Louis Armstrong Accomplishments

“All music is folk music. I ain’t never heard a horse sing a song.” Louis Daniel Armstrong, Satchmo, or Pops is considered one of the most influential artist in jazz history. He was trumpeter, pianist, singer, bandleader, soloist, film star, and comedian (Biography.com). Even though he had a rough childhood, he was a very successful musician.

Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the impoverished part of town, often called “The Battlefield”. He had one sister, Beatrice, who was born in 1903. His father, William Armstrong, was a factory worker and his mother, Mary Albert, resorted to prostitution to provide for the family after his father left. Because of this, Armstrong was often left with

his maternal grandmother. He worked strange jobs and sang in a boys’ quartet as a child. He wanted to drop out of school in fifth grade so he could work to provide for the family. The Karnofskys, a Jewish family, gave him a job of collecting junk and delivering coal. They even encouraged him to sing and invited him in for supper occasionally. On New Year’s Eve in 1912, he was arrested for firing his stepfather’s gun at a celebration (Biography.com). He was then sent to the Colored Waifs Home as a juvenile delinquent. There he received musical instruction on the cornet and it was at this time that he fell in love with music. In 1914, he was released from the home and continued his dream of making music. As he continued his music career, he started to gain recognition as a blues player. However, he still had to do strange jobs like selling newspapers and hauling coal. During this time, he was mentored by Joe “King” Oliver, one of the greatest cornet players of the time. Oliver showed Armstrong pointers and even used him as a sub occasionally. He ended up becoming better than Oliver and replaced him in the band Kid Ory, a popular band at the time, in 1918. He also started playing in jazz bands and marching bands (Britannica.com).

In 1918, Armstrong married Daisy Parker, who was a prostitute.

This ended up being an unhappy, violent relationship. He adopted a three year old boy, Clarence, whose mother was Armstrong’s cousin and died at childbirth. Clarence, who became mentally disabled from suffering a head injury the happened at an early age, was taken care of by Armstrong his entire life. During the summer of the early 1920’s, Armstrong played in Mississippi riverboat dance bands. It was at this time that his reputation began to grow, he was able to stop working manual jobs, and sharpened his music reading skills. He also had encounters with other jazz legends, including Bix Beiderbecke and Jack Teagarden. He began focusing full time on his cornet and playing at parties, dances, funeral marches, and local honky tonks, which was a name for small bars that typically host musical acts (Biography.com). In 1922, Oliver asked Armstrong to join him as a second cornet in Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. This band included Johnny and Baby Dodds, brothers, and pianist Lillian “Lil” Hardin, whom Armstrong later married in 1924. She encouraged him to leave the band to spread his fame. He played for a year in New York City in Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra. It was here that he created his most important early works, the Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings in 1925-28, and in these he became the first great jazz soloist. He continued to make recordings and many things contributed to the major

innovations such as the following: his compelling swing; his brilliant technique; his sophisticated, daring sense of harmony; his ever-mobile, expressive attack, timbre, and inflections; his gift for creating vital melodies; his dramatic, often complex sense of solo design; and his outsized musical energy and genius (Britannica.com).

Louis Armstrong became well known because he was the dominant influence on the swing era.

Trumpeters, trombonists, and saxophonists were inspired by Armstrong’s phrasing, dramatic structure, melody, and virtuosity. He didn’t only influence with his horn playing but with his vocals too. His vocal style influenced singers from Billie Holiday to Bing Crosby. Armstrong played a role in the film New Orleans and also performed in a Dixieland band. In the period of his great popularity, he produced the hit recordings such as “Mack the Knife” and “Hello, Dolly!” and outstanding albums (Britannica.com). In 1932, he had appeared in movies and began his first tour of England. He was loved by musicians, however, he was “too wild” for most critics, who gave him racist reviews of his career. He didn’t let this stop him though. In 1933, he began a longer tour throughout Europe. During this tour, his career started to take a turn for the worse. Blowing high notes had taken a toll on his lips and he got into a fight with his manager, Johnny Collins, resulting in Collins leaving him in Europe. Armstrong spent much of the next year relaxing in Europe and resting his lip. He returned to Chicago in 1935 with no band and no recording contract. He turned to Joe Glaser for help, who had known him since they met at the Sunset Cafe. Within a few months, Armstrong had a new big band and was recording for Decca Records. In 1936, he became the first African American jazz musician to

write an autobiography: Swing That Music. He also became the first African American to get featured in a major Hollywood movie. He also hosted a nationally sponsored radio show in 1937. Armstrong had been dating Alpha Smith for over a decade, while he was still married to Lil Hardin. He ended up marrying Smith in 1938, but it was not a happy marriage, and they divorced in 1942. In that same year, he married for the last time, to Lucille Wilson (Biography.com).

They lived the rest of their lives in a house in the Queens, New York. As the “Swing Era” came to a close, Armstrong made a string of hits and joined with Columbia Record in the mid 50’s. It was at this time that he became famous worldwide and starting performing overseas. He had broken down so many barriers for his race, but he began to lose parts of his audience: Modern jazz fans and young African Americans. They became interested in bebop, a new form of jazz. Throughout this, the struggle for civil rights was growing tenser. Armstrong’s happy smile seemed out of place and he refused to get involved with politics. He kept this up until the Little Rock Central High School integration crisis. His words made front-page news, and his actions after this made this seen as one of the bravest, most definitive moments of his life. He and his wife had a child, Sharon Preston, in 1955. He began bragging about the child to his manager. Although, Armstrong never publically announced that the child was his. He kept touring the world, but had a heart attack while travelling to Spoleto, Italy. This did not stop him. In 1967, he released “What a Wonderful World.” Surprisingly, this song does not feature any trumpet music, unlike his other works. He sang his heart out in this piece, but it did not get promotion in the United States. But it did become a number one hit in England and South Africa (Biography.com).

In 1968, Armstrong’s previous lifestyle finally caught up to him. Heart and kidney problems made him stop performing in 1969. That same year was spent mostly at home for him, as his manager passed away. He still began to practice trumpet daily. He was allowed to perform in public and play the trumpet again. He continued to travel and tour the world. After he came home in May 1971, he performed one last time publically. Sadly, he died in his sleep on July 6, 1971, at his home in Queens, New York (Biography.com).
Louis Armstrong lived a very difficult and exciting life. He traveled on tours and played many different instruments. Even through ups and downs, losing band members and managers, he still stuck through with his childhood dream.