|
 Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians.
Armstrong defined what it was to play Jazz. His amazing technical abilities,
the joy and spontaneity, and amazingly quick, inventive musical mind still
dominate Jazz to this day. Only Charlie Parker comes close to having as much
influence on the history of Jazz as Louis Armstrong did. Like almost all
early Jazz musicians, Louis was from New Orleans. He was from a very poor
family and was sent to reform school when he was twelve after firing a gun in
the air on New Year's Eve. At the school he learned to play cornet. After
being released at age fourteen, he worked selling papers, unloading boats,
and selling coal from a cart. He didn't own an instrument at this time, but
continued to listen to bands at clubs like the Funky Butt Hall. Joe
"King" Oliver was his favorite and the older man
acted as a father to Louis, even giving him his first real cornet, and
instructing him on the instrument. By 1917 he played in an Oliver
inspired group at dive bars in New Orleans' Storyville section. In 1919 he
left New Orleans for the first time to join Fate
Marable's band in St. Louis. Marable
led a band that played on the Strekfus Mississsippi river boat lines. When
the boats left from New Orleans Armstrong also played regular gigs in Kid
Ory's band. Louis stayed with Marable
until 1921 when he returned to New Orleans and played in Zutty
Singleton's. He also played in parades with the Allen Brass
Band, and on the bandstand with Papa
Celestin's Tuxedo Orchestra , and the Silver Leaf Band. When King
Oliver left the city in 1919 to go to Chicago, Louis took his
place in Kid Ory's band from time to time. In 1922
Louis  received a telegram from his mentor Joe
Oliver, asking him to join his Creole
Jazz Band at Lincoln Gardens (459 East 31st Street) in
Chicago. This was a dream come true for Armstrong and his amazing playing in
the band soon made him a sensation among other musicians in Chicago. The New
Orleans style of music took the town by storm and soon many other bands from
down south made their way north to Chicago. While playing in Oliver's
Creole Jazz Band, Armstrong met Lillian
Hardin, a piano player and arranger for the band. In February
of 1924 they were married. Lil was a very intelligent and ambitious
woman who felt that Louis was wasting himself playing in Oliver's
band. By the end of 1924 she pressured Armstrong to reluctantly leave his
mentor's band. He briefly worked with Ollie
Powers' Harmony Syncopators before he moved to New York to
play in Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra for 13
months. During that time he also did dozens of recording sessions with
numerous Blues singers, including Bessie
Smith's 1925 classic recording of "St. Louis Blues". He also recorded
with Clarence Williams and the Red
Onion Jazz Babies. In 1925 Armstrong moved back to Chicago and
joined his wife's band at the Dreamland Cafe (3520 South State Street). He
also played in Erskine Tate's Vendome Orchestra and then
with Carrol Dickenson's Orchestra at the Sunset Cafe (313-17 East 35th
Street). Armstrong recorded his first Hot
Five records that same year. This was the first time that
Armstrong had made records under his own name. The records made by Louis
Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot
Seven are considered to be absolute jazz classics and speak of
Armstrong's creative powers. The band never played live, but continued
recording until 1928. While working at the Sunset, Louis met his future
manager, Joe Glaser. Glaser managed the Sunset at that time. Armstrong
continued to play in Carrol Dickenson's Orchestra until 1929. He also led his
own band on the same venue under the name of Louis
Armstrong and his Stompers. For the next two years Armstrong
played with Carroll Dickerson's Savoy Orchestra and
with Clarence Jones' Orchestra in Chicago. By 1929 Louis was becoming a very
big star. He toured with the show "Hot Chocolates" and appeared
occasionally with the Luis Russell Orchestra, with Dave Peyton,
and with Fletcher Henderson. Armstrong moved to Los
Angeles in 1930 where he fronted a band called Louis
Armstrong and his Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra. In 1931
he returned to Chicago and assembled his own band for touring purposes. In
June of that year he returned to New Orleans for the first time since he left
in 1922 to join King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Armstrong
was greeted as a hero, but racism marred his return when a White radio
announcer refused to announce Armstrong on the air and a free concert that
Louis was going to give to the cities' African American population was
cancelled at the last minute. Louis and Lil
also separated in 1931. In 1932 he returned to California, before leaving for
England where he was a great success. For the next three years Armstrong was
almost always on the road. He crisscrossed the US dozens of times and
returned to Europe playing in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland, and England.
In 1935 he returned to the US and hired Joe Glaser to be his manager. He had
known Glaser when he was the manager of the Sunset Cafe in Chicago in the
1920s. Glaser was allegedly connected to the Al Capone mob, but proved to be
a great manager and friend for Louis. Glaser remained Armstrong's manager
until his death in 1969. Glaser took care of the business end of things,
leaving Armstrong free to concentrate on his music. He also hired the Luis
Russell Orchestra as Louis' backup band with Russell as the
musical director. This was like going home for Armstrong, because Russell's
Orchestra was made up of predominately New Orleans musicians,
many of whom had also played with King
Oliver. The band was renamed Louis
Armstrong and his Orchestra and was one of the most popular
acts of the Swing era. Glaser put the band to work and they toured constantly
for the next ten years. During this period Armstrong became one of the most
famous men in America. In 1938 Lil and Louis finally got a divorce. Louis
then married Alpha, his third wife. The endless touring was hard on their
marriage and they were divorced four years later, but Armstrong quickly
remarried Lucille and they remained married for the rest of his life. For the
next nine years the Louis Armstrong Orchestra continued to
tour and release records, but as the 1940s drew to a close the public's taste
in Jazz began to shift away from the commercial sounds of the Swing era and
big band Jazz. The so called Dixieland Jazz revival was just beginning and Be
Bop was also beginning to challenge the status quo in the Jazz world. The
Louis Armstrong Orchestra was beginning to look tired and concert and record
sales were declining. Critics complained that Armstrong was becoming too commercial.
So, in 1947 Glaser fired the orchestra and replaced them with a small group
that became one of the greatest and most popular bands in Jazz history. The
group was called the Louis Armstrong Allstars and featured exceptional
soloists like Barney Bigard, Jack
Teagarden, Big Sid Callett, Vilma Middleton, and later Earl
Hines. The band went through a number of personnel changes
over the years but remained extremely popular worldwide. They toured
extensively travelling to Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America for the
next twenty years until Louis' failing health caused them to disband.
Armstrong became known as America's Ambassador. In 1963 Armstrong scored a
huge international hit with his version of "Hello Dolly". This
number one single even knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts. In 1968
he recorded another number one hit with the touchly optimistic "What A
Wonderful World". Armstrong's health began to fail him and he was
hospitalized several times over the remaining three years of his life, but he
continued playing and recording. On July 6th 1971 the world's greatest Jazz
musician died in his sleep at his home in Queens, New York.
Thanks to Mary Devito for her help with this page.
|
