he put his soul and dedicated his life to his music. Louis Armstrong is one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time. Born in 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Armstrong had a difficult childhood. He attended school until he was in the 5th grade, he stopped going to help support his family. WebWhy Is Louis Armstrong Important. On New Years Eve 1912, he was arrested and sent to the Colored Waifs Home for Boys. 1 slot in May 1964, and knocking the Beatles off the top at the height of Beatlemania. A local Jewish family, the Karnofskys, gave young Armstrong a job collecting junk and delivering coal. However, a heart attack two days after the Waldorf gig sidelined him for two months. Louis's Father left him around childbirth, and his mother often used prostitution for money. See answer (1) Best Answer. What made jazz continuously popular was the way it progressed. Louis was born in New Orleans where he grew up and learned to play the trumpet. He was also a gifted singer, and his In 1936, Louis Armstrong became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography, Swing That Music. 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. 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. The Armstrongs moved into the home, where they would live for the rest of their lives, in 1943. Louis Armstrong was an American jazz musician who was one of the most influential figures in jazz music.
Louis Armstrong Biography, Songs, & Albums | AllMusic WebThrough the internet and books we find out why Louis Armstrong is such a great person to learn about. His distinctive sound and style have had a lasting impact on the genre, and he was a major influence on subsequent generations of jazz musicians. He sang much as he played, but with a playfulness and a rasp, that would forever be part of American culture (Winfield 167). If the gun was not so easily accessible, his firing it and being arrested could have been prevented. He attended Colored Waifs Home in 1913 for eighteen months. 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.". Armstrong was arrested at eleven years old for disturbing the peace. Armstrong was brought up by his mother, Mary (Albert) Armstrong, and his maternal grandmother. He was a master of the trumpet and a pioneer of jazz. By that point, Armstrong began dating the pianist in the band, Lillian Hardin. He also began singing on these recordings, popularizing wordless "scat singing" with his hugely popular vocal on 1926's "Heebie Jeebies.". He was also a talented singer, and his recordings of songs like What a Armstrong sang his heart out on the number, thinking of his home in Queens as he did so, but "What a Wonderful World" received little promotion in the United States. By 1968, Armstrong's grueling lifestyle had finally caught up with him. Show More.
Louis Armstrong After completing the optimistic anthem, songwriters Bob Thiele and George David Weiss thought that Tony Bennett would eat it right up. At the mention jazz music, that person will first think of is likely to be a great figure with a clown image, nicknamed Satchmo. Armstrong put his career in Glaser's hands and asked him to make his troubles disappear. 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. 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. He returned to Chicago in the spring of 1932 to front a band led by Zilner Randolph; the group toured around the country. Glaser did just that; within a few months, Armstrong had a new big band and was recording for Decca Records. In America, Armstrong had been a great Civil Rights pioneer, breaking down numerous barriers as a young man. 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. 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. In September, his recording of that song entered the charts, becoming a Top Ten hit. In July, Armstrong sailed to England for a tour. 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. By the mid-'40s, the Swing Era was winding down and the era of big bands was almost over. Its popularity brought many people together, even through the years of racial discrimination and the Great Depression. Armstrong continued a grueling touring schedule into the late '50s, and it caught up with him in 1959, when he had a heart attack while traveling in Spoleto, Italy. (Cayton, 462) Armstrong was the king of jazz trumpet players.
Louis Armstrong Also in 1936, Louis Armstrong became the first African American to get featured billing in a major Hollywood movie with his turn in. Wiki User. 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. His lips were still sore, and there were still remnants of his mob troubles and with Lil, who, following the couple's split, was suing Armstrong. In fifth grade, while being taken care of by his maternal grandmother most of the time, he left school to work.
Why Is Charlie Parker Important He was an extraordinary musician and he impacted jazz music immensely. His music had had a major effect on "swing" and the big band sound. Eldridge is the obvious link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. 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. ", 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. To many young jazz listeners at the time, Armstrong's ever-smiling demeanor seemed like it was from a bygone era, and the trumpeter's refusal to comment on politics for many years only furthered perceptions that he was out of touch. Blessed with, Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. 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. A year later, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. What a Wonderful World struck a chord with moviegoers and was re-released that year, becoming an oft-requested radio hit. 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). Larkin states, "It is impossible to overstate Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong's importance in jazz." 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. According to this document, the performers actual birth date was August 4, 1901. Louis Armstrong was to jazz music what Bach is to classical music, Presley is to rock music (Berrett 230).
