Tour de danse (4/5): Louis Armstrong, ambassador of jazz

The series Dance Tour series continues. This time, you’ll be swinging! Discover the music of Louis Armstrong, the best ambassador of jazz for over 40 years.

Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Dippermouth, Satchmo (short for satchel-mouth) or Pops for his wide mouth, has played a key role in music history since his death 50 years ago. It was he who revolutionized and popularized jazz. Virtuoso trumpeter, singer with a distinctive voice, actor and performer of What a Wonderful World and Hello Dolly, he was the first true improvising soloist to take center stage.

New Orleans, that Louisiana city where music is everywhere! It was here, in a poor and violent neighborhood, that Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 and grew up. So it came as no surprise when, at the tender age of seven, young Louis formed his first vocal quartet, the Singing Fools. Five years later, he took his first piston cornet lessons. His talent for this instrument had just been revealed! He is currently locked up in a reformatory for colored children for firing a shot into the air.

1917 marked a turning point in Armstrong’s life. Renowned cornetist Joe Oliver, known as “King”, made the talented Louis his pupil and protégé. The following year, the master left for Chicago, and Armstrong was called upon to replace him in New Orleans’ most extraordinary orchestra, that of trombonist Kid Ory. In 1922, “Papa Joe” asked Armstrong to join him on Lake Michigan in his Creole Jazz Band. Armstrong’s playing was impressive and a hit!

His career was thus launched, leading him to play in the most prestigious orchestras! His swing will keep generations dancing! And his charisma, stage presence and generosity further forged his international reputation.

Satchmo revolutionizes trumpet playing. He explored the high register with mastery, played with syncopated rhythms and was an extraordinary and inspired improviser. It was also thanks to him that the trumpet became a solo jazz instrument. The polyphonic style based on collective improvisation was replaced by the solo style. Armstrong, while skilfully blending the two styles, was soon freeing his playing.

Louis Armstrong was also an exceptional vocal improviser. With his unique raspy voice, he popularized scat and made it part of jazz history. What is scat? It’s a musical improvisation in which lyrics give way to simple syllables or rhythmic onomatopoeia. Armstrong used it early in his career, for example, when recording Heebie Jeebies. His sheet music accidentally fell to the floor in the middle of the recording. Not knowing the text by heart, he improvised a song made up of meaningless “Dip Dop Doo”-style onomatopoeia, typical of his native New Orleans.

Instrumentalist, singer, the jazzman is also an actor. His first roles were often secondary. But in 1946, with New Orleans, a film about the history of jazz, he wrote the soundtrack and starred alongside other musical greats such as Billie Holiday, Kid Ory and Zutty Singleton. Armstrong went on to star in a number of major American films( Charles Walterset’sHigh Society, Melville Shavelson’s Fivepenny Millionaire, Gene Kelly’s Hello, Dolly! etc.) and rubbed shoulders with such famous names as Grace Kelly, Barbara Streisand and Gene Kelly.

Did you know? On May 10, 1964, at the age of 63, Louis Armstrong dislodged the Beatles from the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, his Hello Dolly taking the lead and unseating the British quartet’s Can’t Buy Me Love, which had been at number one for several weeks.

A final Tour de danse, this time to the music of Camille Saint-Saëns. See you on December 16.