Louis^[1] Armstrong^[2] (4 August, 1901^[3] – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo^[4] and Pops, was an American jazz musician. Armstrong was a charismatic, innovative performer whose inspired, improvised soloing was the main influence for a fundamental change in jazz, shifting its focus from collective melodic playing, often arranged in one way or another, to the solo player and improvised soloing. One of the most famous jazz musicians of the 20th century, he first achieved fame as a cornet player, later on switching to trumpet, but toward the end of his career he was best known as a vocalist and became one of the most influential jazz singers.

Early life

Armstrong often stated in public interviews that he was born on July 04, 1900 (Independence Day for the new century). Many biographies note this date. Although Armstrong died in 1971, it wasn't until the mid-1980s that his correct birthdate of August 4th, 1901 was discovered through baptismal records.^[5]

Armstrong was born into a very poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana. He spent his youth in poverty in a rough neighborhood of uptown New Orleans, as his father, William Armstrong (1881-1922), abandoned the family when Louis was an infant. His mother, Mary Albert Armstrong (1886–1942), then left him and his younger sister Beatrice Armstrong Collins (1903–1987) under the upbringing of his grandmother Josephine Armstrong. He first learned to play the cornet (his first of which was bought with money loaned to him by the Karnofskys, a Russian-Jewish immigrant family) in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he had been sent multiple times for general delinquency, most notably for a long term after firing his stepfather's pistol into the air at a New Year's Eve celebration, as police records confirm. To express gratitude towards the Karnofskys, Armstrong wore a Star of David pendant for the rest of his life.^[6] He followed the city's frequent brass band parades and listened to older musicians every chance he got, learning from Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, Black Benny and above all Joe "King" Oliver, who acted as a mentor and almost a father figure to the young Armstrong. Armstrong later played in the brass bands and riverboats of New Orleans, and first started traveling with the well-regarded band of Fate Marable which toured on a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River; he described his time with Marable as "going to the University", since it gave him a much wider experience working with written arrangements. When Joe Oliver left town in 1919, Armstrong took Oliver's place in Kid Ory's band, regarded as the top hot jazz band in the city. He played second trumpet parts for the band until he became the best in the band and began to play the first trumpet parts.

Early career

On March 19, 1918, Louis married Daisy Parker from Gretna, Louisiana. They adopted a 3-year-old boy, Clarence Armstrong, whose mother, Louis's cousin Fiona, died soon after giving birth. Clarence Armstrong was mentally retarded (result of a head injury at an early age) and Louis would spend the rest of his life taking care of him.^[7] Louis's marriage to Parker failed quickly and they separated. The wife died shortly after the divorce. In 1922, Armstrong joined the exodus to Chicago, where he had been invited by Joe "King" Oliver to join his Creole Jazz Band. Oliver's band was the best and most influential hot jazz band in Chicago in the early 1920s, at a time when Chicago was the center of jazz. Armstrong made his first recordings, including taking some solos and breaks, while playing second cornet in Oliver's band in 1923.

Armstrong was happy working with Oliver, but his second wife, pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, urged him to seek more prominent billing. He and Oliver parted amicably in 1924 and Armstrong moved to New York City to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, the top African American band of the day. Armstrong switched to the trumpet to blend in better with the other musicians in his section. His influence upon Henderson's tenor sax soloist, Coleman Hawkins, can be judged by listening to the records that the band made during this period. During this time, he also made many recordings on the side arranged by an old friend from New Orleans, pianist Clarence Williams; these included small jazz band sides (some of the best pairing Armstrong with one of Armstrong's few rivals in fiery technique and ideas, Sidney Bechet) and a series of accompaniments for Blues singers. He returned to Chicago, in 1925, and began recording under his own name with his famous Hot Five and Hot Seven with such hits as "Potato Head Blues", "Muggles" (a reference to marijuana, for which Armstrong had a lifelong fondness), and "West End Blues", the music of which set the standard and the agenda for jazz for many years to come. His recordings with pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines (most famously their 1928 "Weatherbird" duet) and Armstrong's trumpet introduction to "West End Blues" remain some of the most famous and influential improvisations in the whole of jazz history.

In the late Thirties Armstrong began to experience problems with his fingers and lips, which were aggravated by his unorthodox playing style. As result he began to branch out and develop his vocal style, and make his first theatrical appearances.

