Louis Armstrong, the master who showed the world what is jazz



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Text and photo: Notimex
The Jornada Maya

Mexico City
Sunday, July 29, 2018

Trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong, who is considered, 117 years after his birth, As one Most popular American musicians, he has revolutionized the history of jazz in the United States and abroad.

He has recorded countless albums, offered magnificent concerts, his musicians were renewed without the quality of the group and the world of his talent, which brought his smile across the five continents.

Satchmo, as his friends called him, is one of the most charismatic and innovative figures of music, whose legacy is still alive today.

His musical talents and his brilliant personality led him to transform jazz from his original condition of dance music, with folk roots in a popular form, according to his biographers.

Early in his career was cemented his fame, particularly as a cornetist and trumpet player, later his singer status established him as an internationally recognized figure and a huge influence for jazz.

Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana USA, into a very poor family, with no musical background, who lived in one of the slums of this American city.

His first contact with the music took place in a rehabilitation center for abandoned children where he was admitted by

The musical director of this group, Peter Davis, was the one who advised him to choose the trumpet as an instrument principal, although he manages to dominate the others.

Leaving the house of correction in 1914, he began working in Storyville's cabarets where all the nightclubs in the city were concentrated.

At this location he met the cornetist King Oliver and In 1918, with a well-deserved reputation as a cornetist, he was hired by the conductor of the Ory Kid Orchestra and later the pianist and conductor. hot jazz orchestra, Fate Marable, integrates it to his prestigious band.

In 1922, he arrives his great opportunity: Oliver, he called to incorporate him into his Creole Jazz Band, in Chicago, where he began his formidable career whose fame has reached Fletcher Henderson , considered the best Afro-American music director of the moment.

Henderson's group, Armstrong, in a year managed to revolutionize the style and manner of play of his peers and recorded with the best blues singers of the time as the great Bessie Smith .

Between 1925 and 1928, after leaving The Fletcher Group, formed his own two musical groups: Hot Five and Hot Seven, in which made several recordings that say of his critics, they constituted the germinal seed of all the jazz that today, it is known.

In 1932, he traveled to Europe for the first time, reaching a spectacular success in Paris, while on the other side of the Atlantic, Hollywood, claimed it and appeared in many films of unequal quality. In the mid-1940s, he formed his famous group: All Stars, with the tombonist Jack Teagarden; clarinetist Barney Bigard; pianist Earl Hines; drummer "Big Sid" Catlett and bbadist Arvell Shaw.

With them, Louis Armstrong performed on August 13, 1947 at the club "Billy Berg & # 39; s" in Los Angeles, California, and in this new stage he developed Shortly before his death in 1971, Armstrong deplored the lack of recognition, considering that he had always done great things to raise "the breed, but they did not always understand each other".

"I am a musician and I still remember when, as an American citizen, I was speaking in favor of my people during the riots of integration in Little Rock," said the musician at the same time. time, according to El País

. when it was the centennial of his birth, his hometown, New Orleans celebrated the "Satchmo Summerfest", four days, for this commemoration.

In the same way, there was a series of tributes to the United States, concerts, special reissues of his albums, seminars in universities, biographies and television programs.

It was so much the impact that this musician had, as the airport in New Orleans changed his name, setting his, in this ceremony thousands of fans "Armstrong taught us all to play, "said trumpet player and composer Wynton Marsalis, while singer Tony Bennett added that Louis taught the world what is jazz" it can be said that he alone invented the song in jazz; Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, they were all influenced by him. "

In 1970, he was honored as part of the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival, which included the likes of Mahalia Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hackett or The Eureka Brbad Band. Louis Armstrong died on July 6, 1971.

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