Louis Armstrong: the king of jazzThis was one of Louis Armstrongs famous songs.
Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901-July 6, 1971) – Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans; the birthplace of jazz music. His family was very poor, and he began working at a young age. Louis got work singing on the streets for pennies; he worked on a junk wagon, cleaned graves, and many other things. Armstrong demonstrated his natural talents by singing on the streets, and taught himself to play the cornet. He began to perform in public with small bands, play at funerals, and in parades through his town. Joe “King” Oliver was a trumpet player in the Kid Ory’s Band, he heard Louis play and was impressed; Joe became his mentor. A while later Armstrong went to work on a riverboat where he worked with many jazz musicians. He played with them and expanded his knowledge by learning how to read music, and played in a professional gig. Joe had moved to Chicago, and in 1922 he asked Louis to go to Chicagoto play with him. They had many performances together. In 1924 Louis moved to New York and played with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. He toured many places with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, and had many recordings with other prestigious jazz musicians. In the years of 1925-1928 he continued touring and recording songs, he preformed songs like Heebie Jeebies andWest End Blues, which was one of the most famous jazz songs. Louis made his first appearance on Broadway in New York in 1929. His song Ain’t Misbehaving introduced the idea that a pop song could be used as material in jazz music. Louis also had his first appearances on film and the radio during this time. Throughout the 1950s and 60s he made many international appearances, and numerous appearances on film. In 1960 his hit song Hello Dolly was number one on billboard charts.
"Hot can be cool, and cool can be hot, and each can be both. But hot or cold, man, jazz is jazz." - Louis Armstrong By watching Louis Armstrong play his music, you can tell his passion for it. You can tell that his music is just flowing through him, and that he really loved what he did. |