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Emerging as a vocalist[edit]

Armstrong returned to New York in 1929, where he played in the pit orchestra for the musical Hot Chocolates, an all-black revue written by Andy Razaf and pianist Fats Waller. He also made a cameo appearance as a vocalist, regularly stealing the show with his rendition of "Ain't Misbehavin'". His version of the song became his biggest selling record to date.[1]

Armstrong started to work at Connie's Inn in Harlem, chief rival to the Cotton Club, a venue for elaborately staged floor shows,[2] and a front for gangster Dutch Schultz. Armstrong also had considerable success with vocal recordings, including versions of famous songs composed by his old friend Hoagy Carmichael. His 1930s recordings took full advantage of the new RCA ribbon microphone, introduced in 1931, which imparted a characteristic warmth to vocals and immediately became an intrinsic part of the 'crooning' sound of artists like Bing Crosby. Armstrong's famous interpretation of Carmichael's "Stardust" became one of the most successful versions of this song ever recorded, showcasing Armstrong's unique vocal sound and style and his innovative approach to singing songs that had already become standards.

Armstrong's radical re-working of Sidney Arodin and Carmichael's "Lazy River" (recorded in 1931) encapsulated many features of his groundbreaking approach to melody and phrasing. The song begins with a brief trumpet solo, then the main melody is introduced by sobbing horns, memorably punctuated by Armstrong's growling interjections at the end of each bar: "Yeah! ..."Uh-huh"..."Sure"..."Way down, way down." In the first verse, he ignores the notated melody entirely and sings as if playing a trumpet solo, pitching most of the first line on a single note and using strongly syncopated phrasing. In the second stanza he breaks into an almost fully improvised melody, which then evolves into a classic passage of Armstrong "scat singing".

As with his trumpet playing, Armstrong's vocal innovations served as a foundation stone for the art of jazz vocal interpretation. The uniquely gravelly coloration of his voice became a musical archetype that was much imitated and endlessly impersonated. His scat singing style was enriched by his matchless experience as a trumpet soloist. His resonant, velvety lower-register tone and bubbling cadences on sides such as "Lazy River" exerted a huge influence on younger white singers such as Bing Crosby.

Working during hard times[edit]

The Great Depression of the early 1930s was especially hard on the jazz scene. The Cotton Club closed in 1936 after a long downward spiral, and many musicians stopped playing altogether as club dates evaporated. Bix Beiderbecke died and Fletcher Henderson's band broke up. King Oliver made a few records but otherwise struggled. Sidney Bechet became a tailor, later moving to Paris and Kid Ory returned to New Orleans and raised chickens.[3]

Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930 to seek new opportunities. He played at the New Cotton Club in Los Angeles with Lionel Hampton on drums. The band drew the Hollywood crowd, which could still afford a lavish night life, while radio broadcasts from the club connected with younger audiences at home. Bing Crosby and many other celebrities were regulars at the club. In 1931, Armstrong appeared in his first movie, Ex-Flame and was also convicted of marijuana possession but received a suspended sentence.[4] He returned to Chicago in late 1931 and played in bands more in the Guy Lombardo vein and he recorded more standards. When the mob insisted that he get out of town,[5] Armstrong visited New Orleans, had a hero's welcome, and saw old friends. He sponsored a local baseball team known as Armstrong's Secret Nine and had a cigar named after him.[6] But soon he was on the road again. After a tour across the country shadowed by the mob, he fled to Europe.

After returning to the United States, he undertook several exhausting tours. His agent Johnny Collins's erratic behavior and his own spending ways left Armstrong short of cash. Breach of contract violations plagued him. He hired Joe Glaser as his new manager, a tough mob-connected wheeler-dealer, who began to straighten out his legal mess, his mob troubles, and his debts. Armstrong also began to experience problems with his fingers and lips, which were aggravated by his unorthodox playing style. As a result, he branched out, developing his vocal style and making his first theatrical appearances. He appeared in movies again, including Crosby's 1936 hit Pennies from Heaven. In 1937, Armstrong substituted for Rudy Vallee on the CBS radio network and became the first African American to host a sponsored, national broadcast.[7]

The Harlem Renaissance[edit]

