Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly-recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin-color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. He rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation during the Little Rock Crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man.
Armstrong was born and brought up in New Orleans, a culturally diverse town with a unique musical mix of creole, ragtime, marching bands, and blues. Although from an early age he was able to play music professionally, he didn't travel far from New Orleans until 1922, when he went to Chicago to join his mentor, King Oliver. Oliver's band played primitive jazz, a hotter style of ragtime, with looser rhythms and more improvisation, and Armstrong's role was mostly backing. Slow to promote himself, he was eventually persuaded by his wife Lil Hardin to leave Oliver, and In 1924 he went to New York to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. At the time, there were a few other artists using the rhythmic innovations of the New Orleans style, but none did it with the energy and brilliance of Armstrong, and he quickly became a sensation among New York musicians. Back in Chicago in 1925, he made his first recordings with his own group, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and these became not only popular hits but also models for the first generation of jazz musicians, trumpeters or otherwise.
Other hits followed through the twenties and thirties, as well as troubles: crooked managers, lip injuries, mob entanglements, failed big-band ventures. As jazz styles changed, though, musical purists never lost any respect for him -- although they were sometimes irritated by his hammy onstage persona. Around the late forties, with the help of a good manager, Armstrong's business affairs finally stablilized, and he began to be seen as an elder statesman of American popular entertainment, appearing in Hollywood films, touring Asia and Europe, and dislodging The Beatles from the number-one position with Hello Dolly". Today many people may know him as a singer (a good one), but as Miles Davis said: “You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him."
The 62-year-old Armstrong became the oldest act to top the US charts when "Hello Dolly" reached #1 in 1964. Four years later Satchmo also became the oldest artist to record a UK #1, when "What a Wonderful World" hit the top spot.
A Song Is Born
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A moment of bliss we spent
Our hearts were filled with a song of romance
As into the night we went
And sang to our hearts' content
The song is ended
But the melody lingers on
But the melody lingers on
The night was splendid
And the melody seemed to say
"Summer will pass away
Take your happiness while you may"
There 'neath the light of the moon
We sang a love song that ended too soon
The moon descended
And I found with the break of dawn
You and the song had gone
In the song, "The Song Is Ended" by Louis Armstrong and The Mills Brothers, the singer reminisces about a romantic evening spent dancing with a lover. The memory brings back a moment of joy and happiness where they were lost in their feelings for each other. The singer recalls how they ventured into the night, singing and dancing to their heart's content to a beautiful melody that filled their hearts with love and romance. In this moment, nothing else mattered, and the world stood still as they basked in the beauty of love.
However, as they realize that the night has come to an end, the song's melody continues to linger on in their mind, reminding them of the love they shared with their partner. Even though the moment has passed, the emotions it brought stand out as a testament to their feelings for each other. As the night ends and dawn breaks, the singer realizes that both the song and the lover have gone, leaving nothing but a sweet memory in their heart, which will stay with them forever.
Line by Line Meaning
My thoughts go back to a heavenly dance
I recall a beautiful and enjoyable past experience
A moment of bliss we spent
We had a brief but wonderful time together
Our hearts were filled with a song of romance
We were deeply in love and expressed it through our music
As into the night we went
We continued to enjoy each other's company into the late hours
And sang to our hearts' content
We sang without inhibition, letting our emotions flow
The song is ended
The experience has come to an end
But the melody lingers on
The memory of the experience continues to evoke emotions
You and the song are gone
The person and the moment have passed
But the melody lingers on
The memory of the experience continues to evoke emotions
The night was splendid
The evening was wonderful and memorable
And the melody seemed to say
The music spoke to our hearts and conveyed a message
"Summer will pass away
The good times won't last forever
Take your happiness while you may"
Enjoy the moment while it lasts
There 'neath the light of the moon
We were together in the moonlight
We sang a love song that ended too soon
We expressed our love through music, but the moment passed too quickly
The moon descended
The night came to an end
And I found with the break of dawn
When morning came, I realized that the moment was over
You and the song had gone
The person and the experience were no longer present
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: IRVING BERLIN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@TahMartinsS2
Russo, the man with the tambourine, is my grandpa. I love this video, it just makes me happy.
@Edivaldo724
The Gal with Dany Kaye, Laurindo de Almeida, Nestor Amaral, Benny Goodman, Louis Armastrong,Benny Goodman, Golden Gate Quartet, Tommy Dorsey Lionel Hampton, Cariocas Boy, and others, is VIIRGINIA MAYO! I'm from São Paulo-Brasil.
@kapuso7kapamilya2
Having the all-time Great Artist Danny Kaye to be fused together with the overwhelming bunch of the all-time Great Legends in the classical jazz world in one monumental movie -the 1948 RKO Radio Pictures' A Song Is Born - can be truly considered as special treat and real delight for all the classic film enthusiasts and for all the jazz music lovers.In this one particular exciting scene the Jazz Greats had marvelously displayed their expertise in instruments or their aptness in singing.
@arnaldo1367
Parabens, Ser sobrinho de Nestor Amaral, que participou com toda esta gente maravilhosa, e passar de geração a geração. Já pensou!!!
@u692205
The Legends are having lots of fun together.
@tony2.0bender
*Correction* - The drummer IS Louie Bellson folks...
@fredjmp
Beautiful!!
@ThePaul1E
watching al kinds of old stuff only convinces me that people was much more intelligent back then :P
@Edivaldo724
@soajoz The gal is Virginia Mayo! Eddie Lancaster, from São Paulo, Brazil.
@danielbenchu5766
película entretenida. como siempre Danny el mejor