Biography of Louis Armstrong and interesting facts from life

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

It's hard to imagine a more popular jazz artist than Louis Armstrong. His entire musical life is a history of bright and successful experiments. Biography of Louis Armstrong is a biography of jazz itself, written with great hits.

Unhappy childhood

Today it would be said that the family of the future jazz star was more than dysfunctional. The biography of Louis Armstrong originates in one of the poorest areas of New Orleans. It happened in 1900, but no one knows the exact date. Armstrong himself set the date for July 4 (Independence Day of the United States). Parents: mother was a laundress, father was a laborer. The father abandoned the family when the children were very young, and the mother began working as a prostitute. For some time, Louis and his sister Beatrice were raised by their grandmother, but soon their mother took them to her. However, she did not pay due attention to the children, and they spent most of their free time on the street.

At the age of seven, the boy was engaged in a variety of jobs: selling newspapers on the street and delivering coal. It was while transporting coal that he gotinto one Jewish family with the surname Karnofsky. They were immigrants from Russia. This acquaintance can be partly considered significant. The Karnofskys lived in Storville, a free-spirited neighborhood with a wide variety of entertainment venues. It was here that Louis Armstrong, whose biography had nothing to do with music before, began to sing for the first time in a small railway station ensemble, and immediately he began to play the drums.

The beginning of the musical path

At the age of 13, he ends up in a workhouse, a kind of correctional boarding school for delinquent teenagers. The reason was a shot from a pistol stolen from a policeman. There was an orchestra in the camp, in which the boy got into. Here he learned to play many wind instruments, including the cornet. At the end of his sentence, Armstrong already knew that he wanted to make music.

Sachmo

After leaving the workhouse, Louis Armstrong begins to play in various clubs and bars. Since he did not have his own instrument, he had to borrow it. After some time, Louis meets Oliver King, who at that time already had a reputation as the best cornet player in the city. It was him that Armstrong considered his first real teacher all his life. After this acquaintance, the boy plays a lot in various jazz bands. In the musical environment, the nickname Satchmo gradually stuck to him, from the abbreviated English Satchel Mouth, which literally means "mouth-bag".

Creative Growth

It can be safely assumed that 1922 was the starting point for the successful career of a musician named Louis Armstrong. Biography,his creative path was not easy. At this time, he goes to Chicago at the invitation of his teacher, and now also a business partner, Oliver King. The fact is that Oliver needed a second cornet player to work at the Lincoln Gardens restaurant, in the Creole Jazz Band jazz orchestra. Together with this team, Armstrong makes his first recordings.

In 1924 he decides to start a solo career and moves to New York. The musician performs as part of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, and it is here that the audience notices an undeniable talent. Many come to see a young and talented performer, who is distinguished by a bright and unusual style of playing. At the same time, he continues to collaborate with well-known jazz bands at that time.

Growth in popularity

In 1925 Louis returns to Chicago. There he also continued his vigorous creative activity, and in 1926 for the first time became the bandleader of his own ensemble Louis Armstrong And His Stompers. At the same time, he moves from the cornet to the trumpet - in his opinion, a brighter-sounding instrument, and at the same time begins to sing professionally. Louis Armstrong's singing is of great interest and popularity among the public.

In 1927, the biography of Louis Armstrong again intersects with New York. He finally moved to the musical capital of America and began to work more and more on the dance music of the suites that was popular at that time. And here he is just as quickly gaining popularity, bringing to itchanneling your individuality.

Since 1930, the musician has toured extensively in America, and also made a number of tours to Europe. The biography of Louis Armstrong is a series of successful unions and solo work. An incredible amount of high-quality musical material, a huge number of devoted listeners. Armstrong has become a real national hero in a short period of time.

The most famous jazz artist

Louis Armstrong, whose biography is filled with musical accomplishments and victories, from 1933 until the very beginning of the war worked surprisingly hard and fruitfully. Moreover, at this time, he is not only closely engaged in music, but also manages to act in films.

