In this article you will learn about…..
The Jazz Icon – What made Louis Armstrong’s music so successful?
Beginnings – How did Armstrong’s difficult childhood fuel his music?
Success – What steps led Armstrong to become an important figure in the development of jazz music?
Musical Ambassador – What made Armstrong an important role model?
Legacy – How is Armstrong’s music still alive today?
The Jazz Icon
Louis Armstrong, the jazz trumpeter from the US, is one of the most iconic musicians of all time. As well as a master of the trumpet, and one of the pioneers of the style of jazz we still know today, he was also an important leader in the US Civil Rights movement and an ambassador of good will around the world. Rumour even has it that in 1960, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo came to a standstill for a few days as the two sides got together for a Louis Armstrong concert.
Louis Armstrong’s songs were at the top of the music charts for five decades, and his music is still appreciated today, more than twenty-five years after his death. He provides inspiration for people from all walks of life. David Nicholson, headteacher and educational consultant, is also an avid Armstrong fan. Nicholson has spent his career working in high profile educational leadership positions and is also a trustee for Star4Africa charity. For Nicholson, Louis Armstrong’s music and legacy have always stayed with him.
Difficult Beginnings
Louis Armstrong was born in 1901 in a derelict section of New Orleans that was nicknamed ‘The Battlefield’. Having a difficult childhood, Armstrong spent much of his early childhood in the care of his grandparents. Louis Armstrong had to quit school when he was ten years old in order to start working and contributing to the family income.
Arrested for firing a gun in the air as part of a New Year’s Eve celebration, Armstrong spent several years in a detention facility entitled ‘The Coloured Waif’s Home for Boys’. An over-the-top punishment for the crime. The event proved providential, however, because Armstrong learned to play the cornet while in the home and went on to find his lifelong calling in the world of music.
Musical Success
By 1918, Armstrong was working full time as a musician and a member of the most popular jazz band in New Orleans. His big break came in 1922 with an unsolicited offer to play with the famous King Olive in Chicago. He was a huge success; Chicago audiences adored Armstrong, both because of his technical ability and his charismatic style. His first solo recording, a collaboration called ‘Chimes Blues’, came from this period.
A few years later, Armstrong left Chicago to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York City. Like Olive, Henderson was quick to use Armstrong’s virtuosity and performance technique to fuel a new approach to jazz. Under Armstrong’s influence, the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra grew to become the original image of what is now a traditional jazz band.
Armstrong moved back to Chicago in 1925. He’d become popular enough by this time that his reputation followed him wherever he went. This was the period in which Armstrong switched from the cornet to the trumpet, the instrument for which he is best known, and really began to find his personal style. His recording group, Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five is credited with laying the foundation for the jazz techniques we know today, including the traditional virtuosic solo and the wordless singing, called ‘skat singing’ that Armstrong first introduced in ‘Heebie Jeebies’.
A Musical Ambassador
Louis Armstrong’s success helped to make jazz music popular around the world. In his heyday, Armstrong gave around three hundred concerts every year and his frequent trips earned him the nickname ‘Ambassador Snatch’. In 1965, his tours broke the communist barrier with performances in Czechoslovakia and East Germany. Yet his music did more than just create goodwill. It help to further the acceptance of African-Americans in the US.
Armstrong was a civil rights pioneer throughout his life. In 1936, he was the first African American to receive major Hollywood billing for his role in ‘Pennies for Heaven’. In 1937, he became the first African-American host a national radio show. Later, he was the only black jazz musician to take a public stand against school segregation in the Little Rock, Arkansas case in 1957. At the time he was criticised for his outspokenness, but since then he has been praised for his courage and recognised for his contribution to the civil rights movement.
Armstrong suffered a minor heart attack in 1959, but continued his rigorous schedule on through the 1960’s. In 1968, however his health began to decline and he had to take a year off performing. He returned to the stage briefly in 1970, but suffered another heart attack and died peacefully in his sleep in July of 1971.
A Growing Legacy
Armstrong’s death did nothing to decrease his popularity and his recordings and music are still very much alive. Young jazz musicians from the 80’s and 90’s continued to emulate Armstrong’s style, and he has received even more recognition for his role in the civil rights movement in recent years. Despite his worldwide fame, Armstrong was always known for his humble personality and simple lifestyle. Music was his passion. This music has drawn people together from other countries and continents, like the music loving headteacher, David Nicholson, and continues to spread the legacy of Armstrong’s life.
No comments:
Post a Comment