When it comes to jazz music, there is one name that everyone knows, whether they’ve never listened to jazz before or if they’ve listened to it their whole lives. That name is Louis Armstrong. Armstrong was one of the pioneers of jazz music, from his humble beginnings in one of New Orleans roughest districts, “the Battlefield”, to playing concerts for sold out crowds in Chicago and New York City, Louis left a massive impact on the way America listened to music for a long time. One of his premier tracks, “West End Blues”, left an impact on jazz music, which other musicians would try to emulate for years. “West End Blues” begins with a 12-second trumpet solo that displayed Armstrong’s wonderful range and demonstrated the syncopated styling unique
Louis has being the most prominent trumpet player in history. His trumpet playing techniques significantly impacted all other instrument players who came after him and emulated his techniques in all other instruments. His style and innovative perspective of jazz changed all the forthcoming jazz singers who had a lot to learn from him, including Bix who learnt a lot from Louis Armstrong. Two of his most famous hit sounds were “What a Wonderful World” as well as “Hello Dolly” among others. The emotions attached to his music is what attracted most people and led to the spread of his music. The charm present in the music was also adored and enjoyed by
and the people around him. His mother did not even care enough to keep his birth
Throughout history, and even today, music has shaped America’s culture, society, and even politics. One of the most outstanding and enduring musical movement has been from African American artists, ranging from bebop to jazz to hip-hop to rap. During the 1920’s , jazz artists stepped into the limelight and began their impact on American and even world history. Louis Armstrong was one of the most influential leaders during the Harlem Renaissance and his jazz legacy and impact of American history is everlasting. A master of his craft, Armstrong and his music heavily influenced America’s white and black populations from the 1920’s and up until his death.
The great trumpeter Miles Davis once said that the history of jazz can be summarized in four words: “Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.” There is no doubt that the former is held in the highest regard with respect to jazz and its origins in the 20th century. Parker was a much different figure, yet he is still known to be one of the greatest jazz improvisers and innovators of our time. Charlie Parker was a jazz alto saxophonist who, through his work in bebop and his immense talent as a musician, inspired many performers and composers throughout the years.
His boisterous personality influenced many aspects of American culture, and his contributions and influence on Jazz are immeasurable. Nobody has done more for Jazz than Louis Armstrong, without question he is a Jazz legend (Friedwald). Armstrong excelled at everything he performed. A renaissance man of our time, his appreciation for music and life showed in his performances, and his talent showed his techniques and improvisation. Louis’s technique and improvisation on the trumpet set the standard for Jazz musicians (Friedwald). Fellow trumpeter Dizzie Gillespie credited Armstrong with this honor stating, “If it weren’t for him there wouldn’t be any of us.” This reputation would lend him to be referred to as Jazz royalty. With his trumpet and his scat singing he revolutionized Jazz. Though vocally limited, his understanding of how to use his voice beyond his natural abilities led to his perfection of scat (Edwards). Scatting allowed him to perfect his improvisational skill. Scatting, or scat singing would come to be known as the “House that Satch Built” and Armstrong the “Original Man of Scat.”
When the United States were showing signs of economical growth, the unimaginable happen. When the 1929 stock market crash marked the day that the United States slowly crept into the Great Depression. The Great Depression caused nationwide panic. There was a decrease of production and the sale of goods. Many businesses started to collapse and close. Banks closed down since they took people’s money and invest in stocks. When the stocks crashed, banks went bankrupt and people lost their money and savings. Then there was a rise in unemployment and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Countless amount of people were homeless and they were trying their best to save their money. People were trying to figure out how to deal with their economic difficulties. During that time, people wanted to escape from their problems. They would watch movies and listen to music. At the time Jazz music was very popular. Jazz music had musical freedom and the songs show the way many people felt. It had the power to lift the gloomy spirits of the people affected. Jazz music has a style that appeal to many people, both young and old. One of the earlier Jazz
At the mention jazz music, that people will first think of is likely to be a great figure with a clown image, nicknamed Uncle Satchmo. The man was Lewis Armstrong. He is a husky singer, often with a trumpet in his hand. He played dramatic works of simple structure in Orleans jazz style and with the accompaniment of Dick jazz music. Each of the books on jazz music will mention his name. Lewis Armstrong was to jazz music what Bach is to classical music, Presley is to rock music (Berrett 230). This essay will have an introduction of the king of jazz music—— Lewis Armstrong and his great influence on jazz history.
In this investigation, I will attempt to compare two of the most famous and influential Jazz artists of all time, Louis Armstrong, and Etta James’ personal lives with regards to finding music, their stylistic similarities and I will also compare four of their most famous tracks. In the case of Armstrong, this track is ‘What a wonderful world’, and ‘We have all the time in the world’. For Etta James I will analyse and compare ‘At Last’, and ‘I’ve been loving you too long’. Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans. Armstrong spent his childhood in poverty, living with his family in an area of New Orleans known as the Uptown district.
