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. WebCourtesy of the Louis Armstrong Archive Queens College, CUNY. 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 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. Released from the Waifs Home in 1914, Armstrong set his sights on becoming a professional musician. Jazz is a genre of music that brought a whole community of people together. That same year, he recorded with small New Orleans-influenced groups, including the Hot Five, and began recording larger ensembles. Nobody did what Louis could do. In 1936, Louis Armstrong became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography, Swing That Music. Then along came a bare-knuckled comedy called Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). When Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1935, he had no band, no engagements and no recording contract. 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. WebDid You Know? If the gun was not so easily accessible, his firing it and being arrested could have been prevented. An early job working for the Jewish Karnofsky family allowed Armstrong to make enough money to purchase his first cornet. The book was titled Swing That Music. 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. ", 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.". WebHe 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. In America, Armstrong had been a great Civil Rights pioneer, breaking down Then, at the age of five, he was returned to the care of his mother, who at the time worked as a laundress. 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. During this period, he switched from cornet to trumpet. He subsequently passed, so the duo contacted Armstrong in August 1967. 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). 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. His crucial contribution to American and world culture continues to reverberate into the 21 st century. That same year, Armstrong married for the fourth and final time; he wed Lucille Wilson, a Cotton Club dancer. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Louis Armstrong was important in the 1920's because he put a whole new meaning to jazz. 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. Louis gave jazz music a purpose. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. Armstrong played the trumpet so powerfully that he often split his lip. There were many jazz musicians. Its definitely worth checking out. 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. Mob bosses from New York City and Chicago threatened Louis Armstrong in attempts to control his management contract. 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. From 1925 to 1928, Armstrong made more than 60 records with the Hot Five and, later, the Hot Seven. At the school he learned to play cornet. But many of his recorded performances are masterpieces, and none are less than entertaining. Another one of Armstrongs notable qualities, scat singing (wordless singing/mummering) was also popularized during this. By February 1927, Armstrong was well-enough known to front his own group, Louis Armstrong & His Stompers, at the Sunset Caf in Chicago. Blessed with, Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. As if it were not enough that Armstrong would rewire instrumental music for the rest of the century, his singing did the same for vocal music. he put his soul and dedicated his life to his music. His greatest inspiration was Joe King Oliver. Within a span of three years, Armstrong recorded over sixty records. WebRather than appealing simply to the crowd of already established jazz lovers, Louis Armstrong was effective at bridging the gap and reaching out to those that may not have been as familiar with the genre and effectively serving as one of the best ambassadors that the jazz world has ever known. That same year, his longtime manager, Joe Glaser, passed away. After completing the optimistic anthem, songwriters Bob Thiele and George David Weiss thought that Tony Bennett would eat it right up. 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. By the start of 1932, he had switched from the "race"-oriented OKeh label to its pop-oriented big sister Columbia, for which he recorded two Top Five hits, "Chinatown, My Chinatown" and "You Can Depend on Me" before scoring a number one hit with "All of Me" in March 1932; another Top Five hit, "Love, You Funny Thing," hit the charts the same month. 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. (Jazz From New Orleans, Jazz music was one of the most popular music genres in the 1920s and 1930s. He attended Colored Waifs Home in 1913 for eighteen months. 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. He performed all over the world in the 1950s and '60s, including throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. Armstrong was still a popular attraction around the world in 1963, but hadn't made a record in two years. What was Louis Armstrongs childhood like? Jelly Roll Morton was a great pianist and arranger from New Orleans., He not only produce one impressive improvised solo after another, but he also raised the bar for jazz vocals. Midway through the recording session, he accidentally dropped them and scatted to fill the ensuing silence. 149 Copy quote. Armstrong soon began dating the female pianist in the band, Lillian Hardin. While performing with Tate in 1926, Armstrong finally switched from the cornet to the trumpet. The 1930s also found Armstrong achieving great popularity on radio, in films, and with his recordings. Armstrongs improvised solos transformed jazz from an ensemble-based music into a soloists art, while his expressive vocals incorporated innovative bursts of scat singing and an underlying swing feel. Louis Armstrong was important in the 1920's because he put a whole new meaning to jazz. 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. (Biography.com), Many people knew Louis Armstrong as the first real genius of jazz(Shipton 26). 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 protege of King Oliver and one of the best loved musicians of the Twenties. How did Louis Armstrong influence others? 