentalist but were occasionally embarrassed by his lack of interest in later developments in jazz, especially his willingness to serve as a light entertainer; and pop fans, who delighted in his joyous performances, particularly as a vocalist, but were largely unaware of his significance as a jazz musician. Armstrong felt that being subservient to white people, was an unfortunately necessary evil in order for him to live successfully and happily. He played dramatic works of simple structure in Orleans jazz style and with the accompaniment of Dick jazz music. The brilliance of his playing, the warmth of his vocals, and his integrity as a human being simply inspires me. These records later went on to become the most influential in jazz history, as it was the first time Armstrong facilitated the evolution of jazz as a ensemble to a soloist art. The first important trend in New York Jazz was Hot Jazz that was an incendiary style introduced by Louis Armstrong (Winfield 170). Related. See answer (1) Best Answer. If the gun was not so easily accessible, his firing it and being arrested could have been prevented. Handy and Satch Plays Fats. One of the greatest cornet players in town, Joe "King" Oliver, began acting as a mentor to the young Armstrong, showing him pointers on the horn and occasionally using him as a sub. One day, they even advanced him the $5 he used to buy his very first horn. His music was a happiness to individuals and they said he was a gift sent from heaven. He began following him and eventually Oliver became Armstrongs mentor. 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. For this, he is revered by jazz fans. He popularized scat singing and was the first musician to have his solo on a recording (Rodgers 85). Without the jazz musicians, jazz music would not have been possible. He worked for to get his instrument because his mother couldn't afford to buy him one. He subsequently passed, so the duo contacted Armstrong in August 1967. By the end of his teens, Armstrong had grown up fast. 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. Armstrong began to sing on the records, creating a new form of singing, scat singing. It started in New Orleans and over the years, stretched out throughout the whole United States. During his span, he composed thousands of songs for everyone to hear. He was released on June 16, 1914, and did manual labor while trying to establish himself as a musician. What made jazz continuously popular was the way it progressed. What a Wonderful World struck a chord with moviegoers and was re-released that year, becoming an oft-requested radio hit. According to Armstrong, that nights biggest laugh came right before his group started playing You Rascal, You. Without warning, he looked straight up at the monarch and hollered, This ones for you, Rex!, Fresh off the wild success of his Hello, Dolly! cover, Armstrong made a trip to communist East Berlin in 1965, where he gave a two-hour concert that earned a standing ovation. At the school he learned to play cornet. Aristotle did not consider children as morally responsible as adults because they have not had sufficient time to move beyond their backgrounds and upbringing. In 16967, Armstrong recorded his most renowned tune, What a Wonderful Word that surprisingly featured no trumpet. (1964), the latter knocking the Beatles off the top of the pop charts at the height of Beatlemania. He wrote songs such as The Pearls, Millenburg Joys, Mr. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans Louisinana, to Mayann, and Willie Armstrong. Louis does a really important trip to Africa this were the states or cities that he went with Cameroon, the Belgian Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone Jul 6, 1971. The sadest event Two days after his birthday of turning 70, Louis He has many nicknames in which some are Satchmo and Pops. Armstrong's four marriages never produced any children, and because he and wife Lucille Wilson had actively tried for years to no avail, many believed him to be sterile, incapable of having children. WebLouis Armstrong. He attended Colored Waifs Home in 1913 for eighteen months. Satch Plays Fats, a tribute to Fats Waller, became a Top Ten LP for Columbia in October 1955, and Verve Records contracted Armstrong for a series of recordings with Ella Fitzgerald, beginning with the chart LP Ella and Louis in 1956. The lights dim, and the velvet curtains slide open. In 1924, Armstrong married Hardin, who urged Armstrong to leave Oliver and try to make it on his own. Thereafter until his death in 1971, however, Armstrong never publicly addressed whether he was in fact Sharon's father. 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. Given his popularity, his long career, and the extensive label-jumping he did in his later years, as well as the differing jazz and pop sides of his work, his recordings are extensive and diverse, with parts of his catalog owned by numerous companies. Death Year: 1971, Death date: July 6, 1971, Death State: New York, Death City: Corona, Queens, Death Country: United States, Article Title: Louis Armstrong Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/louis-armstrong, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: January 29, 2021, Original Published Date: April 3, 2014. Louis Daniel (Louie) Armstrong is perhaps the most important and influential person in the history of jazz music, swing music, and jazz vocal styling. By the start of 1932, he had switched from the "race"-oriented OKeh label to its pop-oriented big sister Columbia, for which he recorded two Top Five hits, "Chinatown, My Chinatown" and "You Can Depend on Me" before scoring a number one hit with "All of Me" in March 1932; another Top Five hit, "Love, You Funny Thing," hit the charts the same month. The 1930s also found Armstrong achieving great popularity on radio, in films, and with his recordings. Losing weight proved difficult at first, but his luck changed once he learned of an herbal laxative called Swiss Kriss. The artist promptly went out, bought a box, and became a lifelong spokesman. