The New Grove Dictionary of Volume One

CAU- Second Edition

Armstrong, Louis, §1: Life

(Armstrong, Louis^Dippermouth, Pops, Satchelmouth, satefamo] (b Ncuf-effeans, 4 Aug 1901; d New York, 6 July 1971). Trumpeter, singer, and leader. Unquestionably one of the most influential and profound innovators in jazz history, he enjoyed phenomenal commercial success and became a cultural icon. 1. Life. 2. Musical style and influenced C/) fljf £ /V~F>^ — ~f hough Armstrong himself believed that he was }uly 1900 - a date still cited in some jazz histories - a baptismal certificate compellingly indicates that he was born on 4 August 1901. He grew up in stark poverty and lived primarily with his paternal grandmother until he was five, then shared a two-room house with his mother and sister. As a child he had several nicknames - Dippermouth, Gate- mouth, Satchelmouth - each of which refered to his prominent oral cavity. In turn-of-the-century New Orleans, Armstrong was soon familiar with honky-tonks, dance halls, 2. Louis Armstrong (right) with Earl Hines, c!949 brass bands, funeral parades, churches, parties, opera, and ragtime, as well as various immigrant musics, and by the age nities to take solos and was not allowed to sing on the band's of eight he was singing in a street-corner vocal quartet for recordings. In November 1925 he returned to Chicago. tips. Already aware of the great New Orleans cornetists On 12 November 1925 Armstrong entered the OKeh Buddy Bolden, Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson, and Joe studios with a newly assembled group called Louis Arm- Oliver (later known as King Oliver), he purchased a used strong and his Hot Five, and between that year and 1928 the cornet from a pawn shop and learned to play it by ear. Hot Five (later the Hot Seven) made recordings that became In January 1913 Armstrong was incarcerated at the some of the most influential in jazz. The group's membership Colored Waifs Home for Boys for firing a pistol to celebrate changed occasionally; among the musicians who performed New Year's Eve. At the home he received instruction from in it were Lil Armstrong, Ory, Johnny Dodds, Earl Hir.es, the band director Peter Davis and was eventually made Johnny St. Cyr, Baby Dodds, Lonnie Johnson, and Zutty leader of the band. When it paraded through Armstrong's old Singleton. Apart from his work with the Hot Five/Hot Seven, neighborhood, the rough Back o' Town section of New which was almost exclusively a studio group, Armstrong Orleans, the residents, who were delighted to discover "little frequently performed in public with other bands. From Louie" leading the band, passed the hat around and collected December 1925 through much of 1926 he appeared regularly so much money that the group was able to buy new at the Vendome Theatre as a featured soloist with Erskine instruments and new uniforms. This event marked an Tate's orchestra, whose repertory included operatic excerpts, auspicious beginning for Armstrong's career. classical overtures, and other such music to accompany Armstrong was released from the home in June 1914 and silent films. In 1926 he joined Carroll Dickerson's orchestra spent the next several years working at various jobs at the Sunset Cafe; there he became acquainted with the (including unloading boats and delivering coal) and per- venue's manager, Joe Glaser, who later assumed a prominent forming occasionally with local bands. The teenager, now role in Armstrong's career. The following year he left recognized as a prodigy, was befriended by Oliver, who Dickerson, briefly led Louis Armstrong and his Stompers at became his mentor. When Oliver left for Chicago in early the Sunset Cafe, and also worked with Clarence Jones's 1919 Armstrong replaced him in Kid Dry's band. From May orchestra at the Metropolitan Theater. Between 1925 and 1919 until September 1921 he performed with Fate Marable's 1928 he recorded with the singers Chippie Hill, Lillie Delk orchestra on the Streckfus line riverboats. His tenure with Christian, Sippie Wallace, and Nolan Welsh, among others. Marable, a successful society bandleader whose musicians From 1929 Armstrong worked principally as the featured used written arrangements, compelled Armstrong to im- soloist with big bands; although they were often organized prove his sight reading and allowed him to observe the by musicians such as Luis Russell, Dickerson, or Zilner decorum required for upper-class audiences. In August 1922 Randolph, these bands were usually billed as Louis Arm- he moved to Chicago to play second cornet in Oliver's Creole strong and his Orchestra. Between 1929 and 1931 he played Jazz Band, and the two men's cornet breaks amazed their at major African-American venues in Detroit, St. Louis, audiences. Armstrong made his recording debut on 5 April Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Dallas, Hous- 1923 as a member of Oliver's band, and in February 1924 he ton, Memphis, and New Orleans. He appeared in the show married the group's pianist, Lil Hardin, who became his Hot Chocolates in New York in 1929, and in California in second wife. 1930 he was top of the bill at Frank Sebastian's Cotton Club Encouraged by Lil, who recognized that her husband was in Culver City and recorded with Jimmie Rodgers, the destined for greater achievements than playing second "Father of Country Music," in Hollywood. His mesmerizing cornet with King Oliver, Armstrong moved to New York in recordings of popular songs, including I can't give you