Louis Armstrong

"Louis Armstrong was probably the greatest musician that ever lived...one note implies that if he wanted to he could play ten billion notes, but just one simple note is a beautiful thing." (Flea)

It's been a while since my last post. The main reason for the break is that I have spent a lot of the time researching the early music of Louis Armstrong (definitely pronounced with an s, not Lou-ee.) And quite frankly I have been overwhelmed. I simply had no clue as to the extent of this man's influence, not only over jazz, but over 20th century popular music as a whole. My personal impressions of him were formed when I was growing up. I had an image of the classic Louis Armstrong, the vaudevillian-esque performer with the deep husky voice. I remember the countless commercials/advertisements that have used his later music, including "We have all the time in the world" and "Wonderful World." This was, embarrassingly, the extent of my knowledge of the man and his music.

So it was with some frustration that I first listened to his Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings. These were Louis Armstrong's first solo recordings made for the Okeh label in Chicago between 1925 and 1929. I say frustration because I cannot believe it has taken me this long to listen to some music that is so clearly iconic. These records clearly illustrate a turning point. They are the link between the old style "dixie" jazz and all other forms of jazz that came after.



This isn't the first time that we have come across Louis Armstrong's work. I first mentioned him in this blog when I looked at the music of his mentor, Joe "King" Oliver. Those recordings of the Creole Jazz Band are clearly in the old classic New Orleans style - each of the main instruments overlapping behind the main melody. Louis Armstrong changed all that. The opening blast of West End Blues (an Oliver composition) announces the new style.



What I found particularly striking about these recordings was how fresh his playing sounds. We are still talking about a fairly primitive period in terms of sound recording and the music has that "crackly" 1920's feel. Yet Armstrong's trumpet playing sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday, such is its clarity. As mentioned there was a lot more emphasis on the soloing ability of the musicians and obvious improvisation (check out Struttin' With Some Barbecue). Potato Head Blues employs a stop time solo which was light years ahead of its time and something that rock musicians later employed - think Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love.

Lonnie Johnson was brought in for some of the recordings. Again, a musician that I have heard of through interviews with BB King and Mark Knopfler but I am ashamedly ignorant of in terms of his music. However his guitar playing jumps out of the tracks I'm Not Rough and Hotter Than That. In the latter song there is a wonderful call and response with Armstrong scatting to Johnson's guitar. The duet with Earl Hines in the song Weather Bird is also superb (although not part of the Hot Five sessions)

It is something of an understatement to say how superb these songs are. Yet it should be noted that the Hot Five and Hot Seven line-ups never performed live. The sessions were fairly informal in nature (as evidenced in the track A Monday Date) However, the influence the music was to have over the future of jazz is, in my opinion, obvious.

Click here for a great documentary from NPR regarding Louis Armstrong's early career.

Joe"King" Oliver.

Every musical genre has it's folklore. From Robert Johnson's crossroads, to Jerry Lee Lewis' burning piano to The Beatles' shenanigans at Buckingham Palace and Van Halen's brown M&Ms. It seems that jazz has one of the earliest tales though - the night they crowned Joe Oliver as the "King" of jazz. So began jazz's royal lineage (after he had taken it from Freddie Keppard). The list goes from King Oliver to The King of Swing, Benny Goodman right through to The Baron, Charles Mingus.




Joe King Oliver's contribution to jazz cannot be overstated. He was after all the man who contacted a young Louis Armstrong and asked him to come to Chicago and join his band, The Creole Jazz Band. They ended up being among the first black artists to commit their tunes to 78rpm vinyl and in doing so signalled the shift away from the New Orleans rag influenced jazz to the swing era of the 1920s. On a stylistic note, Oliver was a pioneer in his use of mutes and cups when playing his cornet. Such was his influence that many years later rock guitarists would attempt to emulate his wah wah sound.

The tracks that I have chosen clearly demonstrate the direction that jazz would be taking, especially with Louis Armstrong in the thick of things. It sounds cliched but the music "swings" more and isn't as stiffling as the rag inspired tunes recorded in 1917. There are a lot more in the way of solos although my research has shown that the solos weren't improvised on the spot.

Canal Street Blues
Dipper Mouth Blues
Snake Rag
Farewell Blues
Chimes Blues
Doctor Jazz
Jazzin' Babies Blues

Again the method used to record these tracks was extremely primitive. The musicians would stand around a large horn and play their music directly onto the vinyl. However the music illustrates the seriousness with which the musicians regarded the music and in turn distancing themselves from the vaudevillian novelty of tracks like Livery Stable Blues (although the Creole Jazz Band used some novelty stuff in some of their tracks). Dipper Mouth Blues stands out for Oliver's three bar cornet solo (see the video attached)

It seems that things didn't stay on the up for the King though. He managed to turn down a regular gig at the Cotton Club in New York (although this paved the way for Duke Ellington to take it) and probably due to his sweet tooth a gum disease ravaged his mouth and he was unable to perform his solos when audiences later requested him.