He is also the first African American celebrity to appear in a major Hollywood movie. Finding Yourself, Dropping, Halfway. He returned to performing in 1970 but it was too much, too soon and he passed away in his sleep on July 6, 1971, a few months after his final engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. 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. A few weeks later after his birth his father leaves his mother alone with a family. 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.". He began to grow artistically and perfected his improvisational method (Jazz Stars 2). he put his soul and dedicated his life to his music. Wiki User. 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. Here are 10 facts about the life of one of the 20th century's most important jazz musicians. 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. For this, he is revered by jazz fans. WebLouis Armstrong was a key asset to the Harlem Renaissance due to his inspiring music and playing his instruments for African Americans people during this period. Between the two, Armstrong has been the more unsullied figure in historical treatments and biographies. After they married in 1924, Hardin made it clear that she felt Oliver was holding Armstrong back. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. Blessed with, Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. Armstrong's four marriages never produced any children, and because he and wife Lucille Wilson had actively tried for years to no avail, many believed him to be sterile, incapable of having children. These records later went on to become the most influential in jazz history, as it was the first time Armstrong facilitated the evolution of jazz as a ensemble to a soloist art. What was Louis Armstrongs childhood like? They also encouraged him to sing and often invited him into their home for meals. When Louis Armstrong was placed in a boys home as a young boy, he was presented with the opportunity to play the cornet. His fame rose when he composed several masterworks in the 1940s. Together with his mom, they moved to a better area of New Orleans. He is remembered as the most influential artist in the early development of jazz. Armstrong and Oliver became the talk of the town with their intricate two-cornet breaks and started making records together in 1923. 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. Armstrong defined what it was to play Jazz. WebToday, Louis Armstrong holds the title as the worlds greatest jazz player. Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. The latter performance is one of Armstrong's best known works, opening with a stunning cadenza that features equal helpings of opera and the blues; with its release, "West End Blues" proved to the world that the genre of fun, danceable jazz music was also capable of producing high art. During this time, Armstrong adopted a three-year-old boy named Clarence. 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. His greatest inspiration was Joe King Oliver. The way they are treating my people in the South, declared Armstrong, the government can go to hell.. Nobody did what Louis could do. WebLouis Armstrong remains an icon of American history and 20 th century popular culture. Armstrong played the trumpet so powerfully that he often split his lip. Preston gave birth to a daughter, Sharon Preston, in 1955. (She was the second of his four wives.) With his daring rhythmic choice, swinging vocabulary, and incredibly high notes; changing jazz history once again. His amazing technical abilities, the joy and spontaneity, and amazingly quick, inventive musical mind still dominate Jazz to this day. 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. 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. During this time, Armstrong taught the band how to swing. Louis Armstrong recorded many popular songs like La Vie en Rose, and his theme song When its Sleepy Time Down South. He attended Colored Waifs Home in 1913 for eighteen months. Louis Armstrong used to give away laxatives as gifts. 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. William Armstrong, his father, was a factory worker who abandoned the family soon after the boy's birth. Given that Armstrong was only 11, it was (one of) his stepfathers who was responsible for the whole series of events. His music had had a major effect on "swing" and the big band sound. At the school he learned to play cornet. Career highlights, compiled by the Louis Armstrong House Museum: Armstrong soon began dating the female pianist in the band, Lillian Hardin. Born, August 4, 1901 he started off in a harder life than most people usually do. 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. He sang much as he played, but with a playfulness and a rasp, that would forever be part of American culture (Winfield 167). On New Years Eve 1912, he was arrested and sent to the Colored Waifs Home for Boys. Louis Armstrong was an outstanding jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance Era. Being in many bands before he was not new to this. 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. 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 lights dim, and the velvet curtains slide open. Thereafter until his death in 1971, however, Armstrong never publicly addressed whether he was in fact Sharon's father. He subsequently passed, so the duo contacted Armstrong in August 1967. ", 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.". After a quick trip with a group of people to Venice, Mozart and his daddy returned back to his hometown Salzburg. 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 was taken under the wing of cornetist Joe "King" Oliver, and when Oliver moved to Chicago in June 1918, Armstrong replaced him in the Kid Ory Band. 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. However, a heart attack two days after the Waldorf gig sidelined him for two months. Louis continued to spread his style by touring other countries. Louis Armstrong was the first black man in the U.S. to host a radio show. Within a span of three years, Armstrong recorded over sixty records. Death Year: 1971, Death date: July 6, 1971, Death State: New York, Death City: Corona, Queens, Death Country: United States, Article Title: Louis Armstrong Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/louis-armstrong, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: January 29, 2021, Original Published Date: April 3, 2014. These records later went on to become the most influential in jazz history, as it was the first time Armstrong facilitated the evolution of jazz as a ensemble to a soloist art. I play the good kind (Armstrong). Armstrong continued to tour extensively, despite a heart attack in June 1959. ", During the mid-'50s, Armstrong's popularity overseas skyrocketed. It is said that during a session, Armstrong dropped his sheet music and started mimicking the sounds of the horn with his voice. At the start of Armstrongs career, he married Daisy Parker. Louis Armstrong was the most important and influential musician in jazz history. 