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. However, a heart attack two days after the Waldorf gig sidelined him for two months. In 1938, Armstrong finally divorced Lil Hardin and married Alpha Smith, whom he had been dating for more than a decade. Louis was born in New Orleans where he grew up and learned to play the trumpet. However, conditions changed when he was requested to record the title number of a broadway show that went on to become a hit. Armstrong put his career in Glaser's hands and asked him to make his troubles disappear. WebBy the '50s, Armstrong was an established international celebrity--an icon to musicians and lovers of jazz--and a genial, infectiously optimistic presence wherever he appeared. The song for which Pops is most widely remembered, What a Wonderful World, was almost never his song at all. He found that the only way to reap the benefits of success and be protected was if there was a white captain to back you in the old days (Armstrong). Louis Armstrong. His style was unique and his talent was undeniable. When Louis Armstrong was placed in a boys home as a young boy, he was presented with the opportunity to play the cornet. However, controversy regarding Armstrong's fatherhood struck in 1954, when a girlfriend that the musician had dated on the side, Lucille "Sweets" Preston, claimed she was pregnant with his child. Doctors advised him not to play but Armstrong continued to practice every day in his Corona, Queens home, where he had lived with his fourth wife, Lucille, since 1943. Then along came a bare-knuckled comedy called Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). In 1936, he became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography: Swing That Music. 149 Copy quote. Louis Armstrong was the first black man in the U.S. to host a radio show. 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. Armstrong moved to Chicago to join Oliver's band in August 1922 and made his first recordings as a member of the group in the spring of 1923. He began to grow artistically and perfected his improvisational method (Jazz Stars 2). In 1993, it gained renewed popularity when it was used in the film Sleepless in Seattle. 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. 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. WebHe had a string of pop hits beginning in 1949 and started making regular overseas tours, where his popularity was so great, he was dubbed Ambassador Satch. In America, Armstrong had been a great Civil Rights pioneer, breaking down Pops had a special place in his heart for both Chinese and Italian food. He made his film debut in Ex-Flame, released at the end of 1931. Eldridge is the obvious link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. An early job working for the Jewish Karnofsky family allowed Armstrong to make enough money to purchase his first cornet. Throughout the years, jazz musicians have created many new styles, new arrangements, and put this genre of music on the map., He affected the heading of jazz music and spontaneous creation. By February 1927, Armstrong was well-enough known to front his own group, Louis Armstrong & His Stompers, at the Sunset Caf in Chicago. 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. ", Armstrong signed with Columbia Records in the mid-'50s, and soon cut some of the finest albums of his career for producer George Avakian, including Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Not a single jazz musician who had previously criticized him took his side but today, this is seen as one of the bravest, most definitive moments of Armstrong's life. On New Years Eve 1912, he was arrested and sent to the Colored Waifs Home for Boys. He was also a talented singer, and his recordings of songs like What a The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic, American actress, singer, director, producer. It has given me something to live for. Louis Armstrong was an outstanding jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance Era. After a quick trip with a group of people to Venice, Mozart and his daddy returned back to his hometown Salzburg. Each of the books on jazz music will mention his name. 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 WebThe point is that Armstrong created and codified an entire vocabulary of jazz, setting the standard for vocalists and instrumentalists. Different from most of his recordings of the era, the song features no trumpet and places Armstrong's gravelly voice in the middle of a bed of strings and angelic voices. He influenced other jazz musicians by his fearless trumpet styles and distinctive vocals. Although he is often thought of by the general public as a lovable, clowning personality, a gravel-voiced singer who played simple but dramatic trumpet in a New Orleans-styled Dixieland setting, Armstrong himself was so much more. 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. His charismatic stage presence impressed not only the jazz world but all of popular music. .State Department and earning the nickname "Ambassador Satch." The Armstrongs moved into the home, where they would live for the rest of their lives, in 1943. In 1914, the home released him, and he immediately began dreaming of a life making music. 232) Armstrong unlike other black jazz men and women, was one of the first to be welcomed in the upper echelons of white society. His mother, who often turned to prostitution, frequently left him with his maternal grandmother. Armstrong was arrested at eleven years old for disturbing the peace. The pistol should have been stored in a locked, Armstrong did not define himself by his background and could have grown up to be just another poor child from a broken home. In addition, his mother did not have a stable job and with his father long out of the picture, life was hard for young Armstrong. he put his soul and dedicated his life to his music. All Rights Reserved. In recent years, Armstrong's alleged daughter, who now goes by the name Sharon Preston Folta, has publicized various letters between her and her father. This essay will have an introduction of the king of jazz music -- Louis Armstrong and his great influence on jazz history. William Armstrong, his father, was a factory worker who abandoned the family soon after the boy's birth. Rock Icon KISS Is Saying Goodbye (For Real), DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S LOUIS ARMSTRONG FACT CARD, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Louis Armstrong, Birth Year: 1901, Birth date: August 4, 1901, Birth State: Louisiana, Birth City: New Orleans, Birth Country: United States, 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., Astrological Sign: Leo. He interprets and contributes to the genre of jazz, creates great form through his performance in the Hot Chocolates, and his work represents a whole for equality and the civil rights movement. