But Armstrong also became an enduring figure in popular music due to his distinctively phrased baritone singing and engaging personality, which were on display in a series of vocal recordings and film roles. Louis Armstrong recorded many popular songs like La Vie en Rose, and his theme song When its Sleepy Time Down South. WebLouis Armstrong. You have arrived to one of the most grand occasions of the year, dressed in your fanciest attire with a hundred watt smile gracing your lips. His mother, who often turned to prostitution, frequently left him with his maternal grandmother. 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.. The year is 1954. Louis Armstrong, also known as Ambassador Satch, was unofficially adopted by a family of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania who had a junk hauling business in Louisiana. 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. I play the good kind (Armstrong). 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. He weathered the bebop period of the '40s, growing ever more beloved worldwide. They also encouraged him to sing and often invited him into their home for meals. (Jazz From New Orleans, Jazz music was one of the most popular music genres in the 1920s and 1930s. It is said that during a session, Armstrong dropped his sheet music and started mimicking the sounds of the horn with his voice. He made his film debut in Ex-Flame, released at the end of 1931. Unhappy, Armstrong left Henderson in 1925 to return to Chicago, where he began playing with his wife's band at the Dreamland Caf. Preston gave birth to a daughter, Sharon Preston, in 1955. WebA 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. When Pops (who adored Thiele and Weiss masterwork) passed away on July 6, 1971, What a Wonderful World seemed destined for stateside obscurity. He also learned to sing. He attended Colored Waifs Home in 1913 for eighteen months. He is remembered as the most influential artist in the early development of jazz. Beginning in 1919, Armstrong spent his summers playing on riverboats with a band led by Fate Marable. That didnt stop him from living his life like a regular boy. Armstrong returned home in May 1971, and though he soon resumed playing again and promised to perform in public once more, he died in his sleep on July 6, 1971, at his home in Queens, New York. They were always kind to me, Armstrong once reflected, [I] was just a little kid who could use a little word of kindness. Apart from monetary compensation, Armstrong was given a hot meal every evening and regular invitations to Karnofsky Shabbat dinners. 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. 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). Back in Chicago, OKeh Records decided to let Armstrong make his first records with a band under his own name: Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five. What a Wonderful World struck a chord with moviegoers and was re-released that year, becoming an oft-requested radio hit. ", 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.". We contributed Louis Armstrong. 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. Louis Armstrong, also known as the king of jazz was born on Augest 4th, 1901, in New Orleans Louisiana; he died July 6, 1971 in Corona Queens New York. 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). During his time there, he learned how to play the bugle cornet, an instrument that is similar to the trumpet. Pops had a special place in his heart for both Chinese and Italian food. Armstrong was still a popular attraction around the world in 1963, but hadn't made a record in two years. He was abandoned by his father, a boiler stoker, shortly after his birth and was raised by his paternal grandmother. At the school he learned to play cornet. Armstrong played the trumpet so powerfully that he often split his lip. In 1936, Louis Armstrong became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography, Swing That Music. In July, Armstrong sailed to England for a tour. 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. ", Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in a neighborhood so poor that it was nicknamed "The Battlefield.". Evidently, the show went well. In 1938, Armstrong finally divorced Lil Hardin and married Alpha Smith, whom he had been dating for more than a decade. Despite failing to make a new record for two years, Armstrong remained a fan favorite. Armstrong had a difficult childhood: His father was a factory worker and abandoned the family soon after Louis's birth. Show More. With his amazing voice trumpet he created a band and made some records. 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. Meanwhile, Armstrong's reputation as a musician continued to grow: In 1918, he replaced Oliver in Kid Ory's band, then the most popular band in New Orleans. The records by Louis Armstrong and His Fiveand later, Hot Sevenare the most influential in jazz. 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. His Top Ten version of "Hobo, You Can't Ride This Train," in the charts in early 1933, was on Victor Records; when he returned to the U.S. in 1935, he signed to the recently formed Decca Records and quickly scored a double-sided Top Ten hit, "I'm in the Mood for Love"/"You Are My Lucky Star.". The first recording of What a Wonderful World was produced by ABC Records, which made no attempt to advertise it domestically. The boy's mother, Armstrong's cousin, had died in childbirth. He returned to Broadway in the short-lived musical Swingin' the Dream in November 1939. 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. His rise to fame peaked in the 1920s, where he stunned the world with his bold trumpet style and idiosyncratic vocals. The solos Armstrong performed along with his popular scat singing helped make jazz musicians more popular along with making the fans take notice of Armstrong and jazz itself (Rennert 8). Coupled with his astonishing performing skills and charismatic stage presence, Armstrong took the world by storm and popularized jazz as we know it today. Armstrong continued to appear in major films with the likes of Mae West, Martha Raye and Dick Powell. That same year, Armstrong married for the fourth and final time; he wed Lucille Wilson, a Cotton Club dancer. WebThe point is that Armstrong created and codified an entire vocabulary of jazz, setting the standard for vocalists and instrumentalists. Louis Armstrong was an American jazz musician who was one of the most influential figures in jazz music. According to this document, the performers actual birth date was August 4, 1901. He played dramatic works of simple structure in Orleans jazz style and with the accompaniment of Dick jazz music. 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. In a 1951 interview with Esquire, Armstrong claimed to have come prepared with printed lyrics that day. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Thereafter until his death in 1971, however, Armstrong never publicly addressed whether he was in fact Sharon's father. He also began singing on these recordings, popularizing wordless "scat singing" with his hugely popular vocal on 1926's "Heebie Jeebies.". The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. See answer (1) Best Answer. In the 1980s and '90s, younger African American jazz musicians like Wynton Marsalis, Jon Faddis and Nicholas Payton began speaking about Armstrong's importance, both as a musician and a human being. The lights dim, and the velvet curtains slide open. In 1937, Louis Armstrong became the first African American entertainer to host a nationally sponsored radio show. 