Jazz Articles about Louis Armstrong

like 673

Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life

by Joel Roberts
March 8, 2004

By Laurence Bergreen Broadway Books 1997, 0-553-06768-0

The history of jazz began with a gunshot. On New Year's Eve 1912, young Louis Armstrong, then singing for spare change with a street-corner quartet, “borrowed" a .38 revolver from one of the many “stepfathers" who regularly visited his mother. In keeping with a time-honored New Orleans tradition, he fired the gun in the air to welcome in the new year. A police detective standing nearby arrested Louis for ...

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Jazz Nicknames

by AAJ Staff
March 4, 2004

Slang is definitely cool, but other non-musical aspects, like nicknames, have created a certain allure or attraction to jazz, too. Nicknames, especially the stories behind them, are fun, sometimes funny, and other times fascinating. The immortal Louis Armstrong had at least three of them. Even before jazz was officially a musical form, forerunners of it, such as Charles “Buddy" Bolden, had nicknames. In fact, it seems that the bigger the artist, the quicker he or she gained a ...

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Louis Armstrong: Louis 'Country and Western' Armstrong

by Trevor MacLaren
November 6, 2003

Louis Armstrong Louis “Country & Western" Armstrong Avco Embassy 1970

Many jazzites make the mistake of dismissing country and Americana as simpleton music made by and for simpletons. Fortunately there have been musicians in both jazz and country who have embraced each other's genres to create some beautiful and eclectic American music. Two of the most notable jazz musicians to enjoy country were none other than Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong.

According ...

like 247

Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Five & Hot Seven Recordings, Volumes 1, 2 & 3

by Jim Santella
July 25, 2003

Recorded for the Okeh label between 1925 and 1928 in Chicago, these three albums (86999, 87010 & 87011) contain historic material that offers plenty of insight into all the jazz that was to follow in its footsteps. Columbia has preserved the sound, so that we get nothin’ but good music and no distractions. Their decision to release the material in three separate CDs, after winning a Grammy Award in 2000 as part of a box set, works well for the ...

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Louis Armstrong: Love Songs

by AAJ Staff
January 25, 2003

The first thing to notice about this lovingly-crafted collection is its clarity. So much so, that listeners might be send fumbling for the liner notes to see that these tracks originally appeared not in the digital era, but deep in the analog and pre-analog days. Though some of these sides date back to the Depression, even the victrola-mono tunes seem more charmingly retro than archaic.

Next is that tone-- both on the horn and on the mike. ...

like 242

Louis Armstrong: Satch Blows The Blues

by Jim Santella
July 1, 2002

Beginning with “West End Blues” and proceeding in chronological order from that 1928 Hot Five session to “Yellow Dog Blues” in a 1955 session with all-star lineup, Satch Blows The Blues features an arbitrary selection of songs in which Louis Armstrong sings and plays the blues. The period 1932-54 and beyond is omitted in favor of a unified format in which many of Armstrong’s finest recordings appear together. These are memorable occasions. Emotion pours from every corner, and Armstrong always ...

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Louis Armstrong: Satch Blows The Blues

by Charlie B. Dahan
May 23, 2002

Soon after Louis Armstrong left King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and just before he began to record under his own name, he accompanied many of the great blues singers of the 1920’s. Armstrong can be heard on numerous sessions with singers such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Armstrong had the touch and the feel needed for the blues due to his upbringing in the musical melting pot of New Orleans, the fact that much of jazz is rooted in ...