By Chris M. Slawecki
Daniel Louis "Satchmo" "Pops" Armstrong
Cornet, Trumpet, Vocals
Born August 4 1901; Died July 6 1971
Regardless of which title -- "Satchmo," "Pops," "The Ambassador of Jazz" -- you apply to him, Daniel Louis Armstrong is indisputably the single most important figure in the early history of jazz. As a trumpet player, Armstrongs legendary tone, exuberance, stamina and ferocity of attack remain for the most part unsurpassed; his trumpet prowess is believed by many to have single-handedly transformed jazz from an ensemble to a soloists art form. Even had he not played trumpet, Armstrongs influence on jazz vocalists (readily evidenced by the "scat singing" of artists such as Ella Fitzgerald) is perhaps second only to that of Billie Holiday.
Armstrong grew up in a waifs home in New Orleans, where he was exposed to the trumpet and cornet. Around 1917 he replaced his friend and early mentor King Oliver on cornet in New Orleans jazz bands led by Kid Ory, and by 1923 was in Chicago in Olivers Creole Jazz band, as second cornet before switching to trumpet.
Playing with Oliver alongside the likes of Johnny Dodds and Johnny St. Cyr, Armstrong began to develop simply awesome chops. He made his first recordings around 1923 as Olivers sideman; enticed with the featured trumpet chair, he joined Fletcher Hendersons New York City orchestra in 1924 and seemed to grow even stronger. As a soloist, Armstrong had already changed the course of jazz by the time he returned to Chicago in late 1925, yet his best work was still to come.
Between 1925 and 1928, Armstrong, this time out in front, recorded about sixty sides with his "Hot Five" and "Hot Seven" ensembles which endure as the single most important catalog in the entire jazz diaspora. Backed by Ory, Johnny and Warren "Baby" Dodds, and Lil Hardin (the eventual Mrs. Armstrong) in the Hot Five, and then incorporating Zutty Singleton and Earl Hines into the Hot Seven, Armstrong seemed to scale musical summit after summit. By the time he recorded the majestic "West End Blues" in 1928, Armstrong had graduated from being influential to being immortal.
Armstrong rarely kept a band after 1929, working mainly with a shifting gallery of ensembles that were billed as the "Armstrong All-Stars" but who were rarely asked to do more than provide support. He concurrently seemed to progressively turn his back on traditional jazz compositions to focus instead on transcending the popular songs and standards of his age ("Aint Misbehavin," "What A Wonderful World," "Pennies From Heaven") as a vocalist. The ranks of the "All-Stars" eventually included Peanuts Hucko, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole and Jack Teagarden. Even as his spectacular excursions into the stratosphere of the trumpet seemed to grow more infrequent as he aged, his worldwide reputation as "The Ambassador of Jazz" kept growing until he passed away in his sleep in 1971.
The list of artists with whom "Pops" either recorded or performed reads like a jazz Hall of Fame and includes Chick Webb, Sidney Bechet, Louis Jordan, Dexter Gordon, Teddy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, and vocalists Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby.
In the illustrious history of jazz, Louis Armstrong was the first superstar. He was the first jazz artist to tour Africa, Australia, Europe, the Far East and portions of the former Soviet Union, and he appeared in nearly forty feature film and film shorts. Miles Davis says about "Pops" in his own autobiography: "You cant play nothing on trumpet that doesnt come from him." From 1925 through about 1950, Armstrong created a monumental body of work that throughout the rest of the century has remained vital, influential and exciting; from 1950 up until the day he died, he was merely the most widely recognized and beloved entertainer in the world.
MAJOR WORKS:
The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (1997)
Satchmo: A Musical Biography (1956)
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven (1956)
Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines (1956)
SUGGESTED LISTENING:
Louis Armstrong: July 4 1900 / July 6 1971 (1971)
Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (1954)
Ella and Louis (1956)
FURTHER READING:
Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story, Max Jones & John Chilton (Little Brown, 1971)
Louis Armstrong: An American Genius, James Lincoln Collier (Oxford University Press, 1983)
Published courtesy of Brown Partworks. Taken from the "Music in the 20th Century" encyclopedia, published by M. E. Sharpe Inc.