By 1926, Armstrong was hired as featured soloist with the Carroll Dickerson band, at sunset café, for the first time his name was up in lights, as “the world’s greatest trumpet player”. Posters were hanged up advertising Armstrong,”Louis Armstrong in person!” Armstrong and his desire of greatness moved wit ha number of different musical groups, soon realizing that his style was best suited as a smaller ensemble. He played in big popular bands to reach more popularity. Armstrong established jazz as music that pri...
First, he redefined the rhythmic conception of jazz by getting rid of the stiff nature of ragtime, creating a swing eight-note pattern, introducing syncopated rhythmic figures, and staggering the phrases to make it seem as if he was always playing behind the beat. Second, he began to have more control over the forms of solos. He focused on allowing them to flow in a more relaxed manner, while suggesting that they have a sense of drama and build tension. Third, he possessed an imagination for melody and embellished it so that other melodies could match specific chord progressions. “West End Blues,” recorded by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, is a composition that powerfully brings all of these contributions together with the different solos and overall character of the piece (Harker, 2005, p. 76). All of these contributions helped make jazz what it is today, and we have Louis Armstrong to thank for that.
Although Louis Armstrong’s music was accepted across racial lines, this cannot be understood in terms of white acceptance of his African American culture. Caucasian Americans accepted Louis Armstrong’s music because it didn’t provide discordance with their skewed notions of African American culture. They could continue to listen to his music, while understanding the music within a context that they were comfortable with, from “primitive” origins by innately musical blacks guided by their unruly passions. Louis Armstrong was not unaware of the perception that much of his audience had. His success was owing to his charisma and his ability to be an exceptional entertainer in spite of these misconcept...
This small but distinct difference is what makes Louis such an important and influential figure in Jazz. About five years before Louis recorded this song, band leader Fletcher Henderson brought Armstrong onto his band to play shows in New York. (Singer 2) Originally, Fletcher’s band was a band primarily proficient in reading and playing music inspired by White bands at the time such as Vincent Lopez and Paul Whiteman. (DeVeaux 123 ) When Armstrong played with the band he brought a new element to it, he showed off his ability as a Jazz soloist. The nearly 2 minutes of primarily trumpet in the beginning of Armstrong’s version of “Black and Blue” is a reflection of what he brought to the table in Fletcher Henderson’s band. His trumpet stood out when he played with the band because it was such an improvisational and new element being brought to a somewhat traditional sound of music. Louis Armstrong even described this himself and very humbly tacked it all up to his inability to read the music as fast, “Well, I knew I couldn’t read music as fast as them cats, and Fletcher never let me sing. They’d got me there to blow that hot stuff. Lot of the time all I had to play in the arrangement was a 8 bar, maybe 16 bar solo. First time I did it, they went
Louis Armstrong was known for his “hot jazz” while Bix Beiderbecke was known more for his “cool reflective” jazz style. Louis Armstrong developed a new style of jazz music that took New Orleans by storm, and many other bands decided to move to north Chicago because of it. In 1925 Louis recorded his first Hot Five records and this was the first time he developed songs under his name. Then later on he made the Hot Seven and these two records are considered some of the biggest jazz classics. These records really established Louis Armstrong’s “hot jazz” style and many people recognized that. Many people and critics also considered these records as some of the finest jazz recordings in history, solos began to emerge and that really characterized jazz. These tracks were very important because it not only expressed Louis style but it influenced a lot of the jazz world. After the tracks many people began to change from polyphony to soloists, from embellishment to improvisation, and changing from breaks to having solos and their was much more influence. Then there was Bix Beiderbecke who was known for his “cool reflective” jazz. He was known for having a unique lyric tone, he had a vibrant sound, and he and he was different from other trumpet and cornet players. These were the type of things that led to the development of what is known as “cool jazz”. Everything that he went through in his life, the sadness, his heroic side, all this led to his music style. These two had a huge impact with their type of styles, which is the reason for their success. There uniqueness is what led to their style and them being known for their type of jazz, one simply can not say that one is better than the other because they simply did not have the same
His “hot bop” style was heard in places like the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theatre. Everyone from all over the country would come to see him. Armstrong recorded such works as I’m in the Mood for Love, and You Rascal You (http://library.thinkquest.org/26656/english/music.html). Another famous person during this era was Coleman Hawkins, a saxophone player. Hawkins is recognized as the first great saxophonist of jazz.
There’s a relaxing feeling that comes over me when I tune in to 90.9FM on the radio on my way to school. There aren’t many people my age that listen to jazz, though. I told a friend of mine to listen to a standard that I’d heard earlier that day, and he told me he turned it off as soon as he recognized the genre, telling me that “it’s old-folk music, I can’t take it seriously”. Although I didn’t take his comment to heart, I really thought about our generation and why jazz music isn’t as popular nowadays. Perhaps I enjoy it so much because I’ve played the piano since the first grade, and appreciating the chord harmonies and creativity in the music might be easier for me than it is for my friend. It turns out my assumption was spot-on. In a radio interview, Jae Sinnett describes his first date with jazz, saying: