Louis Armstrong1, Music, College Term Papers.com


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Louis Armstrong1

Louis Armstrong1 Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901 to Mayanne and William Armstrong. His father abandoned his family during Louis’ infancy. Louis spent the first years of his life with his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong. After age five, Louis moved back with his mother and his sister, “Mama Lucy.” The family was forced to live in stark poverty. Louis got into some trouble when he was just 12 years old and was placed in the Waif’s Home for Boys. It was there that he first received musical instruction and learned to play the coronet. He was released from the Waif’s Home in June of 1914. He worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart. Joe Oliver, one of the finest trumpet players in New Orleans, was Louis’ music teacher and mentor. Louis married Daisy Parker, a prostitute from Gretna, Louisiana in 1918. He joined the Kid Ory Band after Joe Oliver moved to Chicago. In 1922, Louis moved to Chicago to play in the band Joe Oliver’s band, “ King Oliver.” It was there where he separated from his wife, Daisy. He made his first recording with the band in one year later in Richmond, Indiana. He later married Lil Hardin, a pianist in the King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. He moved to New York City in 1924 to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra at the Roseland Ballroom. During that time he also did dozens of recording sessions with numerous Blues singers including Bessie Smith’s 1925 classic recording of “St. Louis Blues.” He also recorded with Clarence Williams and the Red Onion Jazz Babies. Armstrong recorded his first Hot Five records that same year. This was the first time Armstrong made records under his own name. The records made by Louis Armstrong ‘s Hot Five and Hot Seven are considered to be absolute jazz classics ad peak f Armstrong’s creative powers. The band never played live, but continued recorded until 1928. While working at the Sunset, Louis met his future manager Joe Glasner. Glasner managed the Sunset at the same time. Armstrong continued to play in Carrol Dickeson’s Orchestra until 1929. He also lead his own band on them same venue under the name of Louis Armstrong and his Strompers. For the next two years Armstrong played with Carroll Dickerson’s Savory Orchestra and with Clarence Jones’ Orchestra in Chicago. By 1929 Louis Armstrong was becoming a very big star. He toured with the show “Hot Chocolates” and appeared occasionally with Luis Russell Orchestra, with Dave Peyton, and with the Fletcher Henderson. Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930 and where he fronted a band called Louis Armstrong and his Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra. In 1931, he returned to Chicago ad assembled his own band for touring purposes. In June of that year he returned to New Orleans for the first time since he had left in 1922 to join King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. Armstrong was greeted as a hero, but racism mared his return when a white radio announcer refused to announce Armstrong on the air and a free concert that Louis was going to give to the city’s African American population was cancelled at the last minute. Louis and Lil separated in 1931 also. In 1932 he returned to California, before leaving for England where he was a great success. Armstrong toured the United States, England, Holland, Norway and Sweden for the next three years. By 1938, Louis and Lil finally got a divorce. The 1940s drew a close to what was known as the public’s taste of jazz. The so-called Dixieland Jazz revival was just beginning and Be Bop was also beginning to challenge the status quo in the jazz world. Louis Armstrong was beginning to look tired and concert and record sales were declining. Critics complained that Armstrong was becoming too commercial. So, in 1947 Glasner fired the orchestra and replaced them with a small group that became one of the greatest and most popular bands in jazz history. The group was called the Louis Armstrong Allstars and featured exceptional soloist like Barney Bigard, Jack Teagarden, Big Sid Callett, Velma Middleton, and later Earl Hines. The band went through a number of personal changes over the years but remained extremely popular throughout the world. They toured extensively traveling to Africa, Asia, Europe and South America for the next 20 years until Louis failing heath caused them to disband. Armstrong became known as America’s Ambassador. In 1963 Armstrong scored a huge international hit with his version of “Hello Dolly.” This number one single even knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts. I 1968 he recorded another number one hit with the touchly optimistic “What A Wonderful World.” Before his death in 1971, Louis Armstrong appeared on television shows, including the David Frost Show, the Dick Cavett Show, the Tonight Show, and a television special with Pearl Bailey. He recorded the poem “The Night Before Christmas.” He performed for two weeks in the Empire Room of the Waldorf Astona hotel in New York City. Armstrong’s health began to fail him and he was hospitalized several times over the remaining three years of his life. On July 6, 1971 the world’s greatest jazz musician died in his sleep at his home in Queens, New York. Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. Louis defined what it was to play Jazz. His amazing technical abilities, the joy and spontaneity, and amazing quick, inventive musical mind still dominate jazz to this day. We can never really express the impact that he made on jazz. I was actually surprised at the life and times of Louis Armstrong. I don’t know why I visualized a kindler gentler world he lived in. I realize what great achievements that Louis Armstrong made. The motivation it must have taken to continue to perform throughout the years even when he was very sick, is remarkable. He was critical to the outcome of what we know as jazz today. When I listen to “What a Wonderful World,” I get all choked up. I remember wondering why my mother used to cry when she listened to that song. It took me a while, but now I finally realized what was so touching about it. Bibliography: Doe, page 5 Work Cited Aaron, Henry J. Louis Armstrong. Washington, D.C.: The Brooking Institution, 1981. http://independentmusician.com, SatchMo.Net Biography, March 2001. Peachman, Joseph A. Jazz Musicians. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1987.

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