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.
April in Paris
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Holiday tables under the trees
April in Paris, this is a feeling
No one can ever reprise
I never knew the charm of spring
Never met it face to face
I never new my heart could sing
Till April in Paris
Whom can I run to
What have you done to my heart
Yes, April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom
Holiday tables under the trees
April in Paris, this is a feeling
No one can ever reprise
I never knew the charm of spring
Never met it face to face
I never new my heart could sing
Never missed a warm embrace
Till April in Paris
Now whom can I run to
Oh, what have you done to my heart
I never knew the charm of spring
Never met it face to face
I never new my heart could sing
Never missed a warm embrace
Till April in Paris
Whom can I run to
What have you done to my heart
Louis Armstrong's "April in Paris" is a classic love song that captures the essence of spring in Paris. The lyrics paint a vivid picture of the beauty of Paris in April, with blossoming chestnuts and holiday tables set under trees. The song speaks about the magical feeling that the month of April in Paris brings, a feeling that is impossible to recreate.
The song's narrator speaks about his awakening to the beauty of spring in Paris, a feeling that he had never experienced before. He had never known the charm of spring or felt the warmth of a loving embrace until he experienced it in Paris in April. However, now that he has felt this feeling, he is left wondering who he can turn to and what has been done to his heart.
Overall, "April in Paris" is a beautiful love song that captures the essence of spring in Paris perfectly. The song's gentle melody and haunting lyrics make it a timeless classic that will forever be associated with the magic of Paris in April.
Line by Line Meaning
April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom
The beautiful image of chestnut trees blooming in Paris during springtime creates an ambience of joy and new beginnings.
Holiday tables under the trees
The renewal of Spring reinvigorates people enough to organize themselves and spend quality time with others, enjoying food and revelry.
April in Paris, this is a feeling
There's an intangible connection one experiences with the sight of the Spring season in Paris. It's hard to describe but rather a general feeling of happiness and elation.
No one can ever reprise
The uniqueness of the feeling evoked in Paris in April is something that cannot be replicated and is a memory that will last a lifetime.
I never knew the charm of spring
The singer never fully appreciated the magic of springtime and had never witnessed the beauty of Paris in April firsthand.
Never met it face to face
Up until now, the singer had never personally experienced the enchantment of springtime and all its glory.
I never new my heart could sing
The joy and sensation that the song's setting evokes is so uplifting that the singer is surprised they had never felt the way they do now.
Never missed a warm embrace
The singer never realized the importance of human touch and missed it until being in this moment.
Till April in Paris
Until experiencing the sights and vibes of springtime in Paris.
Whom can I run to
The singer is in such awe and taken back by it all that they don't know who they could turn to to express their emotions and what they are feeling.
What have you done to my heart
The singer is trying to sort through their emotions when confronted with the beauty of April in Paris and the way it has enchanted and affected them.
Lyrics © MUSIC SALES CORPORATION, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Tratore, Songtrust Ave, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: E. Y. Harburg, Vernon Duke
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@118Psalm
I'm plenty old enough to have listened
to this recording many times and have done so. Tonight I listened
with greater attention than ever before. The nuances in the singing
and playing are special and probably can't be repeated by any other
performers. It is a masterpiece of jazz music by Ella and Louis. I
have heard this song performed in many different ways over the years.
Some seem to think it needs to be loud and not so slow to be
appreciated, and to keep everyone from dozing off maybe. But, if you
can hear more than just the melody and the words, you'll hear two
artists more than performing. They are living and breathing music.
That's what I call art.
@felixj8190
I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
I never missed a warm embrace
Till April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom
Holiday tables under the trees
April in Paris, this is a feeling
That no one can ever reprise
I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
I never missed a warm embrace
Till April in Paris
Whom can I run to
What have you done to my heart
@Wolfhoundersful
I never knew the charm of spring
Never met it face to face
I never new my heart could sing
Never missed a warm embrace
April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom
Holiday tables under the trees
April in Paris, this is a feeling
No one can ever reprise
I never knew the charm of spring
Never met it face to face
I never new my heart could sing
Never missed a warm embrace
Till April in Paris
Whom can I run to
What have you done to my heart
What have you done to my heart
@tabithademero9088
Sometimes I wish I lived when jazz was on every bar live
@SuperBC10
Sometimes? Me all of the time ❤
@jazzheadjan6176
If only we could. This song is a song to fall in love to.
@11111Serenity
My GOD YES! Me too ❤
@carlsonmatthewt
No merde Sherlock.
@lauriebaker4489
You didn't always get Ella at those bars, but yeah, it was great!
@LordoftheFleet
Yes, it's sheer magic. Although we are so lucky to have this marvellous recording of Ella and Louis singing this magnificent, nostalgic and masterly crafted melody, let us not forget the composer of the song; Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky. Vladimir was born in 1903 into a "West Russian" (Belarusian) noble family in the village of Parfyanovka. At the age of eleven, Vladimir Dukelsky was admitted to the Kiev Conservatory, where he studied composition with Reinhold Glière and musical theory with Boleslav Yavorsky. In 1919, his family escaped from the civil war in Russia, and they eventually obtained American visas and sailed on the SS King Alexander to New York. In 1922 in New York, George Gershwin befriended the young immigrant and suggested that Dukelsky Americanize his surname. Thus, Vladimir Dukelsky became Vernon Duke. Besides "April in Paris" Vernon Duke also wrote "Autumn in New York", "I Can't Get Started", "Taking a Chance on Love" and many other, now famous, songs. He also wrote three symphonies, a violin concerto, a cello concerto, a piano concerto, ballet music and piano music.
@hatbpto5180
Thank you!
@LauraMorland
Wow, merci, thank you for this fascinating history.
@jmac3106
Fascinating. Thank you.