Why Louis Armstrong is one of the most important jazz figures. 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. When Louis Armstrong was placed in a boys home as a young boy, he was presented with the opportunity to play the cornet. 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 also learned to sing. In 1938, Armstrong finally divorced Lil Hardin and married Alpha Smith, whom he had been dating for more than a decade. Armstrong was featured nightly on Ain't Misbehavin', breaking up the crowds of (mostly white) theatergoers nightly. After his time in Colored Waifs Home, he wanted to become a musician. 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. 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. Louis Armstrongs significance and most famous songs In 1936, he became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography.
Revisiting Louis Armstrong in the Context He also began appearing in the orchestra of Hot Chocolates, a Broadway revue, and was given a featured spot singing "Ain't Misbehavin'." His amazing technical abilities, the joy and spontaneity, and amazingly quick, inventive musical mind still dominate Jazz to this day. In April, he reached the charts with his first vocal recording, "Big Butter and Egg Man," a duet with May Alix. He embarked on his first European tour since 1935 in February 1948, and thereafter toured regularly around the world. He is remembered as the most influential artist in the early development of jazz.
Is Louis You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. Why Louis Armstrong was important? 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). The family treated Armstrong like a member, bought him his first trumpet, and encouraged his musical aspirations. Career highlights, compiled by the Louis Armstrong House Museum: Members of the group, at one time or another, included Jack Teagarden, Earl Hines, Sid Catlett, Barney Bigard, Trummy Young, Edmond Hall, Billy Kyle and Tyree Glenn, among other jazz legends. 1 hit around the world, including in England and South Africa, and eventually became one of Armstrong's most-beloved songs after it was used in the 1986 Robin Williams film Good Morning, Vietnam. He was released on June 16, 1914, and did manual labor while trying to establish himself as a musician. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. An early job working for the Jewish Karnofsky family allowed Armstrong to make enough money to purchase his first cornet. He recorded several songs throughout his career, including he is known for songs like "Star Dust," "La Vie En Rose" and "What a Wonderful World. 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). 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. Seems to me it ain't the world that's so bad but what we're doing to it, and all I'm saying is: see what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Armstrong began to sing on the records, creating a new form of singing, scat singing. He dropped out of school at 11 to join an informal group, but on December 31, 1912, he fired a gun during a New Year's Eve celebration, and was sent to reform school. Between the two, Armstrong has been the more unsullied figure in historical treatments and biographies. This essay will have an introduction of the king of jazz music -- Louis Armstrong and his great influence on jazz history. He was one of the most influential figures in jazz music. Famous for his innovative methods of playing the trumpet and cornet, he was also a highly talented singer, blessed with a powerful gravelly voice. Known for his improvisation, Armstrong could induce dramatic effects with his music. 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. 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 is important because he was the first black singer. Hes a professional jazz performer who played with Oliver and Henderson. Why is Louis Armstrong important in the 20's? Armstrong had gained sufficient individual notice to make his recording debut as a leader on November 12, 1925. 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). 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. That same year, he recorded with small New Orleans-influenced groups, including the Hot Five, and began recording larger ensembles.
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Is Louis 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 We contributed Louis Armstrong. 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. 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. It was also for Columbia that Armstrong scored one of the biggest hits of his career: His jazz transformation of Kurt Weill's "Mack the Knife. Given that Armstrong was only 11, it was (one of) his stepfathers who was responsible for the whole series of events. West End Blues by Louis Armstrong is one of the most important songs in jazz. Jelly Roll, Doctor Jazz, Original Jelly Roll Blues, and many other famous pieces. 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. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you're just as graveyard dead as he is. This was the first time anyone had ever recorded this technique known as scat singing.
BenFred: Cardinals are cranking volume up on star prospect Jordan "Hotter Than That" was in the Top Ten in May 1928, followed in September by "West End Blues," which later became one of the first recordings named to the Grammy Hall of Fame. Since his death, Armstrong's stature has only continued to grow. When Wilson tired of living out of a suitcase during endless strings of one-nighters, she convinced Armstrong to purchase a house at 34-56 107th Street in Corona, Queens, New York. Louis Armstrong was important in the 1920's because he put a whole new meaning to jazz. Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. Eldridge is the obvious link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. 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.". 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).
