The Style And Techinque Of Louis Armstrong

THE STYLE AND TECHNIQUE OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Louis Armstrong is widely known as a founding father of jazz. His abilities and inventive musical mind have given to music a style that still dominates jazz today. His innovations changed the face of jazz music and have influenced many, filtering down and contributing to rock and roll.

In his instrumental music, Louis Armstrong revolutionized jazz. Prior to his arrival as a jazz performer, the emphasis was always with the band as a whole and not with an individual player. Musicians filled an expected role that was dependent on interactions with other instruments. Early jazz did include spontaneous counterpoint, but it did not use the rhythmic innovations that Louis Armstrong became renowned for. He was able to revolutionize jazz with solo lines. While playing with King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band in Chicago, Armstrong played second coronets'. His position was to primarily provide harmonic lines to King Oliver's melodies which he did with expertise. His virtuosity made him stand out. His superiority and his original melodies set a path for the solo to emerge as a centerpiece for jazz music. Jazz writer Ted Gioia wrote, "because of Armstrong's presence, the King Oliver recordings from the early 1920's stand out both as a paramount example of the New Orleans collective style and also its death knell, already hinting at the more individualistic ethos that would replace it." Armstrong always needed more room to improvise and he rejected the early New Orleans jazz that featured the clarinet, trumpet and trombone in his quest for a trumpet solo.

Armstrong was able to further refine and develop his improvisational skills while working with Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra. During this time he abandoned the fixed melody. In a recording of "Shanghai Shuffle" in 1924, Armstrong innovates in a manner that no one had ever heard before. He repeated a single note and varied the sound during the time it is played. The note's placement within the music, the intensity and the use of syncopation made it unique for listeners. After this record was released, Armstrong became known for and his name was a synonym for the "hottest" new music of the day.

In 1925 Armstrong made his first records under his own name. His band was called Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five. These recordings are considered to be some of the most influential albums in jazz history and could be the most virtuosic recordings in jazz improvisation. He used stop-time accompaniment in "Cornet Chop Suey". The ensemble played a simple rhythmic pattern in unison while Armstrong developed a solo line. His solo contained a series of two-bar segments that seemed to comment on the preceding segment which created a very interesting musical dialog. Murray Horowitz of NPR stated, "People had taken solo breaks before, but the idea of an improvised composition that had a beginning, a middle and an end, that took ideas, that played with them , that hung together structurally and told a story, that's something you can hear Armstrong develop over the four years of these recordings."

In the late 1920's the Hot Five became the Hot Seven with the addition of drums and tuba. He placed more and more emphasis on the solo at the expense of the ensemble. Armstrong was known to place accents on notes where they were not expected to be placed. He began using syncopation to highlight his melody. On the recording of "Potato Head Blues" he played a solo and varied the timing of the notes he played over a stop-time accompaniment.

Armstrong was said to have perfect pitch and flawless rhythm and could manipulate his voice just like he could blow his horn. He did not begin as a singer but when he reached New York in 1924, he was persuaded to sing and found great success. His voice is often compared to gravel or sandpaper, but instead of being harsh his voice delivers a warm tone with an easygoing delivery. His particular vocal style has influenced many singers of later generations like: Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Elvis