They treat me better all over the world than they do in my hometown, he said. After a quick trip with a group of people to Venice, Mozart and his daddy returned back to his hometown Salzburg. Armstrong's home in Corona, Queens was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977; today, the house is home to the Louis Armstrong House Museum, which annually receives thousands of visitors from all over the world. Copy. In 1922, King Oliver sent for Armstrong to join his band in Chicago. St. Louis Cardinals prospect Jordan Walker tracks down a flyball during fielding practice at the Cardinals spring training complex in Jupiter, Fla. on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. His rise to the top, though not overnight, occurred quickly, he played with mostly all the major bands in New Orleans over the next few years (Friedwald 350). His mother, who often turned to prostitution, frequently left him with his maternal grandmother. However, conditions changed when he was requested to record the title number of a broadway show that went on to become a hit. These views changed in 1957, when Armstrong saw the Little Rock Central High School integration crisis on television. He performed in Europe for the first time in 1932 and returned in 1933, staying for over a year because of a damaged lip. Since his death, Armstrong's stature has only continued to grow. 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. Midway through the recording session, he accidentally dropped them and scatted to fill the ensuing silence. WebLouis Armstrong was the protege of King Oliver and one of the best loved musicians of the Twenties. His influence, both as an artist and Armstrong was brought up by his mother, Mary (Albert) Armstrong, and his maternal grandmother. 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). Nobody did what Louis could do. His career rose in New Orleans. The lights dim, and the velvet curtains slide open. During this period, he switched from cornet to trumpet. The many years of constant touring eventually wore down Armstrong, who had his first heart attack in 1959 and returned to intensive care at Beth Israel Hospital for heart and kidney trouble in 1968. Though he was the product's biggest cheerleader, Armstrong neither requested nor received any payment from its manufacturers. Coupled with his astonishing performing skills and charismatic stage presence, Armstrong took the world by storm and popularized jazz as we know it today. He was also a talented singer, and his recordings of songs like What a Eldridge is the obvious link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. 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. Within a span of three years, Armstrong recorded over sixty records. 1. 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. 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 put his soul and dedicated his life to his music. 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. Louis began playing at a young age when he was growing up in New Orleans. Jazz is a genre of music that brought a whole community of people together. When Louis Armstrong was placed in a boys home as a young boy, he was presented with the opportunity to play the cornet. Armstrong spent his youth singing on the street for spare change, but he didnt receive any formal musical training until age 11. In 1914, the home released him, and he immediately began dreaming of a life making music. 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. His fame rose when he composed several masterworks in the 1940s. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. Armstrong practiced his instrument and eventually he became the jazz great everyone knows today. In 1918, he married Daisy Parker, a prostitute, commencing a stormy union marked by many arguments and acts of violence. He studied music there and played cornet and bugle in the school band, eventually becoming its leader. In 16967, Armstrong recorded his most renowned tune, What a Wonderful Word that surprisingly featured no trumpet. In April, he reached the charts with his first vocal recording, "Big Butter and Egg Man," a duet with May Alix. Some even theorize that it was Armstrongs difficult upbringing that made his music so wise, so unique, and so revolutionary. His influence, both as an artist and cultural icon, is universal and is still relevant today. Wiki User. Despite failing to make a new record for two years, Armstrong remained a fan favorite. In 1947, the waning popularity of the big bands forced Armstrong to begin fronting a small group, Louis Armstrong and His All Stars. Each of the books on jazz music will mention his name. Armstrong spent the last decade of his life similarly that he had spent the four past enthralling groups of onlookers all through the world., Louis Blues, Overall Armstrong wrote and performed some of the most popular and well known jazz songs of all time. There, he received musical instruction on the cornet and fell in love with music. In 1938, Armstrong finally divorced Lil Hardin and married Alpha Smith, whom he had been dating for more than a decade. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Armstrong brought. Louis Armstrong is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Its popularity brought many people together, even through the years of racial discrimination and the Great Depression. Encyclopdia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them. Ironically, Armstrong later wrote the whole thing off as a big blunder on his part. 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). He was an extraordinary musician and he impacted jazz music immensely. 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. The way they are treating my people in the South, declared Armstrong, the government can go to hell.. He is a husky singer, often with a trumpet in his hand. The first recording of What a Wonderful World was produced by ABC Records, which made no attempt to advertise it domestically. 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. ", During the mid-'50s, Armstrong's popularity overseas skyrocketed. Then, at the age of five, he was returned to the care of his mother, who at the time worked as a laundress. If the gun was not so easily accessible, his firing it and being arrested could have been prevented. 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. Their marriage was not a happy one, however, and they divorced in 1942. Armstrong continued to tour extensively, despite a heart attack in June 1959. 