Armstrong returned to New York, in 1929, where he played in the pit orchestra of the successful musical Hot Chocolate, an all-black revue written by Andy Razaf and Fats Waller. He also made a cameo appaearance as a vocalist, regularly stealing the show with his rendition of "Ain't Misbehavin' ", and his version of the song became his biggest selling record to date. ^[8]

Armstrong had considerable success with vocal recordings, including versions of famous songs composed by his old friend Hoagy Carmichael. His Thirties recordings took full advantage of the new RCA ribbon microphone, introduced in 1931, which imparted a characteristic warmth to vocals and immediately became an intrinsic part of the 'crooning' sound of performers like Bing Crosby.

Armstrong's famous interpretation of "Stardust" became one of the most successful versions of this song ever recorded, showcasing Armstrong's unique vocal sound and style and his innovative approach to singing songs that had already become standards.

Armstrong's radical re-working of Sidney Arodin and Carmichael's "Lazy River" (recorded in 1931) encapsulates many features of his groundbreaking approach to melody and phrasing. The song begins with a brief trumpet solo, then the main melody is stated by sobbing horns, which are memorably punctuated by Armstrong's growling interjections at the end of each bar: "Yeah! ..."Uh-huh" ..."Sure" ... "Way down, way down".

In the first verse, he ignores the notated melody entirely, and sings as if playing a trumpet solo, pitching most of the first line on a single note and using strongly syncopated phrasing. In the second stanza he breaks into an almost fully improvised melody, which then evolves into a classic passage of Armstrong 'scat singing'.

As with his trumpet playing, Armstrong's vocal innovations served as a foundation stone for the art of jazz vocal interpretation. The uniquely gritty colouration of his voice became a musical archetype that was much imitated and endlessly impersonated. His scat singing style was enriched by his matchless experience as a trumpet soloist, and his resonant, velvety lower-register tone and bubbling cadences on sides such as "Lazy River" exerted a huge influence on younger white singers such as Bing Crosby.

Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930; then toured Europe. After spending many years on the road, he settled permanently in Queens, New York in 1943 in contentment with his fourth wife, Lucille. Although subject to the vicissitudes of Tin Pan Alley and the gangster-ridden music business, he continued to develop his playing.

During the subsequent thirty years, Armstrong played more than three hundred gigs a year. Bookings for big bands tapered off during the 1940s due to changes in public tastes: ballrooms closed, and there was competition from television and from other types of music becoming more popular than big band music. It became impossible to support and finance a 16-piece touring band.

The All Stars

Following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with Jack Teagarden, Armstrong's manager Joe Glaser dissolved the Armstrong big band on August 13, 1947 and established a six-piece small group featuring Armstrong with (initially) Teagarden, Earl Hines and other top swing and dixieland musicians, most of them ex-big band leaders. The new group was announced at the opening of Billy Berg's Supper Club.

This group was called the All Stars, and included at various times Earl "Fatha" Hines, Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole, Barrett Deems and the Filipino-American percussionist, Danny Barcelona. During this period, Armstrong made many recordings and appeared in over thirty films. In 1964, he recorded his biggest-selling record, Hello, Dolly!. The song went to #1 on the pop chart, making Armstrong the oldest person to ever accomplish that feat at age 63. In the process, Armstrong dislodged The Beatles from the #1 position they had occupied for 14 consecutive weeks with three different songs.^[9]

Armstrong kept up his busy tour schedule until a few years before his death. While in his later years, he would sometimes play some of his numerous gigs by rote, but other times would enliven the most mundane gig with his vigorous playing, often to the astonishment of his band. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under sponsorship of the US State Department with great success and become known as "Ambassador Satch". While failing health restricted his schedule in his last years, within those limitations he continued playing until the day he died.

Personality

The nickname Satchmo or Satch is short for Satchelmouth (describing his embouchure). In 1932, then Melody Maker magazine editor Percy Brooks greeted Armstrong in London with "Hello, Satchmo!" shortening Satchelmouth (some say unintentionally), and it stuck.

Early on he was also known as Dippermouth. This is a reference to the propensity he had for refreshing himself with the dipper (ladle) from a bucket of sugar water which was always present on stage with Joe Oliver's band in Chicago in the early nineteen-twenties.

The damage to his embouchure from his high pressure approach to playing is acutely visible in many pictures of Louis from the mid-twenties. It also led to his emphasizing his singing career because at certain periods, he was unable to play. This did not stop Louis though, because after setting his trumpet aside for a while, he amended his playing style and continued his trumpet career. Friends and fellow musicians usually called him Pops, which is also how Armstrong usually addressed his friends and fellow musicians (except for Pops Foster, whom Armstrong always called "George").