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. He spread jazz throughout the world. He influenced other jazz musicians by his fearless trumpet styles and distinctive vocals. When Armstrong was eleven years old, he got in trouble for shooting a gun on New Years Eve to ring in the new year, 1912. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Wiki User. In 1914, the home released him, and he immediately began dreaming of a life making music. Career highlights, compiled by the Louis Armstrong House Museum: 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. Without the jazz musicians, jazz music would not have been possible. 2012-02-22 18:06:07. Louis was born in New Orleans where he grew up and learned to play the trumpet. A year in New York with Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra proved unsatisfying so Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925 and began making records under his own name for the first time. Then along came a bare-knuckled comedy called Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). The passion for his music made him become famous because he was following his dreams while finding his, How Is Louis Daniel Armstrong Morally Responsible, Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 - July 6, 1971) grew up in a poor neighborhood nicknamed The Battlefield in New Orleans, Louisiana. Louis Armstrong was the first black man in the U.S. to host a radio show. He was also a gifted singer, and his After being released at age fourteen, he worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. 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.". Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. 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. (Hakim, 58) Although Jazz was very popular itself, a majority of the fans and listeners were younger people. 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. In 1972, a year after his death, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. those works included Cotton Tail and Ko-Ko. Some of his most popular songs included "It Don 't Mean a Thing if It Ain 't Got That Swing," "Sophisticated Lady," "Prelude to a Kiss," "Solitude," and "Satin Doll (Duke Ellington Biography). 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. WebLouis Armstrong was a key asset to the Harlem Renaissance due to his inspiring music and playing his instruments for African Americans people during this period. For live dates, he appeared with the orchestras led by Erskine Tate and Carroll Dickerson. When Louis Armstrong was placed in a boys home as a young boy, he was presented with the opportunity to play the cornet. If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. It won him a Grammy for best vocal performance. 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. Music historians recognize this as the first popular, mass-market scat ever recorded. 232) Armstrong unlike other black jazz men and women, was one of the first to be welcomed in the upper echelons of white society. Perhaps most importantly, the letters also detail Armstrong's fatherly love for Sharon. 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. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. He was born into poverty on August 4, 1901 in the streets of Back o Town (Meckna). 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. 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. One of the first many New Orleans style jazz artists is Jelly Roll Morton. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. His notoriety for being the best jazz player of his time was secured as Armstrong's arrangement of swing and melodic development opened out and changed Henderson's band and in addition jazz overall. After they married in 1924, Hardin made it clear that she felt Oliver was holding Armstrong back. 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. WebAnswer (1 of 2): Armstrongs first brass instrument and initial training was on the cornet, which is generally easier for younger or beginning players to learn and slightly smaller in size. Read Full Biography. He is a husky singer, often with a trumpet in his hand. Because of Armstrongs brilliance, his records such as Cornet Chop Suey and Potato Head Blues are esteemed because of his risky rhythmic choices and high notes. The year 1956 saw Louisiana prohibit integrated bands. The joyous tune perfectly and ironically clashed with the wartime horrors depicted in one montage, so director Barry Levinson added it to his films soundtrack. During this time, Armstrong adopted a three-year-old boy named Clarence. The jazz magazine Down Beat agreed. He was soon able to stop working manual labor jobs and began concentrating full-time on his cornet, playing parties, dances, funeral marches and at local "honky-tonks"a name for small bars that typically host musical acts. Given that Armstrong was only 11, it was (one of) his stepfathers who was responsible for the whole series of events. Eldridge is the obvious link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. The latter performance is one of Armstrong's best known works, opening with a stunning cadenza that features equal helpings of opera and the blues; with its release, "West End Blues" proved to the world that the genre of fun, danceable jazz music was also capable of producing high art. Armstrong decided to take some time off soon after the incident, and spent much of 1934 relaxing in Europe and resting his lip. This was the first time anyone had ever recorded this technique known as scat singing. 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. Louis Armstrong is one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time. Why is Louis Armstrong important to blacks? 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! Copy. An all-star virtuoso, he came to prominence in the 1920s, influencing countless musicians with both his daring trumpet style and unique vocals. That same year, he recorded with small New Orleans-influenced groups, including the Hot Five, and began recording larger ensembles. The musician didn't let the incident stop him, however, and after taking a few weeks off to recover, he was back on the road, performing 300 nights a year into the 1960s. He began following him and eventually Oliver became Armstrongs mentor. That's the secret. They treat me better all over the world than they do in my hometown, he said. Armstrong's daring vocal transformations of these songs completely changed the concept of popular singing in American popular music, and had lasting effects on all singers who came after him, including Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. WebWhy Is Louis Armstrong Important. Bebop, a new form of jazz, had blossomed in the 1940s. 1. He 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.. Armstrong felt that being subservient to white people, was an unfortunately necessary evil in order for him to live successfully and happily. Armstrong was the primary ever "Genius" of jazz music. Previously, Armstrong had performed throughout Europe, Asia, and Africathough he famously canceled a planned 1957 Soviet Union tour, citing the recent Little Rock crisis. 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. Midway through the recording session, he accidentally dropped them and scatted to fill the ensuing silence. Since New Orleans style jazz known to man, it was one of the broadest genres of jazz. His career rose in New Orleans. In 1947, the waning popularity of the big bands forced Armstrong to begin fronting a small group, Louis Armstrong and His All Stars. he put his soul and dedicated his life to his music. This is where Armstrong first fell in love with music; he would listen to people playing any chance that he would get(Tirro).

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