LOUIS ARMSTRONG:

PUSHING THE JAZZ IDIOM

Brenna A. Bixler

MH 835: American Music

Robert Crowe

April 3, 2017 1

In 1910, jazz emerged as a new genre of music in New Orleans, Louisiana.1 Chief among the musicians that played a role in the development of jazz was Louis Armstrong. He pushed the boundaries of the New Orleans jazz idiom in many ways. As his career flourished in the 1920’s, his music refined the genre that we know as jazz today.

Early New Orleans jazz ensembles typically consisted of five to seven musicians.2

“Traditional New Orleans jazz is band music characterized by a front line usually consisting of cornet (or trumpet), clarinet, and trombone engaging in polyphony with varying degrees of improvisation (without distorting the melody) and driven by a rhythm section consisting of piano (although rarely before 1915), guitar (or, later, banjo), bass (or tuba), and drums delivering syncopated rhythms for dancing (usually, but not always, in common or 4/4 time).”3 This style of playing results in an evenly blended, busy sound with a continuous texture, as all three melodic voices are sounded simultaneously throughout the entirety of the piece.

Two of Louis Armstrong’s most famous and influential contemporaries were Jelly Roll

Morton and King Oliver.4 Jelly Roll was an accomplished pianist and vocalist who was born in

New Orleans in 1890.5 In his “The Bolden Blues” and “Mr. Jelly Lord,” the only instrument used is the piano. Jelly Roll speaks during his recording of “The Bolden Blues.” He sings in his recording of “Mr. Jelly Lord” and uses descending vocal glissandos. King Oliver employed the traditional New Orleans style of jazz. Many of the elements that characterize this style can be heard in his recordings of “Dippermouth Blues” and “Froggie Moore,” including traditional instrumentation. He employs the trombone tailgate style, which uses blues notes and portamento,

1. Crawford, Richard. America’s musical life: a history, 563. 2. Raeburn, Bruce. "Traditional New Orleans Jazz." In knowlouisiana.org Encyclopedia of Louisiana, edited by David Johnson. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2010–. Article published April 20, 2016. Accessed March 30, 2017. http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/traditional-new-orleans-jazz. 3. Ibid. 4. Scooler, Evan. "Week 3- blues and jazz." Reading, CFA MH 835 American music, Boston University, March 30, 2017. 5. Ibid. 2

continuous eighth notes and a large range in the clarinet part, and the use of only the mid- range on the cornet.6

Louis Armstrong, like Jelly Roll and King Oliver, began his career as a jazz musician in

New Orleans.7 Louis received instruction from his idol, cornettist King Oliver.8 In 1922, four years after King Oliver moved to Chicago, Oliver invited Armstrong to move North and play second cornet in his Creole Jazz Band.9 Louis Armstrong played with this group over the next two years.10 During this time, he became increasingly discontented with the band’s “restrictive style” and decided to move to New York to join a big band.11 In 1925, he returned to Chicago and began making recordings with his own group- the Hot Five and the Hot Seven.12

Consisting of approximately five dozen recordings, these pieces were Louis’ opportunity to take a jazz ensemble in the direction he wanted.13 Louis exhibited “obvious and quite remarkable growth” throughout this series, including the development of his technical skills.14

Written melodies were used less and less and improvising based on the underlying harmonies was used more and more.15 The lyrical content and style of the works, initially almost exclusively lively, evolved to cover a wide spectrum of human emotion including wild

6. Crawford, Richard. America’s musical life: a history, 566. 7. Scooler, Evan. "Week 3- blues and jazz." Reading, CFA MH 835 American music, Boston University, March 30, 2017. 8. Dapogny, James. "Armstrong, Louis [Dippermouth, Pops, Satchelmouth, Satchmo]." Grove Music Online. Accessed January 10, 2006. http:// www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.01276. 9. Jazz in America. Accessed March 30, 2017. http://www.jazzinamerica.org/JazzResources/Timeline. 10. Ibid. 11. Dapogny, James. "Armstrong, Louis [Dippermouth, Pops, Satchelmouth, Satchmo]." Grove Music Online. Accessed January 10, 2006. http:// www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.01276. 12. Jazz in America. Accessed March 30, 2017. http://www.jazzinamerica.org/JazzResources/Timeline. 13. Collier, James Lincoln. Louis Armstrong: an American genius. Oxford University Press, 1985. ProQuest ebrary, 169. 14. Ibid, 171. 15. Ibid, 171. 3 exuberance and tragic drama towards the end.16 This resulted in large changes from the traditional New Orleans style of King Oliver.

“And finally, as a result of everything else, as the series progresses he moves more and more to the foreground. In the earliest records he is simply the classic New Orleans lead cornettist, leaving much of the solo space to others. By the end, the records are Armstrong showcases, with the other musicians merely providing background, and occasional solo relief.”17 Louis’ playing emerges as the central element of the group as the series progresses.

Armstrong’s singing style also diverges from the style of his contemporaries. In King

Oliver’s recordings of “Dippermouth Blues” and “Froggie Moore,” there are no vocals. In Jelly

Roll Morton’s “The Bolden Blues,” Jelly Roll speaks instead of singing and in his “Mr. Jelly

Lord,” he sings with a relatively clear voice. Louis Armstrong’s voice in contrast, contains a unique and distinctive raspy quality. He is widely renowned for using instruments to imitate the human voice.18 In a similar vein, Louis employs the jazz technique of scatting where musicians sing on nonsense syllables, imitating the articulations of various instruments. This can be heard in his recording of “Heebie Jeebies,” “West End Blues,” “Lazy River,” and “Skid-Dat-De-Dat.”