Why is Louis Armstrong important? - Answers In 1972, a year after his death, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. .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. 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. In 1947, the waning popularity of the big bands forced Armstrong to begin fronting a small group, Louis Armstrong and His All Stars. The new style that he created gave a voice-like quality to his horn. 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. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. 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. In 16967, Armstrong recorded his most renowned tune, What a Wonderful Word that surprisingly featured no trumpet. If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. Sources: Armstrong and Oliver became the talk of the town with their intricate two-cornet breaks and started making records together in 1923. He worked for to get his instrument because his mother couldn't afford to buy him one. 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. He started as a soloist for Henderson after marrying Lil Hardin. WebToday, Louis Armstrong holds the title as the worlds greatest jazz player. 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. Mozart had written over 600 pieces of works, many acknowledged his pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky are also on the faces of people going by. He would attend parades, funerals, churches and go to cheap cabarets to be able to hear some of the greats play, Little Louis sung in a vocal quartet in his early teens. Outraged, Armstrong refused to stage another concert within the state's borders. But many of his recorded performances are masterpieces, and none are less than entertaining. 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. In the 1950s, he was sometimes criticized for his onstage persona and called an Uncle Tom but he silenced critics by speaking out against the governments handling of the Little Rock Nine high school integration crisis in 1957. Flappers were commonly known during this time. Armstrong played the trumpet so powerfully that he often split his lip. The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of 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 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. He has many nicknames in which some are Satchmo and Pops. 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. Love, baby - love. His rise to fame peaked in the 1920s, where he stunned the world with his bold trumpet style and idiosyncratic vocals. Despite failing to make a new record for two years, Armstrong remained a fan favorite.
Louis Armstrong: History & Major Accomplishments What are some facts about Louis Armstrong?A Jewish immigrant family helped him buy his first horn. Armstrong first received musical training during a stint in juvenile detention. His wife helped jumpstart his solo career. Armstrong was one of the first celebrities to be arrested for drug possession. Contracted to OKeh Records, he began to make a series of recordings with studio-only groups called the Hot Fives or the Hot Sevens. 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. WebHe overcame poverty to become one of the most important people in the history of music. In 1993, it gained renewed popularity when it was used in the film Sleepless in Seattle. He subsequently passed, so the duo contacted Armstrong in August 1967. As swing and jazz was dominant as the pop music of the early 20th century, his influence is also evident in the transition from swing and jump blues into rock and roll. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. He influenced countless other musicians and helped to shape the course of jazz. WebDid You Know? He also took a series of small parts in motion pictures, beginning with Pennies from Heaven in December 1936, and he continued to record for Decca, resulting in the Top Ten hits "Public Melody Number One" (August 1937), "When the Saints Go Marching In" (April 1939), and "You Won't Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart)" (April 1946), the last a duet with Ella Fitzgerald. Louis Armstrong used to give away laxatives as gifts. Being in many bands before he was not new to this. Released from the Waifs Home in 1914, Armstrong set his sights on becoming a professional musician. Pillars of Life 3 y Related Why was jazz so important?
Louis Armstrong He studied music there and played cornet and bugle in the school band, eventually becoming its leader. 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 1964, he scored a surprise hit with his recording of the title song from the Broadway musical Hello, Dolly!, which reached number one in May, followed by a gold-selling album of the same name. 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). These views changed in 1957, when Armstrong saw the Little Rock Central High School integration crisis on television. Armstrong felt that being subservient to white people, was an unfortunately necessary evil in order for him to live successfully and happily. 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. 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 brilliance of his playing, the warmth of his vocals, and his integrity as a human being simply inspires me. Willies habit of devoting all his attention to his second, Because firing guns to welcome in the New Year was a New Orleans custom, he thought (even at 11 years old) that it would be morally acceptable to fire the gun. WebLouis Armstrong is arguably the most important musician that the United States has ever produced (Shipton 160). The first important trend in New York Jazz was Hot Jazz that was an incendiary style introduced by Louis Armstrong (Winfield 170). Only Charlie Parker comes close to having as much influence on the history of Jazz as Louis Armstrong did. 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. By February 1927, Armstrong was well-enough known to front his own group, Louis Armstrong & His Stompers, at the Sunset Caf in Chicago. In 1918, he married Daisy Parker, a prostitute, commencing a stormy union marked by many arguments and acts of violence. For this, he is revered by jazz fans. 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. In June 1951 he reached the Top Ten of the LP charts with Satchmo at Symphony Hall ("Satchmo" being his nickname), and he scored his first Top Ten single in five years with "(When We Are Dancing) I Get Ideas" later in the year. 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. 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 spent his youth singing on the street for spare change, but he didnt receive any formal musical training until age 11. 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. William Armstrong, his father, was a factory worker who abandoned the family soon after the boy's birth. Armstrongs unique singing and masterful improvisation transitioned jazz from the traditional style to a newer, more rhythmic style. Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans.
Louis Armstrong in The Civil Rights Movement 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. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. 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. (Hakim, 58) Although Jazz was very popular itself, a majority of the fans and listeners were younger people.