Louis Armstrong's Contribution To The Jazz Career

Do you know what Scat is or how to scat sing? Just look up Louis Armstrong, he created this masterpiece. Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, he was born in the birthplace of jazz--New Orleans, Louisiana. He was in foster care throughout his teenage years. His father abandoned the family right after Louis was born, and his mother resulted to prostitution, so he was often left with his maternal grandmother. He began working in fifth grade where he developed a interest in music, this interest lead him to his jazz career. Louis Armstrong contributed a great deal to jazz, but just a few are his popular rhythm which created swing, Scat Singing, and also he made the role of a soloist more important than it was ever before. In the beginning of his teenage years he was on the street corners playing a toy horn. He was working and was trying to earn money for his family. Although miracles can happen anytime any where. Louis's miracle was being taken under the wing of Peter Davis who taught him music ("About"). Louis Armstrong was a great musician. He played in marching bands in his teens and was skillful enough to replace the musician in the Kid Ory band Oliver. His ensemble leads, his second cornet lines and his cornet duets with Oliver made him popular. By 1929 He was a famous musician. Louis Armstrong not only ensured the survival of jazz, but made it into a fine art ("Armstrong"). After his popularity expanded in the 1920's he was claimed one of the most sought-after musicians. Not only was he famous in New York, but also in Chicago ("About"). Throughout Louis Armstrong's career he spread the language of jazz around the world and was called the ambassador of swing. His song "Ain't Misbehavin" introduced the use of a pop …show more content…
After the rhythm settled into jazz they finally gave it a name. This was called the jazz swing feeling. We now call this the 4/4 swing tempo. This tempo has been in jazz since Louis became a star. It is now the standard characteristic of jazz today …show more content…
This made the structural format of theme-solo-theme. "This is a progression from the melody, to routine-ing the melody, to routine-ing the routine; the jazz lingo". Bing Crosby said this "American music begins and ends with Louis Armstrong". Also Dizzy Gillespie said at Louis' death that, "never before in the history of black music had one individual so completely dominated an art form as the Master, Daniel Louis Armstrong" ("Daniel"). Louis Armstrong created scat singing. Scat is just like improvising on a musical instrument. In scat singing you sign nonsense words to a melody. For example to the beat of a song you can say "scoobity boop boop" and that would be scat. Armstrong became famous for scat singing. He recorded many other songs with another jazz and great scat singer, Ella Fitzgerald. Armstrong holds the record for being the oldest artist ever to have a number one record ("Jazz"). His bands the "Hot Five" and the "Hot Seven" recorded music. The music from these bands amounted to a musical revolution. Armstrong had many solos in his songs. His solos became a model for the jazz solo. Not only on his instrument, but on all instruments. Himself and his music were very popular. He was so popular that he had to produce his own documentation of his career