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. On New Year's Eve in 1912, Armstrong fired his stepfather's gun in the air during a New Year's Eve celebration and was arrested on the spot. Satchmo didn't let the criticism stop him, however, and he returned an even bigger star when he began a longer tour throughout Europe in 1933. A jazz pioneer, Louis Armstrong was the first important soloist to emerge in jazz, and he became the most influential musician in the music's history. WebWhy Is Louis Armstrong Important. But many of his recorded performances are masterpieces, and none are less than entertaining. He was from a very poor family and was sent to reform school when he was twelve after firing a gun in the air on New Year's Eve. Armstrong had a great influence on Henderson and his arranger, Don Redman, both of whom began integrating Armstrong's swinging vocabulary into their arrangementstransforming Henderson's band into what is generally regarded as the first jazz big band. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. 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). Armstrong had a difficult childhood: His father was a factory worker and abandoned the family soon after Louis's birth. Though his popularity was hitting new highs in the 1950s, and despite breaking down so many barriers for his race and being a hero to the African American community for so many years, Armstrong began losing his standing with two segments of his audience: Modern jazz fans and young African Americans. Show More. Armstrong had access to guns and decided to borrow a .38 that one of his stepfathers stored in a trunk in the Armstrong home (67). After trying it, he said that defecation sounded like Applause. Enamored, the musician began handing out packets to admirers, loved ones, and band members. After a successful engagement in Las Vegas, Armstrong began taking engagements around the world, including in London and Washington, D.C. and New York (he performed for two weeks at New York's Waldorf-Astoria). Another one of Armstrongs notable qualities, scat singing (wordless singing/mummering) was also popularized during this. Louis gave jazz music a purpose. He was born into poverty on August 4, 1901 in the streets of Back o Town (Meckna). He was a master of the trumpet and a pioneer of jazz. The year is 1954. Armstrong continued recording for Decca in the late 1940s and early '50s, creating a string of popular hits, including "Blueberry Hill," "That Lucky Old Sun," "La Vie En Rose," "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" and "I Get Ideas. During this period, he switched from cornet to trumpet. Louis Armstrong is one of the most important jazz figures. While performing with Tate in 1926, Armstrong finally switched from the cornet to the trumpet. A year later, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Midway through the recording session, he accidentally dropped them and scatted to fill the ensuing silence. Armstrong fronted the Luis Russell Orchestra for a tour of the South in February 1930, and in May went to Los Angeles, where he led a band at Sebastian's Cotton Club for the next ten months. A local Jewish family, the Karnofskys, gave young Armstrong a job collecting junk and delivering coal. WebLouis Armstrongs ability to use his career to change the music and jazz industry forever is another great example of why Louis Armstrong exhibits the right. WebLouis Armstrong was the most important and influential musician in jazz history. Given that Armstrong was only 11, it was (one of) his stepfathers who was responsible for the whole series of events. (Armstrong did not function as a bandleader in the usual sense, but instead typically lent his name to established groups.) Outraged, Armstrong refused to stage another concert within the state's borders. Perhaps most importantly, the letters also detail Armstrong's fatherly love for Sharon. These records later went on to become the most influential in jazz history, as it was the first time Armstrong facilitated the evolution of jazz as a ensemble to a soloist art. Since his death, Armstrong's stature has only continued to grow. This gift, coupled with Louis Armstrongs already present affinity for the musical sounds of the local New Orleans street bands and brass players that lingered around, helped to brew the perfect storm that would create one of the most prolific players of the 20th century. He was also a frequent presence on radio, and often broke box-office records at the height of what is now known as the "Swing Era. He took up work in Joe (King) Olivers house, doing chores in exchange for musical lessons, developing into a. Louis Armstrong is a man of many talents and skills known for creating a new environment, especially in his home town of New Orleans. In addition Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes., On the 26th day of December in 1788 there was a very great success. The new style that he created gave a voice-like quality to his horn. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Armstrong was featured in the 1969 film of Hello, Dolly!, performing the title song as a duet with Barbra Streisand. 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). Related. No ones quite sure why Armstrong lied about his age, but the most popular theories maintain he wanted to join a military band or that he figured he'd have a better shot at landing gigs if he was over 18 years old. He sang much as he played, but with a playfulness and a rasp, that would forever be part of American culture (Winfield 167). The jazz magazine Down Beat agreed. Louis Armstrong is arguably the most important musician that the United States has ever produced (Shipton 160). With the decline of swing music in the post-World War II years, Armstrong broke up his big band and put together a small group dubbed His All-Stars, which made its debut in Los Angeles on August 13, 1947. WebWhy Is Louis Armstrong Important. Its popularity brought many people together, even through the years of racial discrimination and the Great Depression. He first came to prominence in the 1920s as a trumpeter and cornet player with no technique as well as being very skilled in scat singing, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, influencing many later jazz artists as well as shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance.With his very well-known and recognizable gravelly voice, a technique that was later named crooning, Armstrong was an incredibly influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser by bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes on demand. However, Armstrong's southern background didn't mesh well with the more urban, Northern mentality of Henderson's other musicians, who sometimes gave Armstrong a hard time over his wardrobe and the way he talked. He weathered the bebop period of the '40s, growing ever more beloved worldwide.

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