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. Like almost all early Jazz musicians, Louis was from New Orleans. For the first time, Armstrong was really able to demonstrate his unique voice during those recording sessions. 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. But, as a Bayou State native, Armstrongs favorite dish was always rice and beans. 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. Perhaps most importantly, the letters also detail Armstrong's fatherly love for Sharon. Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. In 1936, Louis Armstrong became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography, Swing That Music. Louis Armstrong was important in the 1920's because he put a whole new meaning to jazz. 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. 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. He influenced countless other musicians and helped to shape the course of jazz. Despite failing to make a new record for two years, Armstrong remained a fan favorite. 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. Between 1952 and 1955, Armstrong shed 100 pounds. Armstrong began to sing on the records, creating a new form of singing, scat singing. The material may show why Armstrong was not just a giant of jazz music, but a civil rights leader as well. He performed all over the world in the 1950s and '60s, including throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. He turned to Joe Glaser for help; Glaser had mob ties of his own, having been close with Al Capone, but he had loved Armstrong from the time he met him at the Sunset Caf (Glaser had owned and managed the club). 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. Armstrong's words made front-page news around the world. He embarked on his first European tour since 1935 in February 1948, and thereafter toured regularly around the world. He attended school until he was in the 5th grade, he stopped going to help support his family. Why was Louis Armstrong important to New Orleans? While performing with Tate in 1926, Armstrong finally switched from the cornet to the trumpet. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. 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! 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. 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. 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. Thereafter until his death in 1971, however, Armstrong never publicly addressed whether he was in fact Sharon's father. Louis Armstrong was a pivotal musician in the twentieth century, but it was his contributions and his role he made during the Harlem Renaissance movement that is most substantial. 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. There was a cheerful impatience in his playing, an optimistic confidence that led him to risk going over the top (Shipton 157). It started in New Orleans and over the years, stretched out throughout the whole United States. 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. ", 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.". 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. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. Released from the Waifs Home in 1914, Armstrong set his sights on becoming a professional musician. 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.". With her encouragement, he left Oliver and joined Fletcher Henderson's band in New York, staying for a year and then going back to Chicago in November 1925 to join the Dreamland Syncopators, his wife's group. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. The year is 1954. 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. Renowned for his charming and incredibly charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet and/or cornet playing, Armstrong 's influence extends far beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the early 1970s at his death, he was widely regarded as a deep and profound influence on popular music in general. He was arrested for firing a pistol in His crucial contribution to American and world culture continues to reverberate into the 21 st century. When Pops (who adored Thiele and Weiss masterwork) passed away on July 6, 1971, What a Wonderful World seemed destined for stateside obscurity. 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. WebToday, Louis Armstrong holds the title as the worlds greatest jazz player. In 1972, a year after his death, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Louis Armstrong recorded many popular songs like La Vie en Rose, and his theme song When its Sleepy Time Down South. Outraged, Armstrong refused to stage another concert within the state's borders. There, under the tutelage of Peter Davis, he learned how to properly play the cornet, eventually becoming the leader of the Waifs Home Brass Band. Instead he used his talent as a ticket to improve his lot and create a meaningful life. That didnt stop him from living his life like a regular boy. He returned to Chicago in the spring of 1932 to front a band led by Zilner Randolph; the group toured around the country. 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. Louis was able to get hired as a junk collecter and coal deliverer. Related. 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. 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. Because of his long improvised solos, he inspired jazz so that long solos became an important part of jazz pieces and performances. Why was Louis Armstrong so important? Since New Orleans style jazz known to man, it was one of the broadest genres of jazz. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you're just as graveyard dead as he is. Louis Armstrong was the most important and influential musician in jazz history. 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. His music was a happiness to individuals and they said he was a gift sent from heaven. Louis was arrested by Police When he was eleven. Heart and kidney problems forced him to stop performing in 1969. See answer (1) Best Answer. The jazz magazine Down Beat agreed. Together, Armstrong and Hines formed a potent team and made some of the greatest recordings in jazz history in 1928, including their virtuoso duet, "Weather Bird," and "West End Blues.". Mozart, in his own traditional ways, the right away he did the first three of his 22 performances at that opera. Love, baby - love. He was a master of the trumpet and a pioneer of jazz. 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. Louis Armstrong was called "the single most important figure in the history of jazz" by Billboard magazine, a publication that tracks the recording industry. In 1993, it gained renewed popularity when it was used in the film Sleepless in Seattle. 