He was also criticized for accepting the title of "King of The Zulus" (in the New Orleans African American community, an honored role as head of leading black Carnival Krewe, but bewildering or offensive to outsiders with their traditional costume of grass-skirts and blackface makeup satirizing southern white attitudes) for Mardi Gras 1949.

Whatever the case, where some saw a gregarious and outgoing personality, others saw someone trying too hard to appeal to white audiences and essentially becoming a minstrel caricature. Some musicians criticized Armstrong for playing in front of segregated audiences, and for not taking a strong enough stand in the civil rights movement suggesting that he was an Uncle Tom. Billie Holiday countered, however, "Of course Pops toms, but he toms from the heart."

Armstrong, in fact, was a major financial supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists, but mostly preferred to work quietly behind the scenes, not mixing his politics with his work as an entertainer. The few exceptions made it more effective when he did speak out; Armstrong's criticism of President Eisenhower, calling him "two-faced" and "gutless" because of his inaction during the conflict over school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 made national news. As a protest, Armstrong canceled a planned tour of the Soviet Union on behalf of the State Department saying "The way they're treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell" and that he could not represent his government abroad when it was in conflict with its own people.^[10]

He was an extremely generous man, who was said to have given away as much money as he kept for himself. Armstrong was also greatly concerned with his health and bodily functions. He made frequent use of laxatives as a means of controlling his weight, a practice he advocated both to personal acquaintances and in the diet plans he published under the title Lose Weight the Satchmo Way. Armstrong's laxative of preference in his younger days was Pluto Water, but he then became an enthusiastic convert when he discovered the herbal remedy Swiss Kriss; he would extol its virtues to anyone who would listen and pass out packets to everyone he encountered, including members of the British Royal Family. (Armstrong also appeared in humorous, albeit risqué, advertisements for Swiss Kriss; the ads bore a picture of him sitting on a toilet — as viewed through a keyhole — with the slogan "Satch says, 'Leave it all behind ya!'")^[11]

The concern with his health and weight was balanced by his love of food, reflected in such songs as Big Butter & Egg Man, Cheesecake, Cornet Chop Suey, and, especially, Struttin’ with Some Barbecue.^[12] He kept a strong connection throughout his life to the cooking of New Orleans, always signing his letters, "Chilli Beans and Sticky Rice".^[13]

Music

In his early years, Armstrong was best known for his virtuosity with the cornet and trumpet. The greatest trumpet playing of his early years can be heard on his Hot Five and Hot Seven records. The improvisations which he made on these records of New Orleans jazz standards and popular songs of the day, to the present time stack up brilliantly alongside those of any other later jazz performer. The older generation of New Orleans jazz musicians often referred to their improvisations as "variating the melody"; Armstrong's improvisations were daring and sophisticated for the time while often subtle and melodic. He often essentially re-composed pop-tunes he played, making them more interesting. Armstrong's playing is filled with joyous, inspired original melodies, creative leaps, and subtle relaxed or driving rhythms. The genius of these creative passages is matched by Armstrong's playing technique, honed by constant practice, which extended the range, tone and capabilities of the trumpet. In these records, Armstrong almost single-handedly created the role of the jazz soloist, taking what was essentially a collective folk music and turning it into an art form with tremendous possibilities for individual expression.

Armstrong's work in the 1920s shows him playing at the outer limits of his abilities. The Hot Five records, especially, often have minor flubs and missed notes, which do little to detract from listening enjoyment since the energy of the spontaneous performance comes through. By the mid 1930s, Armstrong achieved a smooth assurance, knowing exactly what he could do and carrying out his ideas with perfectionism.

