Compare And Contrast Louis Armstrong And Bix Beiderbecke

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Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke were two of the most popular jazz artists of their times. These two men had the similarity of loving jazz music, however there were also many differences between the two. These two men had different lives growing up, Louis Armstrong grew up in a wealthy family, there was not struggle for him growing up while on the other hand Bix Beiderbecke grew up in a poor family and he had many struggles growing up in the streets of New Orleans. Then there were their musical styles, these men were known for their distinct musical styles. Louis Armstrong seemed to focus on hot jazz while Bix Beiderbecke focused more on a cool, reflective type of jazz. They seem to focus on two different things and this can be the reason …show more content…

Louis Armstrong was known for his “hot jazz” while Bix Beiderbecke was known more for his “cool reflective” jazz style. Louis Armstrong developed a new style of jazz music that took New Orleans by storm, and many other bands decided to move to north Chicago because of it. In 1925 Louis recorded his first Hot Five records and this was the first time he developed songs under his name. Then later on he made the Hot Seven and these two records are considered some of the biggest jazz classics. These records really established Louis Armstrong’s “hot jazz” style and many people recognized that. Many people and critics also considered these records as some of the finest jazz recordings in history, solos began to emerge and that really characterized jazz. These tracks were very important because it not only expressed Louis style but it influenced a lot of the jazz world. After the tracks many people began to change from polyphony to soloists, from embellishment to improvisation, and changing from breaks to having solos and their was much more influence. Then there was Bix Beiderbecke who was known for his “cool reflective” jazz. He was known for having a unique lyric tone, he had a vibrant sound, and he and he was different from other trumpet and cornet players. These were the type of things that led to the development of what is known as “cool jazz”. Everything that he went through in his life, the sadness, his heroic side, all this led to his music style. These two had a huge impact with their type of styles, which is the reason for their success. There uniqueness is what led to their style and them being known for their type of jazz, one simply can not say that one is better than the other because they simply did not have the same

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