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Louis Armstrong: Music
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Obvious to pop fans, but not always recognized by the jazz community, Louis Armstrong left not one but two great legacies in American music. His trumpet defined the role of the jazz soloist and revolutionized jazz itself, but his singing has been every bit as influential.
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With the arrival of the 1930s, Armstrong found himself positioned as one of the top bandleaders in the jazz field, and numbered amongst the most highly-regarded musicians in the world. By this point in his career his reputation had spread well beyond his homeland, and the decade found him performing to large, enthusiastic audiences all across the States, Great Britain, Europe and Scandinavia. An additional boost to his career was given in 1935, when he started what would turn out to be a life-long business relationship with manager Joe Glaser: with Glaser's help, he would secure a place on the Decca roster alongside popular acts such as The Mills Brothers and Tommy Dorsey, and steadily break through many of the obstacles faced by black performers due to the severely racist climate still existing in the United States at the time. Numerous film appearances throughout the second half of the 30s -- including Pennies from Heaven (1936) (opposite Bing Crosby, an outspoken supporter of Armstrong's music), Artists and Models (1937), Every Day's a Holiday (1937) (opposite Mae West), and Going Places -- subsequently broadened his popularity beyond jazz circles and into the mainstream.
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Armstrong continued to tour extensively, despite a heart attack in June 1959. In 1964, he scored a surprise hit with his recording of the title song from the Broadway musical Hello, Dolly!, which reached number one in May, followed by a gold-selling album of the same name. It won him a Grammy for best vocal performance. This pop success was repeated internationally four years later with "What a Wonderful World," which hit number one in the U.K. in April 1968. It did not gain as much notice in the U.S. until 1987 when it was used in the film Good Morning, Vietnam, after which it became a Top 40 hit. Armstrong was featured in the 1969 film of Hello, Dolly!, performing the title song as a duet with Barbra Streisand.
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In 1959, Louis suffered a heart attack while on tour in Italy. He had been on the road for 300 days a year for the better part of 40 years, and his body was tired. As the 1960s and its pop music revolution came around, Louis was again seen as irrelevant, as indeed were all jazz musicians. He continued to record and tour, working with artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Dave Brubeck. In 1964, Armstrong's rendition of "Hello Dolly"hit number one on the charts, pushing the Beatles off the number one spot they had occupied for some time. Louis became the oldest man to hold th number one spot on the U.S. pop music charts, and was ... the last jazz musician to do so. He rode out the sixties in on a string of performances in which he barely played the trumpet, mostly singing and talking to the audience between numbers.
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Just when Armstrong's musical career was reaching its peak, his involvement in the acting industry started to gestate. In 1928, Armstrong was hired to play in the orchestra of the Broadway musical Hot Chocolates, the creation of Fats Waller (music) and Andy Razaf (lyrics). The musical was well-received, and Armstrong's active participation in the theatrical arts had begun.
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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.
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