During the 1920s, Louis Armstrong brought a huge impact during the Harlem Renaissance within the Jazz world. The music he created was an incredible part of his life during the Harlem Renaissance.[8] His impact touched many, including a well known man during that time named Langston Hughes. The admiration he had for Armstrong and acknowledging him as one of the most recognized musicians during the era.[9] Within Hughes writings, he created many books which held the central idea of jazz and recognition to Armstrong as one of the most important person to be part of the new found love of their culture.[10] The sound of jazz, along with many other musicians such as Armstrong, helped shape Hughes as a writer. Just as the musicians, Hughes wrote his words with jazz.[11]

Armstrong changed the jazz during the Harlem Renaissance. Being known as "the world's greatest trumpet player" during this time he continued his legacy and decided to continue a focus on his own vocal career. The popularity he gained brought together many black and white audiences to watch his perform.[12]

Reviving jazz with the All Stars[edit]

Armstrong in 1953

After spending many years on the road, Armstrong settled permanently in Queens, New York in 1943 in contentment with his fourth wife, Lucille. Although subject to the vicissitudes of Tin Pan Alley and the gangster-ridden music business, as well as anti-black prejudice, he continued to develop his playing. He recorded Hoagy Carmichael's "Rockin' Chair" for Okeh Records.

During the next 30 years, Armstrong played more than 300 performances a year. Bookings for big bands tapered off during the 1940s due to changes in public tastes: ballrooms closed, and there was competition from television and from other types of music becoming more popular than big band music. It became impossible under such circumstances to finance a 16-piece touring band.

During the 1940s, a widespread revival of interest in the traditional jazz of the 1920s made it possible for Armstrong to consider a return to the small-group musical style of his youth. Armstrong was featured as a guest artist with Lionel Hampton's band at the famed second Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin Sr. on October 12, 1946.[13] Following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with trombonist/singer Jack Teagarden, Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser dissolved the Armstrong big band on August 13, 1947, and established a six-piece traditional jazz group featuring Armstrong with (initially) Teagarden, Earl Hines and other top swing and Dixieland musicians, most of whom were previously leaders of big bands. The new group was announced at the opening of Billy Berg's Supper Club.

This group was called Louis Armstrong and His All Stars and included at various times Earl "Fatha" Hines, Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole, Tyree Glenn, Barrett Deems, Mort Herbert, Joe Darensbourg, Eddie Shu and percussionist Danny Barcelona. During this period, Armstrong made many recordings and appeared in over thirty films. He was the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine, on February 21, 1949. Louis Armstrong and his All Stars were featured at the ninth Cavalcade of Jazz concert also at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles produced by Leon Hefflin Sr. held on June 7, 1953 along with Shorty Rogers, Roy Brown, Don Tosti and His Mexican Jazzmen, Earl Bostic, and Nat "King" Cole.[14]

A jazz ambassador[edit]

Armstrong in 1955

By the 1950s, Armstrong was a widely beloved American icon and cultural ambassador who commanded an international fanbase. However, a growing generation gap became apparent between him and the young jazz musicians who emerged in the postwar era such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Sonny Rollins. The postwar generation regarded their music as abstract art and considered Armstrong's vaudevillian style, half-musician and half-stage entertainer, outmoded and Uncle Tomism, "... he seemed a link to minstrelsy that we were ashamed of."[15] He called bebop "Chinese music".[citation needed] While touring Australia, 1954, he was asked if he could play bebop. "Bebop?" he husked. "I just play music. Guys who invent terms like that are walking the streets with their instruments under their arms."[16]

"Mack the Knife" was released in 1956.
Record of Armstrong's visit to Brazil, 1957.

In June 1950, Suzy Delair performed rehearsals of the song "C'est si bon" with Aimé Barelli and his Orchestra at the Monte Carlo casino where Louis Armstrong was finishing the evening. Armstrong enjoyed the song and he recorded the American version in New York City on June 26, 1950. In the 1960s, he toured Ghana and Nigeria.[17][18]

After finishing his contract with Decca Records, he became a freelance artist and recorded for other labels.[19][20] He continued an intense international touring schedule, but in 1959 he suffered a heart attack in Italy and had to rest.[21]

In 1964, after over two years without setting foot in a studio, he recorded his biggest-selling record, "Hello, Dolly!", a song by Jerry Herman, originally sung by Carol Channing. Armstrong's version remained on the Hot 100 for 22 weeks, longer than any other record produced that year, and went to No. 1 making him, at 62 years, 9 months and 5 days, the oldest person ever to accomplish that feat. In the process, he dislodged the Beatles from the No. 1 position they had occupied for 14 consecutive weeks with three different songs.[22]