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. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! Contracted to OKeh Records, he began to make a series of recordings with studio-only groups called the Hot Fives or the Hot Sevens. He was abandoned by his father, a boiler stoker, shortly after his birth and was raised by his paternal grandmother. 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. This essay will have an introduction of the king of jazz music -- Louis Armstrong and his great influence on jazz history. West End Blues by Louis Armstrong is one of the most important songs in jazz. Louis Armstrong is considered a hero for many reasons. Heebie Jeebies and Hotter Than That, was some of the earliest recordings of Armstrongs scat singing., He was a major piece in the history of jazz music and his career lasted for more than 50 years. 232) Armstrong unlike other black jazz men and women, was one of the first to be welcomed in the upper echelons of white society. Blessed with, Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. Armstrongs mentor, King Oliver, had Armstrong move to Chicago to be in his band; in Olivers, Aside from the typical cultural, social, and political factors influencing any musicians style, an early life filled with poverty and hardship also shaped Louis Armstrongs musical development. (Biography.com), Many people knew Louis Armstrong as the first real genius of jazz(Shipton 26). WebLouis Armstrong was the protean genius that made African American classical music mislabeled as jazz the most important music event of the 20th century. Armstrong was featured in the 1969 film of Hello, Dolly!, performing the title song as a duet with Barbra Streisand. Armstrong was one of the first very popular, Being raised in a part of New Orleans known as "The Battlefield" because of its faulty economic situation is not ideal. 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. He returned to Broadway in the short-lived musical Swingin' the Dream in November 1939. Previously, Armstrong had performed throughout Europe, Asia, and Africathough he famously canceled a planned 1957 Soviet Union tour, citing the recent Little Rock crisis. Armstrong was still a popular attraction around the world in 1963, but hadn't made a record in two years. He was one of America's most significant artists by the late 1930s, and had created a sensation in Europe with live performances and records. 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 subsequently passed, so the duo contacted Armstrong in August 1967. Back in America in 1935, Armstrong hired Joe Glaser as his manager and began fronting a big band, recording pop songs for Decca, and appearing regularly in movies. By February 1927, Armstrong was well-enough known to front his own group, Louis Armstrong & His Stompers, at the Sunset Caf in Chicago. How did Louis Armstrong influence others? In a 1951 interview with Esquire, Armstrong claimed to have come prepared with printed lyrics that day. Armstrong defined what it was to play Jazz. 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 grasp how much the man adored this entre, consider that he often signed his personal letters with Red Beans and Ricely Yours.. WebWhy Is Louis Armstrong Important. Handy and Satch Plays Fats. 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. 1 slot in May 1964, and knocking the Beatles off the top at the height of Beatlemania. WebLouis Armstrong remains an icon of American history and 20 th century popular culture. In 1922, his mentor, King Oliver, invited him to work his Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. 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. He worked for to get his instrument because his mother couldn't afford to buy him one. His career spanned many decades, from the 1920s to his death in 1971, and many different eras in jazz. It has given me something to live for. "What a Wonderful World" peaked on the U.S. music charts after Armstrong passed away. 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 most important and influential musician in jazz history, and one of the leading singers and entertainers from the 1920s through the '50s. Study now. Music historians recognize this as the first popular, mass-market scat ever recorded. That same year, his longtime manager, Joe Glaser, passed away. (1964), the latter knocking the Beatles off the top of the pop charts at the height of Beatlemania. 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 began touring the country in the 1940s. Why is Louis Armstrong important to blacks? Louis Armstrong is arguably the most important musician that the United States has ever produced (Shipton 160). WebLouis Armstrong is arguably the most important musician that the United States has ever produced (Shipton 160). I play the good kind (Armstrong). Eldridge is the obvious link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. In America, Armstrong had been a great Civil Rights pioneer, breaking down numerous barriers as a young man. Fletcher Henderson also influenced jazz music. .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S LOUIS ARMSTRONG FACT CARD. At the mention jazz music, that person will first think of is likely to be a great figure with a clown image, nicknamed Satchmo. His amazing technical abilities, the joy and spontaneity, and amazingly quick, inventive musical mind still dominate Jazz to this day. Why was Louis Armstrong important to the Harlem Renaissance? The movie he appeared in was Pennies from Heaven (1936). That same year, he became the first African American to get featured billing in a major Hollywood movie with his turn in Pennies from Heaven, starring Bing Crosby. We contributed Louis Armstrong. Another one of Armstrongs notable qualities, scat singing (wordless singing/mummering) was also popularized during this. The Hot Fives' recording of "Muskrat Ramble" gave Armstrong a Top Ten hit in July 1926, the band for the track featuring Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Lillian Harden Armstrong on piano, and Johnny St. Cyr on banjo. An all-star virtuoso, he came to prominence in the 1920s, influencing countless musicians with both his daring trumpet style and unique vocals. 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.. 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.". He is remembered as the most influential artist in the early development of jazz. The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky are also on the faces of people going by.