While scatting in “Heebie Jeebies,” Louis dips his voice low suddenly several times, possibly to imitate an interjection by the trombone. In “West End Blues,” Louis trades bars with the clarinet soloist. After the soloist plays a measure, Louis scats a similar, responsive idea back to the clarinetist. This back and forth continues on throughout the entire clarinet solo, transforming it into a duet between clarinet and voice.

In King Oliver’s Creole Band, the clarinet, cornet, trombone texture is continuous throughout, providing no break in texture. The music of the Hot Five developed so that, by the

16. Collier, James Lincoln. Louis Armstrong: an American genius. Oxford University Press, 1985. ProQuest ebrary, 171. 17. Ibid, 172. 18. Scooler, Evan. "Week 3- blues and jazz." Reading, CFA MH 835 American music, Boston University, March 30, 2017. 4 end of the series, trumpet solos give way to tutti sections, that give way to vocal sections creating textural changes that help delineate the form.

Drawing inspiration from King Oliver’s Creole Band, Louis’ recording of “Heebie

Jeebies” does center around the trumpet, the clarinet, and the trombone as the melodic voices, but these instruments do not play continually throughout the entire piece. The piece starts with a piano introduction and then the trumpet, clarinet, and trombone play for 18 measures, in 2/4 time, in traditional New Orleans style. This is followed by a section where the trumpet comes to the foreground, with the clarinet and trombone providing rhythms that underlay the harmony and support Louis’ soloing. The next section features a clarinet solo with only the banjo as accompaniment. After this, Louis sings, again with only banjo accompaniment. Eighteen measures into the vocal solo, Louis begins to scat. He returns to singing text towards the end of the vocal solo, and then the piece ends in the same vein that it began, with the melodic trio.

Like Heebie Jeebies,” in Louis’ recording of “West End Blues,” the trumpet, clarinet, and trombone are sounded together for only a short segment towards the beginning and at the end.

For most of the piece, each instrument takes their own solo in turn. Trombone portamento is heavily employed, especially during the trombone solo. Following the trombone solo, a clarinet and vocal duet occurs. The next section is played by a solo pianist and then ends with the trumpet, clarinet, and trombone together.

“Lazy River,” is an example of how Louis comes further into the foreground as his career progressed. The piece begins with the banjo strumming in quarter notes while the wind instruments fill out the harmony. Louis Armstrong takes a trumpet solo here, which is followed by a vocal solo. In the vocal solo, the instrumentalists drop out for just two measures. Here,

5

Louis breathes after beats one and three, thwarting expectations for the phrase. This is an example of how he sometimes contradicts the underlying pulse, only to return to it shortly after.19 The banjo quarters and held pitches in the winds continue throughout, only stopping to give him the opportunity to solo vocally or scat for two measure segments. Louis ends the chart on a soaring cornet solo. He often played with a much more extended range than his contemporaries.20 This was a defining characteristic of his playing, as technique was unparalleled, and he was not hampered by the need to constantly balance with the clarinet and trombone.21

Louis also shows off his extended range in “Skid-Dat-De-Dat.” At one point, he dips down to a low G on the trumpet.22 The texture of this piece changes constantly, with different instrumentation usually being voiced every two to four measures. The piece centers around a four-bar theme that is sometimes stated simply in whole notes as a large ensemble and at other times is improvised upon by soloists.23

Louis Armstrong’s music was different from that of his contemporaries. His use of technical skill, range, and soloing set him apart from other trumpet players. He broke from the traditional New Orleans style, varying the texture, and bringing one solo voice to the foreground, while leaving others in the background or omitting other voices for entire sections. His raspy voice and his ability to imitate the human voice with his instrument and his instrument with the human voice were unparalleled.

19. Dapogny, James. "Armstrong, Louis [Dippermouth, Pops, Satchelmouth, Satchmo]." Grove Music Online. Accessed January 10, 2006. http:// www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.01276. 20. Collier, James Lincoln. Louis Armstrong: an American genius. Oxford University Press, 1985. ProQuest ebrary, 171. 21. Ibid, 171. 22. Ibid, 175. 23. Ibid, 175. 6

References

Collier, James Lincoln. Louis Armstrong: an American genius. Oxford University Press, 1985.

ProQuest ebrary.

Crawford, Richard. America’s musical life: a history. New York: W.W. Norton & Company,

2005.

Dapogny, James. "Armstrong, Louis [Dippermouth, Pops, Satchelmouth, Satchmo]." Grove

Music Online. Accessed January 10, 2006. http://

www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.01276.

Jazz in America. Accessed March 30, 2017.

http://www.jazzinamerica.org/JazzResources/Timeline.

Raeburn, Bruce. "Traditional New Orleans Jazz." In knowlouisiana.org Encyclopedia of

Louisiana, edited by David Johnson. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2010–.

Article published April 20, 2016. Accessed March 30, 2017.

http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/traditional-new-orleans-jazz.

Scooler, Evan. "Week 3- blues and jazz." Reading, CFA MH 835 American music, Boston

University, March 30, 2017.