Armstrong, Louis

Armstrong, Louis (1900?–1971), jazz trumpeter, band leader, vocalist.One of the twentieth century's premier jazz musicians, Louis Armstrong was born in poverty in New Orleans. He first learned to play brass instruments in Joseph Jones's Colored Waifs' Home. His skills matured in settings where ensemble jazz improvisation first evolved, including street parades, dance halls, and Fate Marable's Mississippi riverboat band. Armstrong's considerable influence as a jazz pioneer began with membership in the bands of Edward (“Kid”) Ory (1918) and Joseph (“King”) Oliver (1922), with whom he first recorded in 1923. Armstrong also collaborated with blues musicians like Bessie Smith.

A virtuoso trumpet soloist, Armstrong through his Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings (1925–1928) disseminated jazz improvisation to a wide audience. His initial success was followed by fame as a band leader and vocalist; beginning in 1929, he fronted his own bands, including Louis Armstrong's All Stars (1947). Armstrong's world tours earned him recognition as the ambassador of American jazz. The State Department sent him on tour to Europe, Japan, South America, and Africa during the 1960s. Armstrong brought his talents to film in Pennies from Heaven (1936), New Orleans (1947), High Society (1956), and some twenty other movies. Popular songs became an increasingly important part of Armstrong's repertoire; “Hello Dolly” (1963) reached the top of Billboard's charts in 1964.

Armstrong's performances, often accompanied by his use of exaggerated facial expressions characteristic of black vaudeville, generated controversy when younger jazz musicians complained that this behavior reinforced negative racial stereotypes. Ironically, conservatives also criticized Armstrong for his defense of civil rights activists in the Little Rock, Arkansas, school desegregation struggle of 1957. Armstrong's most influential work, from 1920 to 1940, exemplified the dynamic possibilities of jazz solo improvisation, innovative rhythmic phrasing, and mastery of the blues tradition. Despite his resistance to later jazz forms such as bebop, Armstrong's work remained a creative standard against which many later musicians—including Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis—would measure their craft.
See also Foreign Relations: The Cultural Dimension; Music: Popular Music.

Bibliography

James Lincoln Collier , Louis Armstrong: An American Genius, 1983.
Gerald Early , ‘And I Will Sing of Joy and Pain for You’: Louis Armstrong and the Great Jazz Traditions, in Tuxedo Junction: Essays on American Culture, 1989, pp.291–300.

Kathy J. Ogren