MUSIC Lesson for MAY 4-8, 2020: Grades 7 and 8 I hope you all had a chance to enjoy your weekend and the beautiful weather. One of the most influential styles of Jazz came from The Blues. This lesson uses a historical piece of music that portrays the hardships of African Americans in the United States. Please answer the questions on the worksheet after you listen to the song. (Follow the Link)
You heard Louis Armstrong play the trumpet and scat in "West End Blues". This is a very different example of The Blues, and features both his trumpet playing, but also his singing skills.
Louis Armstrong ~ Blues Listening Reflection:
“Black and Blue” is a 1929 jazz standard composed by Fats Waller with lyrics by Harry Brooks and also by Andy Razaf, who was an African-American poet, composer and lyricist of such well-known songs as "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose". Black and Blue was first introduced in the Broadway musical Hot Chocolates by Edith Wilson. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LDPUfbXRLM the Lyrics:
Cold empty bed, springs hard as lead
Feel like Old Ned, wish I was dead
What did I do to be so Black and Blue
Even the mouse ran from my house
They laugh at you, and scorn you too
What did I do to be so black and blue?
I'm white - inside - but that don't help my case
Cause I, can't hide . . . what is in my Face ( Scat Vocal Solo . . . )
How would it end? Ain't got a friend
My only sin is in my skin
What did I do to be so black and blue?
Black and Blues Reflection & Questions:
1. What happens to your skin when you fall or get a Bruise?
2. What do the Words “Black and Blue” refer to in the song? Is there a double meaning to these lyrics?
3. How do we know the person in the song may be living in an impoverished setting? Why is a Mouse used in the lyric?
4. How would a listener know this song may be about racism or prejudice in America?
5. How do the instruments playing “bending notes” add to the overall feeling of this song?
Song Analysis:
Louis Armstrong was a famous jazz trumpeter and jazz vocalist, whose career started in the 1920’s and lasted half a century, into the 1970’s. While he was one of the most skilled and influential jazz musicians of his time, one of the main reasons that he was so popular was because of how entertaining he was to watch and to listen to. He was in a number of Hollywood films featuring some of the biggest stars of the time, and was also known for his humorous antics on the stage during his big band concerts.
Because he always seemed such a happy-go-lucky character in public, many people criticized him for his behavior. Some people (especially African Americans) saw his actions as an attempt at demeaning himself to be an entertainer for white audiences. He endured much criticism from both white and black audiences during his career.
Another thing is that Louis Armstrong’s career took place during a time when the country was adjusting to integrating blacks into society. Much of the nation was still segregated during his childhood and early career. As an artist, Louis Armstrong would sometimes translate his experiences into his music.
In the song “Black and Blue” Armstrong sings about a rough, impoverished life with oppression experienced in a variety of forms.
Society in the 1920’s treated blacks and whites completely different. Even a black man as well-known and well-loved as Louis Armstrong was subjected to discriminatory treatment. Black musicians had to travel in more cramped and dangerous forms of transportation, were often required by their white-owned record labels to travel strenuous tour schedules, and were not given as good of pay or accommodations as similar white musicians of the time. In the first verse, Louis Armstrong sings about the poor conditions he has had to endure. The example he uses is a ragged bed with not enough cushion to cover up the springs and set in a cold room.
A mouse, something associated with the poorest of living conditions, was not even willing to share the poor status of Louis Armstrong’s house, as he mentions in the second verse. This is reminiscent of the living situations of many black people in America during the early 1900’s. The inequality in job opportunity and wages forced many black families to live in poverty, which is definitive of Louis Armstrong’s childhood as he grew up in New Orleans, LA. He goes on to say that “All they do is laugh at you…and scorn you to”. I think Louis Armstrong is talking about how, even while he was an incredibly talented musician, arguably one of the best jazz trumpeters ever, society, meaning “white/normal” society, laughed at his efforts to succeed. The record label executives knew he was the best trumpeter they had ever heard, yet they treated him much worse than other white jazz musicians.
In the third verse, he says, “I’m white…inside…but, that don’t help my case. That’s life…can’t hide…what’s in my face”. Because of how society has been set up by the white man, it has been instituted that to be white is normal. By saying that he is white inside, Armstrong is saying that he is, on the inside, normal and the same as every other man; that he deserves equal treatment as every other man that is white. Unfortunately, being white on the inside doesn’t “help his case”. As Iris Young says in Five Faces of Oppression, “ stereotypes confine them to a nature which is often attached in some way to their bodies, and which thus cannot easily be denied”. Armstrong’s brown skin color is something he cannot change, and no matter how much he changed his inner character to fit the “white norm” that society had set, he was still viewed as black and thus was subject to black stereotypes.
His final verse in this song sings “How would it end…I ain’t got a friend. My only sin…is in my skin. What did I do…to be so black and blue?”. Oppression can leave a person feeling helpless, as if they “ain’t got a friend”. White people mistreated Louis Armstrong through discriminatory practices of the time and some black people frowned on him for being an “Uncle Tom”, (because of how he portrayed himself in relation to white people during shows and concerts). Also, by saying that his sin is in his skin, he claims the blame for the problem and names it as something that he cannot change. “What did I do…to be so black and blue?”
In conclusion, was Armstrong simply emoting his feelings about his life and hardships? Or was this song meant to inspire more open-minded thought among both his black and his white listeners / viewers? Whatever the purpose, both of these things are accomplished. Not only can listeners sympathize with Armstrong’s situation, but they can find themselves considering the social constructs that shaped his ideas about his skin color and mistreatment, and hopefully work towards changing these attitudes.