Louis Armstrong (1900 - 1971)
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 Years 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 lead
a band that played on the Strekfus Mississsippi river boat lines. When the boats left
from of 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 Trio. He also played in parades with 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 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 mentors
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, he also played in Erskine Tate's Vendome Orchestra, and
then with Carrol Dickenson's Orchestra at the Sunset Cafe. 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 peak of Armstrongs
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 lead his own band on them 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 Angles in 1930 and
where he fronted a band called Louis Armstrong and his Sebastian New Cotton Club
Orchestra. In 1931 he returned to Chicigo and assembled his own band for touring
purposes. In June of that year he returned to New Orleans for the first time since he
had left in 1922 to join King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Armstrong was greeted as a
hero, but racism mared 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 seperated
in 1931 also. 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 criss crossed the USA dozens of times and returned to Europe playing in
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland, and England. In 1935 he returned to the USA
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 allegedy conected 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 who had also played with
King Oliver. The band was renamed the 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 revivial 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 personel 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 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.
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