The Life and Music of Louis Armstrong

The Life and Music of Louis Armstrong

Among the most popular and appreciated musicians of our time, Louis "Satchmo" Armostrong brought a musical presence, technical mastery, and imaginative genius that "so overwhelmed musicians of his day that he became their principle model, leaving an indelible imprint on the music" (Kernfield 27). When reviewing Armstrong's life work, his years with us can be divided into two aspects, his personal life and his music. While giving significant background of Armstrong's life, his paper will also introduce and explain the impact that he had on music and the world of jazz.

Born on the Fourth of July in 1900, Armstrong was delivered in a cabin in a ddilapidated black slum in the Back o' Town section of New Orleans. Armstrong's father was a laborer named Willie Armstrong, and his mother a domestic and most likely a part-time prostitute named Mayann. Just after his birth, his father abandoned his family, and his mother decided to move into an area of town that was reserved for black prostitutes. Armstrong had no choice but to live with his grandma, Josephine, until he moved back with his mom, after she had moved to Storyville a few years later. At the time, Storyville was a tawdry, rundown, neighborhood or "brothels, cribs, seedy dance halls, and honky-tonks frequented by black laborers and some whites" (Kernfield 27). At such an early age, Armstrong was poorly cared for by his mother and spent much of his early years deprived physically, mentally, and emotionally to an extensive degree. Although his early life may have seemed rough and difficult, he grew up listening in the dance halls and clubs to what was then the blues and the new hot music emerging from the musical period of ragtime (Kernfield 27).

Due to the lack of parental influence in his life and his great freedom to do as he pleased, Armstrong found himself in the Home for Colored Waifs, a reform school for young boys of color. Known for his misbehavior at the home, at the age of twelve he was said to have fired a gun into the air on New Years Eve. He was also said to have been involved in more general delinquency, which caused him to go to reform school. At age fourteen, Armstrong was released from the school and spent his time, "selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart. He didn't own an instrument at this time, but continue to listen to bands at the clubs..." (Louis...).

Although Armstrong spent some of his adolescent years in reform school, he joined the school band and learned to play cornet. In this particular band, Armstrong played customary band music of the day - marches, rags, and sentimental songs. By the time he left reform school he was determined to become a musician. Using borrowed instruments back in Storyville, he began sitting in at honky-tonks around his home, playing mainly the blues and few other songs he had in his repertory of music. He also played at local picnics and parades with one of his earliest teachers, Peter Davis.

Throughout Armstrong's life, he habitually put himself under the wing of a tough, aggressive older mentor. Probably the most significant of these men was the strong minded King Oliver, who was then considered to be the best jazz cornetist in New Orleans. Oliver's sponsorship and mentoring of Louis allowed him to play in public and develop his musical personality as a jazz musician. When King Oliver migrated north in 1918 with many other African Americans who were involved in the Great Migration, Armstrong found his place in a band known as the Edward "Kid" Ory Band, which was regarded as the best jazz band in New Orleans. Ory's Band featured many of the great musicians who would go on to define the Hot Jazz style. At various times King Oliver, a young Louis Armstrong, Jonhnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, and Jimmie Noone all playing in Ory's Band (Edward "Kid" Ory). The next few years of his life, Armstrong spent bouncing around the Mississippi river every summer. This allowed him to develop his musicianship to a new level where he learned to read and play any music that was required of him (Kernfield 28).

In 1922, Armstrong got in touch again with King Oliver, who invited Louis to join his band in Chicago as a second cornet in the band. He began to draw attention to himself in Chicago from the Creole Jazz Band and other Chicago groups. Shortly thereafter, Armstrong made another big move in his life, and career when he married Lil Hardin, the band's pianist. Again, he made another big transition in his life when he decided to move to Chicago to New York with the intentions of joining Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, one of the leading black dance bands of the city. Between the years of 1924 to 1929 Armstrong went back and fourth between Chicago and New York with different groups. His most influential group, the Hot Five, recorded more than sixty performances that would transform the face of jazz forever. At this point in his life, Armstrong became a well-recognized figure in jazz, and an outstanding entertainer. The effect of his music turned heads everywhere, and he an instantaneous and profound effect