As his music progressed and popularity grew, his singing also became important. Armstrong was not the first to record scat singing, but he was masterful at it and helped popularize it. He had a hit with his playing and scat singing on "Heebie Jeebies" when, according to some legends, the sheet music fell on the floor and he simply started singing nonsense syllables. He also sang out "I done forgot the words" in the middle of recording "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas". Such records were hits and scat singing became a major part of his performances. Long before this, however, Armstrong was playing around with his vocals, shortening and lengthening phrases, interjecting improvisations, using his voice as creatively as his trumpet. During his long career he played and sang with the most important instrumentalists and vocalists; among the many, singing brakeman Jimmie Rodgers, Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Bessie Smith, and notably with Ella Fitzgerald. His influence upon Bing Crosby is particularly important with regard to the subsequent development of popular music: Crosby admired and copied Armstrong, as is evident on many of his early recordings, notably "Just One More Chance" (1931). The 'New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz' describes Crosby's debt to Armstrong in perfect detail, although it does not acknowledge Armstrong by name: "Crosby...was important in introducing into the mainstream of popular singing an Afro-American concept of song as a lyrical extension of speech...His techniques - easing the weight of the breath on the vocal chords, passing into a head voice at a low register, using forward production to aid distinct enunciation, singing on consonants (a practice of black singers), and making discreet use of appoggiaturas, mordents, and slurs to emphasize the text - were emulated by nearly all later popular singers". Armstrong recorded three albums with Ella Fitzgerald: Ella and Louis, Ella and Louis Again, and Porgy and Bess for Verve Records. His recordings Satch Plays Fats, all Fats Waller tunes, and Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy in the 1950s were perhaps among the last of his great creative recordings, but even oddities like Disney Songs the Satchmo Way are seen to have their musical moments. And, his participation in Dave Brubeck's high-concept jazz musical The Real Ambassadors was critcially acclaimed. For the most part, however, his later output was criticized as being overly simplistic or repetitive.

Armstrong had many hit records including "Stardust", "What a Wonderful World", "When The Saints Go Marching In", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Ain't Misbehavin'", and "Stompin' at the Savoy". "We Have All the Time in the World" featured on the soundtrack of the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and enjoyed renewed popularity in the UK in 1994 when it featured on a Guinness advert. It reached number 3 in the charts on being re-released.

In 1964, Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the Billboard Top 100 chart with "Hello, Dolly", which gave the 63-year-old performer a U.S. record as the oldest artist to have a #1 song. In 1968, Armstrong scored one last popular hit in the United Kingdom with the highly sentimental pop song "What a Wonderful World", which topped the British charts for a month; however, the single did not chart at all in America. The song gained greater currency in the popular consciousness when it was used in the 1987 movie Good Morning Vietnam, its subsequent rerelease topping many charts around the world. Armstrong even appeared on the 28 October, 1970 Johnny Cash Show, where he sang Nat "King" Cole's hit "Rambling Rose" and joined Cash to re-create his performance backing Jimmie Rodgers on "Blue Yodel # 9.""

Armstrong enjoyed many types of music, from the most earthy blues to the syrupy sweet arrangements of Guy Lombardo, to Latin American folksongs, to classical symphonies and opera. Armstrong incorporated influences from all these sources into his performances, sometimes to the bewilderment of fans who wanted Armstrong to stay in convenient narrow categories. Armstrong was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence. Some of his solos from the 1950s, such as the hard rocking version of "St. Louis Blues" from the WC Handy album, show that the influence went in both directions.

Death and legacy

Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack on July 6, 1971, at age 69, the night after playing a famous show at the Waldorf Astoria's Empire Room. He was residing in Corona, Queens, New York City, at the time of his passing. He was interred in Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, in Queens, New York City. His honorary pallbearers included Governor Rockefeller, Mayor Lindsay, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Guy Lombardo, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Harry James, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Earl Wilson, Alan King, Johnny Carson, David Frost, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett and Bobby Hackett.

On December 31, 1999, US President Bill Clinton announced that Armstrong's trumpet was among several items of national memorabilia that were to be interred in a Millennial time capsule to be opened 100 years later.^[14]

Today, the house where Louis Armstrong lived at the time of his death (and which was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977) is a museum. The Louis Armstrong House & Archives, at 34-56 107th Street (between 34th and 35th Avenues) in Corona, Queens, presents concerts and educational programs, operates as an historic house museum and makes materials in its archives of writings, books, recordings and memorabilia available to the public for research. The museum is operated by the City University of New York's Queens College, following the dictates of Armstrong’s will.

The museum was opened to the public on October 15, 2003. In 2005, it was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. [1] [2]

The influence of Armstrong on the development of jazz is virtually immeasurable. Yet, his irrepressible personality both as a performer, and as a public figure later in his career, was so strong that to some it sometimes overshadowed his contributions as a musician and singer.

As a virtuoso trumpet player, Armstrong had a unique tone and an extraordinary talent for melodic improvisation. Through his playing, the trumpet emerged as a solo instrument in jazz and is used widely today. He was a masterful accompanist and ensemble player in addition to his extraordinary skills as a soloist. With his innovations, he raised the bar musically for all who came after him.

