00:00Louis Armstrong is one of the most important figures in the history of Western popular music,
00:07and he is likely the most important figure in the history of jazz.
00:13He is not only the most famous jazz musician, but he is considered by many to be the most brilliant musician who ever played the music.
00:23It was Armstrong's innate genius as a cornet soloist during the 1920s that helped transform jazz from a disposable dance music to the art form that it became.
00:39Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1901.
00:44His father abandoned the family shortly thereafter, leaving little Louis to live with his mother and sister.
00:51Armstrong and his mother lived in a section of New Orleans which was so violent, it was referred to as the battlefield.
01:00By the time Armstrong was around five years old, he was already performing on New Orleans street corners,
01:08and he later landed a job hauling a junk wagon.
01:12Sometimes Armstrong would fetch coal, which could be used for warmth on cold nights, for local prostitutes.
01:20His employer, the Karnofsky family, provided him with the money to buy his first cornet,
01:28and Armstrong took to the instrument and taught himself to play.
01:32On New Year's Day, 1912, Armstrong was arrested for firing a pistol into the air on New Year's Eve.
01:41Armstrong was known to the local police for his often colorful behavior,
01:48and he was removed from his home and sent to the so-called Colored Waif's Home for Boys in New Orleans.
01:56At the Waif's Home, Armstrong received music lessons on the cornet from musician Peter Davis,
02:04and eventually became the leader of the Waif's Home Band.
02:09He was released in 1914, and during a cold delivery to the Storyville district,
02:17met Joe King Oliver, the best-known cornet player in New Orleans.
02:22Oliver became Armstrong's mentor and helped him to get work with a number of local bands.
02:29By 1918, Armstrong was a member of the Kid Ory Band, with Oliver as its leader.
02:36When Oliver moved to Chicago, Armstrong took over the leadership of the band.
02:42The next year, Armstrong was hired by Fate Marable to play in his band aboard Mississippi River Steamboats.
02:50In 1922, Armstrong was lured to Chicago by King Oliver to join his band, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band,
03:01which featured a stellar lineup of musicians, including Oliver on cornet, Kid Ory on trombone,
03:09Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Baby Dodds on drums, Charlie Jackson on banjo, and Lil Hardin on piano.
03:21Armstrong became the second cornetist, and with Oliver, created a sensation at the city's Lincoln Gardens,
03:28with the brilliance of their cornet duets.
03:32Armstrong made his first recordings with the Creole Jazz Band for the Jeanette label in 1923.
03:38The first recording Armstrong appeared on was Chime's Blues, which featured a brilliant Armstrong solo.
03:46With Armstrong on second cornet, the Creole Jazz Band made some of the best and most influential recordings of early jazz,
03:56including these sides, Mandy Lee Blues, Dipper Mouth Blues, Just Gone, and Canal Street Blues.
04:08Armstrong married the band's pianist, Lil Hardin, in 1924.
04:14Later that year, Armstrong moved to New York City and joined Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra,
04:18and continued to perform and record superb solos for Henderson.
04:25During this period, Armstrong established himself as the premier blues sideman,
04:31on recordings with Bessie Smith, Bertha Chippy Hill, and other blues singers of the day.
04:38Perhaps the most famous of Armstrong's blues collaborations is the session with Bessie Smith that produced St. Louis Blues and Reckless Blues.
04:49Despite achieving much in New York City, Armstrong quit Fletcher Henderson's band and returned to Chicago in 1925
04:58to make his first recordings for O.K. with his recording group, Louis Armstrong, and his Hot Five.
05:07Although it didn't seem possible for Armstrong to outdo his work with Oliver,
05:13he did just that with a set of recordings of unparalleled brilliance.
05:18The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens.
05:21With support from former Creole jazz band members Johnny Dodds, Baby Dodds, Lil Hardin, and Kid Ory,
05:28plus banjo player Johnny St. Cyr,
05:32Armstrong redefined jazz music on colorful recordings with equally colorful titles,
05:39such as Struttin' With Some Barbecue, Skidat-de-dat, Cornet Chop Suey, Big Butter and Eggman,
05:47and Yes, I'm in the Barrel.