At that time, racist beliefs were still strong, so black actors were invited only for short episodic roles, which, moreover, were often cut from finished works. Despite this, Louis Armstrong starred in several dozen films, including: "Manna from Heaven" (1936), "Every Day is a Holiday" (1937), "Cabin in Heaven" (1943), "A Song is Born" (1948), " Punch and Response (1950), The Strip (1951), High Society (1951), Five Penny (1959), Paris Blues (1961).

Deserved laurels

In 1947 Louis Armstrong starts a new project. The biography of the bandleader promised success to each of his undertakings. He organizes the All Stars team. At first, the name was completely true, and only the stars of that time played in the team, but over timethe situation began to change, and new musicians came to replace the old ones. For many, All Stars has become the starting point of a successful career.

Together with his team, Armstrong traveled the whole world, the most remote places, even Africa and India, but never visited the USSR, despite the fact that the United States Department of State repeatedly tried to sponsor this trip. But Armstrong's merits were already enough to unofficially award him the title of "Ambassador of Jazz".

Musical Genius

He never stopped performing and touring until the death of Louis Armstrong. The biography (short in our presentation, but very rich in fact) says that the great musician died at the age of 69 from acute heart failure, although Armstrong's heart failed before that. He suffered 2 heart attacks, after which he came to his senses for quite a long time. In addition, he was operated on several times (there were problems with the upper lip, as well as with ligaments).

Many music critics believe that the artist's biography (Louis Armstrong deserves such words) is the story of the development and flowering of a real genius of that era. His style of playing wind instruments was ahead of its time in many ways. He actually worked in a unique technique, improvised a lot and fruitfully.

There are also those who believe that the artist was wasted in vain, devoting time not only to music, but also acting in films, working on books with his own biography, and also participatingin various shows, thus often posing as a clown. Well, maybe this is partly true, but we should not forget what kind of time it was, how people of color were treated back then.

Since 1935, Joe Glazer has become Armstrong's manager. He not only worked with Louis until his death, they were true friends. In many ways, the work of the jazz legend was in the hands of Glaser, and some believe that this influence had a negative impact on musical creativity. But there is no other development of history.

Family matters

The biography of jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong would not be complete without mentioning his family. Despite the fact that Armstrong's parents were unusually poor, and his childhood was not joyful, one cannot fail to say that it was precisely such terrible living conditions that played an important role in the formation of personality. The mother, for all her disorder, was able to invest in her son all the good things that later helped him maintain his love of life, kindness and cheerful character.

But what about the personal life of a star named Louis Armstrong? The biography (brief on the pages of our article, but so interesting) reports that Armstrong was married four times, which means that he was successful with women, and he loved them himself. Such a number of wives is not strange for that time and for a creative person in principle. It's safe to say that Louis Armstrong had a big loving heart.

Louis Armstrong today

He was a talented musician and a bright personality LouisArmstrong. Biography, a summary of the life and work of a truly great man are not able to fully describe his merits. He managed not only to survive in conditions of terrible poverty, but also to ensure that his name has become synonymous with good music. Louis Armstrong is a true musical genius, ahead of his time in many ways.

During his creative life, he managed to work with a large number of famous and talented people, become the author of world-famous musical compositions that will not lose their relevance for many years, act in dozens of films, write two autobiographical books.

The date and year of his birth are in doubt, but is it of fundamental importance now? Let him come up with the date of his birth, and even if he is a year older or younger, the scale of his creative genius remains unchanged from this.

Today it is difficult to imagine how difficult and incredible his creative path was, and how great his merits in the current understanding of jazz. But the list of achievements of this genius is worthy of respect.

Louis Armstrong's work remains popular today. Even his earliest recordings are recognized as talented and progressive. The talent with which he was generously endowed allowed Louis to become a world famous performer. His death was widely publicized around the world. Even in the Soviet Union, the Izvestia newspaper reported on this event on the front page. President of the United States Nicholson expressed his condolences on the death of Louis Armstrong to his last wife.

Of course, today one can argue a lot and endlessly how much Armstrong's work influenced the development of jazz, and how great was the influence of friendship with Glaser on the musical works of this man. What remains unchanged is that several decades after Armstrong's death, his work finds more and more new fans, which means that it remains relevant to this day, which in itself is quite a lot.