Armstrong is considered by some to have essentially invented jazz singing. Ethel Waters precedes his scatting on record in the 1930s according to Gary Giddens and others (See Ken Burns' Jazz CD Set liner notes). He had an extremely distinctive gravelly voice, which he deployed with great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, or wordless vocalizing. Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra are just two singers who were greatly indebted to him. Holiday said that she always wanted Bessie Smith's 'big' sound and Armstrong's feeling in her singing.

On August 4, 2001, the centennial of Armstrong's birth, New Orleans' airport was renamed Louis Armstrong International Airport in his honor.

Radio, films and TV

Armstrong appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films, usually playing a band leader or musician. His most notable rôle was as the bandleader cum narrator in the 1956 musical, High Society, in which he sang the title song and performed a duet with Bing Crosby on Now You Has Jazz. He was the first African American to host a nationally broadcast radio show in the 1930s. He was heard on such radio programs as The Story of Swing (1937) and This Is Jazz (1947), and he also made assorted television appearances, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, including appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Louis Armstrong has a record star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7601 Hollywood Boulevard.

Many of Armstrong's recordings remain popular. More than three decades since his passing, a larger number of his recordings from all periods of his career are more widely available than at any time during his lifetime. His songs are broadcast and listened to every day throughout the world, and are honored in various movies, TV series, commercials, and even anime and computer games. "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" was included in the computer game Fallout 2, accompanying the intro cinematic. His 1923 recordings, with Joe Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band, continue to be listened to as documents of ensemble style New Orleans jazz, but more particularly as ripper jazz records in their own right. All too often, however, Armstrong recorded with stiff, standard orchestras leaving only his sublime trumpet playing as of interest. "Melancholy Blues," performed by Armstrong and his Hot Seven was included on the Voyager Golden Record sent into outer space to represent one of the greatest achievements of humanity.

Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, a self-described Armstrong admirer, asserted that a 1952 Louis Armstrong concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris played a significant role in inspiring him to create the fictional creatures called Cronopios that are the subject of a number of Cortázar's short stories. Cortázar once called Louis Armstrong himself "Grandísimo Cronopio" (Most Enormous Cronopio).

Armstrong also appears as a minor character in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series. When he and his band escape from a Nazi-like Confederacy, they enhance the insipid mainstream music of the North.

Louis Armstrong is also referred to in The Trumpet of the Swan along with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Three siblings in the film are named Louie, Billie, and Ella. The main character, Louie, plays a trumpet, an obvious nod to Armstrong.

In the original EB White book, he is referred to by name by a child who hears Louie playing and comments "He sounds just like Louis Armstrong, the famous trumpet player".

Honors and awards

The main airport in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is named for Armstrong. In addition, the US Open tennis tournament's former main stadium was named Louis Armstrong Stadium in honor of Armstrong who had lived a few blocks from the site.^[15]

Armstrong was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972. He will be inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

See also

Samples

• Armstrong singing "Ain't Misbehavin'", a song from the 1929 Broadway revue Hot Chocolate (136 Kb, 20 seconds)
• "April in Paris" by Ella Fitzgerald with Armstrong
• Destination Freedom "The Trumpet Talks": Oscar Brown Jr. as Louis Armstrong (July 31, 1949) (one hour and 27 minutes into the audio file

Notes

References

• Armstrong, Louis. Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans. ISBN 0-306-80276-7
• Armstrong, Louis and Thomas Brothers. Armstrong, in His Own Words: Selected Writings. ISBN 0-19-514046-X
• Bergreen, Laurence. "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life". ISBN 0-553-06768-0
• Brothers, Thomas "Louis Armstrong's New Orleans" ISBN 0-393-06109
• Jones Max and John Chilton. Louis Armstrong Story. ISBN 0-306-803240
• Cogswell, Michael. Armstrong: The Offstage Story. ISBN 1-888054-81-6
• Meckna, Michael. Satchmo: The Louis Armstrong Encyclopedia. ISBN 0-313-30137-9
• Elie, Lolis Eric. A Letter from New Orleans. Originally printed in Gourmet. Reprinted in Best Food Writing 2006, Edited by Holly Hughes, ISBN 1-56924-287-9