05:50Armstrong would be heard singing for the first time on these recordings,
05:54and revealed that in addition to being the best instrumentalist,
05:59he was also a vocalist of exceptional ability.
06:03Armstrong was credited with creating the wordless singing style of Skat
06:08during a Hot Five recording session for the track Heebie-Jeebies,
06:14when he dropped the paper which contained the words for the song.
06:17Instead of stopping, Armstrong improvised some wordless vocalization.
06:25By the late 20s, the Hot Five had expanded to the Hot Seven,
06:29with the addition of the great Earl Hines on piano,
06:32and some shuffling of the original Hot Five lineup.
06:36This new outfit continued to produce sides of jazz genius,
06:40such as Willie the Weeper, Potato Head Blues, Wild Man Blues,
06:45Alligator Crawl, and the recording which has been cited by many jazz critics
06:50as the single most brilliant recording of jazz music, West End Blues.
06:56While recording with the Hot Fives, Armstrong worked with Erskine Tate and Carol Dickerson Orchestra.
07:04Armstrong moved with Dickerson to New York City in 1929,
07:08and appeared the same year in the Broadway musical Hot Chocolate.
07:12In 1931, Armstrong appeared in his first film, X Flame.
07:18Armstrong was gradually becoming a nationally known music star,
07:21and his fame began to spread abroad,
07:25largely due to the success of the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings.
07:31He toured the United States and Europe throughout the 30s.
07:35During the 1940s, his appearances in films and exposure via radio
07:40solidified and magnified his star status.
07:44He would perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1947.
07:48Armstrong continued to be an extremely popular figure in jazz
07:53throughout the evolutions of the music through swing, bebop, and avant-garde.
08:00While many of the musicians who were with him during the creation of the music
08:04had been forgotten, Armstrong never ceased to have a viable career.
08:09He continued to tour the world, including visits to Eastern Europe and Africa.
08:14He also continued to record with his fellow jazz musician.
08:18His health began to deteriorate in 1959, however,
08:22when he was hospitalized following a heart attack in Italy.
08:26In 1964, Armstrong's single Hello Dolly became the number one hit on Billboard's pop charts,
08:34just as the Beatles were first experiencing Beatlemania in America.
08:39Armstrong's hit with Hello Dolly was the last time a jazz recording would top the pop charts
08:46before rock and roll took full control of them.
08:50Armstrong continued making movie and television appearances in addition to performing live.
08:58Despite continuing heart problems, hospital stays,
09:02and advice from his doctors that he rest.
09:05Armstrong's rendition of the song, What a Wonderful World, became a hit in 1968.
09:11The song would become a hit again in 1988, when it was included in the film, Good Morning Vietnam.
09:19In 1971, after performing at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City,
09:24Armstrong died in his sleep at his home.
09:27Armstrong's best recorded works are from the 1920s, but fortunately, these recordings are quite well preserved.
09:36Even his first recordings with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band are quite high fidelity,
09:42considering that they were recorded before the use of microphones.
09:45Several excellent compilations of the Hot Fives and Hot Seven and Armstrong's later 1920s work
09:53are available from Columbia, and they all feature excellent sound quality.
09:59Good compilations can be found of Armstrong's recordings with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.
10:05Armstrong began recording full-length albums in the 1950s,
10:10and his best albums of these include
10:13Louis Armstrong plays W.C. Handy from 1954,
10:18Satch plays Fats from 1955,
10:22Louis Armstrong meets Oscar Peterson from 1959,
10:27and Satchmo plays King Oliver from 1960.
10:32ASSIMO doesРИS
10:32Satchmo plays
10:33говорит
10:34Satchmo plays
10:34Satchmo plays
10:34Well, we'll be back at that recently.
10:36...
Comments