External audio
audio icon Louis Daniel Armstrong talks with Studs Terkel on WFMT; 1962/6/24, 33:43, Studs Terkel Radio Archive[23]

Armstrong kept touring well into his 60s, even visiting part of the communist bloc in 1965. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under the sponsorship of the US State Department with great success, earning the nickname "Ambassador Satch" and inspiring Dave Brubeck to compose his jazz musical The Real Ambassadors. By 1968, he was approaching 70 and his health began to give out. He suffered heart and kidney ailments that forced him to stop touring. He did not perform publicly at all in 1969 and spent most of the year recuperating at home. Meanwhile, his longtime manager Joe Glaser died. By the summer of 1970, his doctors pronounced him fit enough to resume live performances. He embarked on another world tour, but a heart attack forced him to take a break for two months.[24]

Armstrong made his last recorded trumpet performances on his 1968 album Disney Songs the Satchmo Way.[25]

Copied from Louis Armstrong

  1. ^ "Louis Armstrong & his Orchestra". Redhotjazz.com. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
  2. ^ Morgenstern, Dan (1994), "Louis Armstrong and the Development and Diffusion of Jazz", in Miller, Marc H. (ed.), Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy, Queens Museum of Art in association with University of Washington Press, p. 110
  3. ^ Bergreen (1997), p. 320.
  4. ^ Collier (1985), pp. 221–22
  5. ^ "Louis Armstrong in the 30s". riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  6. ^ Bergreen (1997), p. 344.
  7. ^ Bergreen (1997), p. 385.
  8. ^ "Louis Armstrong: 'The Man and His Music,' Part 1". National Public Radio. August 1, 2007. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  9. ^ "Satchmo: The Life of Louis Armstrong". PBS. July 6, 2005. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  10. ^ "Langston Hughes Presents the History of Jazz in an Illustrated Children's Book (1995)". Open Culture. March 31, 2015. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  11. ^ Hughes, Langston. "Jazz as Communication". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  12. ^ Collins, Willie. "Armstrong, Louis (1901–1971)." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, edited by Thomas Riggs, 2nd ed., vol. 1, St. James Press, 2013, pp. 133-135. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://0-link.galegroup.com.library.4cd.edu/apps/doc/CX2735800126/GVRL?u=plea38277&sid=GVRL&xid=30818ba4. Accessed 27 May 2019.
  13. ^ Reed, Tom. (1992). The Black music history of Los Angeles, its roots : 50 years in Black music : a classical pictorial history of Los Angeles Black music of the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's : photographic essays that define the people, the artistry and their contributions to the wonderful world of entertainment (1st limited ed.). Los Angeles: Black Accent on L.A. Press. ISBN 096329086X. OCLC 28801394.
  14. ^ “Satchmo Band Spice To Open Air Show” Article Los Angeles Sentinel May 28, 1953.
  15. ^ Starkey, Brando Simeo (2015). In Defense of Uncle Tom: Why Blacks Must Police Racial Loyalty. Cambridge University Press. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-1-316-21408-4. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  16. ^ "Louis Armstrong And Band Get A Hot Reception". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842–1954). 28 October 1954. p. 1. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  17. ^ Kelley, Robin D.G. (2012). Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times. Harvard University Press. pp. 72–. ISBN 978-0-674-06524-6. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  18. ^ Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 1971. pp. 59–. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  19. ^ Nollen, Scott Allen (2004). Louis Armstrong: The Life, Music, and Screen Career. McFarland. pp. 127–. ISBN 978-0-7864-1857-2. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  20. ^ "Louis Armstrong". www.allmusic.com.
  21. ^ "Louis Armstrong". www.biography.com.
  22. ^ Hale, James. "Danny Barcelona: 1929–2007". www.jazzhouse.org. Retrieved 4 July 2007.
  23. ^ "Louis Daniel Armstrong talks with Studs Terkel on WFMT; 1962/6/24". Studs Terkel Radio Archive. June 24, 1962. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  24. ^ Von Eschen, Penny M. (2004). Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univ. Press. pp. 79–91. ISBN 978-0-674-01501-2.
  25. ^ Matthew C. Whitaker (2011). Icons of Black America: Breaking Barriers and Crossing Boundaries. ABC-CLIO. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-313-37642-9.
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