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. He was also a frequent presence on radio, and often broke box-office records at the height of what is now known as the "Swing Era. In a strange turn of events, it was during this tour that Armstrong's career fell apart: Years of blowing high notes had taken a toll on Armstrong's lips, and, following a fight with his manager Johnny Collins who already managed to get Armstrong into trouble with the Mafia he was left stranded overseas by Collins. He was especially known for his spectacular trumpet playing, unmistakable voice, and exceptionally recognizable, broad smile., In three years they recorded over 60 records, which now are considered the most influential recordings in jazz history. Dancers loved Hendersons music making Louis Armstrong a celebrity so when he left his old band, this would be a step up. He didn't own an instrument at this time, If one was to go out into the street, walked up to a random stranger and asked them if they knew who Louis Armstrong was, chances are that they would be able to answer you correctly. His career spanned many decades, from the 1920s to his death in 1971, and many different eras in jazz. In 1936, Louis Armstrong became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography, Swing That Music. Why Louis Armstrong was important? 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 bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. 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). One day, they even advanced him the $5 he used to buy his very first horn. 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. During this period, Armstrong set a number of African American "firsts." 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. Bebop, a new form of jazz, had blossomed in the 1940s. He also began appearing in the orchestra of Hot Chocolates, a Broadway revue, and was given a featured spot singing "Ain't Misbehavin'." If the gun was not so easily accessible, his firing it and being arrested could have been prevented. 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. 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. The Hot Five and Hot Seven were strictly recording groups; Armstrong performed nightly during this period with Erskine Tate's orchestra at the Vendome Theater, often playing music for silent movies. His rise to fame peaked in the 1920s, where he stunned the world with his bold trumpet style and idiosyncratic vocals. He returned to Chicago in the spring of 1932 to front a band led by Zilner Randolph; the group toured around the country. Instead he used his talent as a ticket to improve his lot and create a meaningful life. While not officially government-sponsored, there are some who believe the concert was arranged by the CIA, which would make this just one of the many taxpayer-funded appearances hed make abroad during the Cold War in an effort to strengthen diplomatic relations overseas. Louis was the illegitimate son of William Armstrong and Mary Est Mayann Albert. The 1930s also found Armstrong achieving great popularity on radio, in films, and with his recordings. However, conditions changed when he was requested to record the title number of a broadway show that went on to become a hit. According to this document, the performers actual birth date was August 4, 1901. The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Louis Armstrong is one of the first great soloists in the 1920s musicians. He made his first recordings with Oliver on April 5, 1923; that day, he earned his first recorded solo on "Chimes Blues.". One of the first many New Orleans style jazz artists is Jelly Roll Morton. Louis was born in New Orleans where he grew up and learned to play the trumpet. Louis Daniel (Louie) Armstrong is perhaps the most important and influential person in the history of jazz music, swing music, and jazz vocal styling. He performed all over the world in the 1950s and '60s, including throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. His career rose in New Orleans. A YouTube poster named pandasthumb describes the piece. By the mid-'40s, the Swing Era was winding down and the era of big bands was almost over. One of the most important figures in 20th century music, Armstrong's innovations as a trumpeter and vocalist are widely recognized today, and will continue to be for decades to come. There, he received musical instruction on the cornet and fell in love with music. Its definitely worth checking out. His mother, who often turned to prostitution, frequently left him with his maternal grandmother. Louis Armstrong was an American jazz musician who was one of the most influential figures in jazz music. You feel butterflies in your stomach as you take your seat. All music is folk music. WebLouis Armstrong is arguably the most important musician that the United States has ever produced (Shipton 160). He was often left with his grandmother, and left school in fifth grade to start working. 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. Coupled with his astonishing performing skills and charismatic stage presence, Armstrong took the world by storm and popularized jazz as we know it today. Duke Ellingtons sense of musical drama was the one that made him stand out from all of the rest., Armstrong became the best jazz soloist on Broadway (Louis Armstrong 1). Louis Armstrong, nicknamed "Satchmo," "Pops" and, later, "Ambassador Satch," was a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. He is a husky singer, often with a trumpet in his hand. In 1936, he became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography: Swing That 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. 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. In 1922, his mentor, King Oliver, invited him to work his Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. He adds, "He was also more than a jazz musician he was an enormously popular entertainer"(pp. The family treated Armstrong like a member, bought him his first trumpet, and encouraged his musical aspirations. those works included Cotton Tail and Ko-Ko. Some of his most popular songs included "It Don 't Mean a Thing if It Ain 't Got That Swing," "Sophisticated Lady," "Prelude to a Kiss," "Solitude," and "Satin Doll (Duke Ellington Biography). 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. We contributed Louis Armstrong. In 1988, music historian Thaddeus Tad Jones located a baptismal record at New Orleanss Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. 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. 2012-02-22 18:06:07. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. For the first time, Armstrong was really able to demonstrate his unique voice during those recording sessions. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus sent in the National Guard to prevent the Little Rock Nine nine African American students from entering the public school. 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. 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. 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). 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. 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). Armstrong brought. Also in 1936, Louis Armstrong became the first African American to get featured billing in a major Hollywood movie with his turn in. Mozart, in his own traditional ways, the right away he did the first three of his 22 performances at that opera. His amazing technical abilities, the joy and spontaneity, and amazingly quick, inventive musical mind still dominate Jazz to this day. Handy and Satch Plays Fats. Armstrongs unique singing and masterful improvisation transitioned jazz from the traditional style to a newer, more rhythmic style. By that point, Armstrong began dating the pianist in the band, Lillian Hardin. 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.". WebImportance of Louis Armstrong.
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