Rachel

Ollestad
MUSE 250
Dr. Palmer
7 December 2015
Brass Artist Research Project

Also known by his many nicknames including Satchmo, Dippermouth, Pops, and

Papa Dip, Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901 to Mary Albert and
William Armstrong. According to Gene Anderson, Louis Armstrongs father abandoned his
family shortly after Louiss birth, and his grandmother raised him while his mother worked
as a housekeeper and part-time prostitute (Louis Armstrong). Armstrongs first exposure
to music was singing in a quartet on the streets in order to help supplement his familys
income. He was somewhat of a troublemaker and ended up in a military academy where he
started cornet lessons from the band director, Peter Davis. After being released to the
custody of his father then returning to his mother and grandmother, Armstrong took his
cornet skills and began playing for local pimps and brothels.

Armstrongs education took a more formal turn when famous cornetist King Oliver

started giving him lessons and encouraging him to take gigs. Anderson mentions that
Armstrong learned to read music from David Jones and Fate Marable soon after Oliver left
for Chicago (Louis Armstrong). Beginning in 1922, Armstrong traveled around taking odd
jobs with different groups including Olivers Creole Jazz Band in Chicago, his own group in
New York City, Erksine Tates Orchestra in Chicago, and the Sunset Caf Band in Chicago.
During this time, Armstrong learned a variety of other entertainment skills. He learned to
sing, scat sing, and dance to add to his act and draw bigger crowds. In 1927 Armstrong

suffered the loss of his mother, the breakup and reformation of his band, and the failure of
his own dance hall, leaving him in an unstable position despite his growing popularity.

After some smaller substitution positions, Armstrong moved to Los Angeles where

he fronted Sebastians New Cotton Club Orchestra. It was in Los Angeles where Armstrong
first made his movie debut with the film Ex-Flame. A marijuana scandal landed Armstrong
in jail, and he returned back to Chicago in 1931. When he moved back to New Orleans
shortly after, the city gave him a stars greeting, playing jazz and carrying him on their
shoulders down the street.

In 1932 Armstrong completed a four-month-long tour in Europe, playing music that

sparked amazement in his European audiences. His success on this tour landed him an
additional eighteen-month tour. Some slight lip issues caused him to take a short break
before he returned to New York in 1935. Armstrongs career started to suffer in the mid-
1940s as the big-band era declined. Armstrong was a vehement opponent of bepop, and
many of the new, younger musicians felt he was too old-fashioned for the changing times.

In addition to being a cultural icon, Louis Armstrong was known for his political

views. He struggled with how vocal he felt he should be in order to stand up for Civil Rights
while not ostracizing his audiences. He believed in and sought to celebrate everyones
uniqueness. In the article Poisoning Their Coffee: Louis Armstrong and Civil Rights author
Charles Hersch states that early in Armstrongs career he, began to believe that music
could be a vehicle to challenge the boundaries between the races (379). Playing music for
white or mixed audiences was a way to bring the races together, and white people even
looked up to him as a talented musician. After the Little Rock Nine were barred from
entering a previously segregated school, Armstrong wrote a heated letter to President
Eisenhower, urging him to make policy that bettered the treatment of people of color in the

United States. After rising to be one of the most-loved jazz musicians in the world,
Armstrong passed away from heart disease in 1971.
Discography

Song

Year

St. Louis Blues

1925

Heebie Jeebies

1926

Weather Bird

1928

West End Blues

1928

St. Louis Blues

1929

Aint Misbehavin

1929

When Youre Smiling

1929

Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standing on the Corner)

1930

Georgia On My Mind

1931

All of Me

1932

Nobody Knows the Trouble Ive Seen

1938

When the Saints Go Marching In

1938, 1946

Jeepers Creepers

1938

Cest si bon

1950

Mack the Knife

1955

Porgy and Bess

1958

Hello Dolly

1964

What a Wonderful World

1967

Works Cited
Anderson, Gene H.. "Armstrong, Louis." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music
Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.
Hersch, Charles. Poisoning Their Coffee: Louis Armstrong and Civil
Rights.Polity 34.3 (2002): 371392. Web. 3 December 2015.