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. Armstrong put his career in Glaser's hands and asked him to make his troubles disappear. ", During the mid-'50s, Armstrong's popularity overseas skyrocketed. He spent the next several years in Europe, his American career maintained by a series of archival recordings, including the Top Ten hits "Sweethearts on Parade" (August 1932; recorded December 1930) and "Body and Soul" (October 1932; recorded October 1930). He began following him and eventually Oliver became Armstrongs mentor. She pushed her husband to cut ties with his mentor and join Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, the top African American dance band in New York City at the time. 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. 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. He is a husky singer, often with a trumpet in his hand. Louis Armstrong was an outstanding jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance Era. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you're just as graveyard dead as he is. With his amazing voice trumpet he created a band and made some records. Finding Yourself, Dropping, Halfway. He showed an early interest in music, and a junk dealer for whom he worked as a grade-school student helped him buy a cornet, which he taught himself to play. 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. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song. They treat me better all over the world than they do in my hometown, he said. Louis Armstrongs significance and most famous songs In 1936, he became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography. 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. 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. 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. After being released at age fourteen, he worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart. However, conditions changed when he was requested to record the title number of a broadway show that went on to become a hit. Heart and kidney problems forced him to stop performing in 1969. Preston gave birth to a daughter, Sharon Preston, in 1955. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. According to this document, the performers actual birth date was August 4, 1901. Louis did his first performance on stage in 1930 to spread his Jazz style. When Pops (who adored Thiele and Weiss masterwork) passed away on July 6, 1971, What a Wonderful World seemed destined for stateside obscurity. ", Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in a neighborhood so poor that it was nicknamed "The Battlefield.". He was born into poverty on August 4, 1901 in the streets of Back o Town (Meckna). He started as a soloist for Henderson after marrying Lil Hardin. 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. Armstrong returned to New York with his band for an engagement at Connie's Inn in Harlem in May 1929. See answer (1) Best Answer. In September, his recording of that song entered the charts, becoming a Top Ten hit. William Armstrong, his father, was a factory worker who abandoned the family soon after the boy's birth. In addition Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes., On the 26th day of December in 1788 there was a very great success. 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. He was abandoned by his father, a boiler stoker, shortly after his birth and was raised by his paternal grandmother. Louis was born in New Orleans where he grew up and learned to play the trumpet. Thereafter until his death in 1971, however, Armstrong never publicly addressed whether he was in fact Sharon's father. 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. With his infectious smile and raspy voice, Louis Armstrong (who actually pronounced his own name "Lewis") won over fans worldwide. He popularized scat singing and was the first musician to have his solo on a recording (Rodgers 85). Millions of people, starting in the 1930s until today, have agreed with Louis Armstrongs famous words and have been huge fans of the famous musician. He grew up in New Orleans where he introduced to jazz and he went on to spread jazz throughout different cities such as Chicago and New York. The new style that he created gave a voice-like quality to his horn. It started in New Orleans and over the years, stretched out throughout the whole United States. He worked for to get his instrument because his mother couldn't afford to buy him one. Wiki User. In July, Armstrong sailed to England for a tour. 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. 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. 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 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.". 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. A young pianist from Pittsburgh, Earl Hines, assimilated Armstrong's ideas into his piano playing. Armstrong's popularity continued to grow in Chicago throughout the decade, as he began playing other venues, including the Sunset Caf and the Savoy Ballroom. His music was a happiness to individuals and they said he was a gift sent from heaven. 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. This newfound popularity introduced Armstrong to a new, younger audience, and he continued making both successful records and concert appearances for the rest of the decade, even cracking the "Iron Curtain" with a tour of Communist countries such as East Berlin and Czechoslovakia in 1965. Between 1952 and 1955, Armstrong shed 100 pounds. 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 took a position as star soloist in Carroll Dickerson's band at the Savoy Ballroom in Chicago in March 1928, later taking over as the band's frontman. 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. With the assistance of the jazz musicians, the music industry, Making his voice sound like a musical instrument and singing nonsense syllables with no words created Scat singing. After trying it, he said that defecation sounded like Applause. Enamored, the musician began handing out packets to admirers, loved ones, and band members. The movie he appeared in was Pennies from Heaven (1936). 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. Armstrong was brought up by his mother, Mary (Albert) Armstrong, and his maternal grandmother. Given his popularity, his long career, and the extensive label-jumping he did in his later years, as well as the differing jazz and pop sides of his work, his recordings are extensive and diverse, with parts of his catalog owned by numerous companies.
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