External links

• louis-armstrong.net - SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
• Louis Armstrong at www.frenchcreoles.com
• Louis Armstrong by Nat Hentoff
• Obituary, NY Times
• Quotes and tributes
• Discography
• Filmography @ imdb.com
• Seeing Black jazz critic on the Uncle Tom question
• Satchmo.net, the official website of the Louis Armstrong House & Archives
• "Louis Armstrong Transcription Project - john p birchall"
• Pictorial Map of Jazz History in Queens
• Louis Armstrong at pbskids.org
• The Musical Career of Louis Armstrong Before World War II
• David Margolick, The Day Louis Armstrong Made Noise

•  • [ e] Great American Songbook
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Singers	Anka • Armstrong • Astaire • Bennett • Boswell • Boswells • Brice • Bubl • Carter • Christy • Clooney • Cole • Como • Connick • Connor • Crosby • Day • Dearie • Eckstine • Faye • Feinstein • Fitzgerald • Francis • Garland • Hanshaw • Hartman • Holiday • Horn • Horne • Hunter • Hyman • Keel • Kelly • Krall • Laine • Lamour • Lee • Manilow • Martin • Mathis • McRae • Midler • Nilsson • O'Day • Page • Rogers • Shore • Simone • Sinatra • Stafford • Stewart • Streisand • Torm • Vaughan • Washington • Williams

Persondata
NAME	Armstrong, Louis Daniel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Satchmo
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American Jazz trumpeter and singer
DATE OF BIRTH	4 July 1900(1900--)
PLACE OF BIRTH	New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH	6 July 1971
PLACE OF DEATH	New York City, New York, U.S.

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Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in and around New Orleans.

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Jazz has been called "America's only original art form.
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musician is a person who plays or composes music. Musicians can be classified by their role in creating or performing music:

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polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony).
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cornet is a brass instrument that visually resembles the trumpet. It is not to be confused with the Medieval instrument, the cornett or cornetto. It differs from the trumpet in that it has a conical bore, a compact shape, and a mellower tone quality.
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trumpet is a musical instrument in the brass family. The trumpet has the highest register in the brass section; a standard B flat trumpet has a range comparable to the B flat cornet, a piccolo trumpet is an octave higher.
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A singer is a musician who uses their voice to produce music. Often the singer is accompanied by musicians and instruments. While many people sing for pleasure, vocal skill is usually a combination of innate talent and professional training.
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Added to NRHP: July 03, 1985

NRHP Reference#: 85001417 ^[1]


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cornet is a brass instrument that visually resembles the trumpet. It is not to be confused with the Medieval instrument, the cornett or cornetto. It differs from the trumpet in that it has a conical bore, a compact shape, and a mellower tone quality.
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Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson (ca. 1879 or 1889 – July 7, 1949) was a prominent early New Orleans jazz trumpet player in the early years of the 20th century who enjoyed a revived career in the 1940s.
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Buddie Petit or Buddy Petit (ca. 1890?-4 July, 1931) was a highly regarded early jazz cornetist.

His early life is somewhat mysterious, with dates of his birth given in various sources ranging from 1887 to 1897; if the later date is correct he was evidently a prodigy,
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Black Benny Williams (c. 1890 New Orleans - 1924 New Orleans) was a New Orleans based bass drummer of legendary status who played in New Orleans brass bands in the early decades of the 20th century.
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Joe "King" Oliver, (December 19, 1885 – April 10, 1938) was a bandleader and jazz cornet player.

Background

Joseph "King" Oliver was born in Abend, Louisiana near Donaldsonville, and moved to New Orleans in his youth.
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Fate Marable (2 December 1890 – 16 January 1947) was a jazz pianist and bandleader.

Marable was born in Paducah, Kentucky and learned piano from his mother. At age 17, he began playing on the steam boats plying the Mississippi River.
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Mississippi River

Mississippi River in New Orleans.

Country | United States
States |
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arrangement refers either to a rewriting of a piece of existing music with additional new material or to a fleshing-out of a compositional sketch, such as a lead sheet. If a musical adaptation does not include new material, it is more accurately termed a transcription.
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Edward "Kid" Ory (December 25, 1886 – January 23, 1973) was a jazz trombonist and bandleader. He was born in Woodland Plantation near LaPlace, Louisiana.

Ory started playing music with home-made instruments in his childhood, and by his teens was leading a well regarded
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City of Chicago

Flag
Seal
Nickname: "The Windy City", "The Second City", "ChiTown", "Hog Butcher for the World", "City of the Big Shoulders", "The City That Works"
Motto: "Urbs in Horto
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