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.
Chinatown My Chinatown
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That's the time the festive chink starts to wink his other eye,
Starts to wink his dreamy eye, lazily you'll hear him sigh.
Strangers taking in the sights, pigtails flying here and there.
See that broken wall street sport, still thinks he's a millionaire.
Still thinks he's a millionaire, pipe dreams banish every care.
Where the lights are low,
Hearts that know no other land,
Drifting to and fro.
Dreamy dreamy Chinatown,
Almond eyes of brown,
Hearts seems light and life seems bright,
In dreamy Chinatown
Louis Armstrong's song, "Chinatown My Chinatown," is a nostalgic tune about New York's Chinatown district, where the vibrant atmosphere of the town comes alive at night. The song opens with a scene from a quiet evening in Chinatown, as the "festive chink" starts to let his guard down and relax. As the owner of a new business, the “chink” works hard all day and night, and this moment of solace brings him to reminisce about his past. The chorus, "Chinatown, my Chinatown/ Where the lights are low," acts as a sort of anthem for the town, a place where the heart has no other land and people float back and forth in a dreamlike paradise.
The second verse paints a more crowded picture of the streets with “strangers taking in the sights” and “broken Wall Street sport,” still trying to hold onto their former glory. The song uses poetic language to illustrate the free-spirited and carefree atmosphere of the district. The lyric's alliteration of "pigtails flying here and there" creates a vivacious and lively mood, while the image of the Wall Street sport shows the diverse population in the area.
The final chorus emphasizes the light-hearted dreaminess of Chinatown. The “almond-eyed” people “drift to and fro,” and their carefree hearts brighten up the otherwise dimly lit streets. Armstrong's lyrics invoke a sense of belonging to a place and the pleasure of taking a journey there with an authentic idea of what you might find.
Line by Line Meaning
When the town is fast asleep, and it's midnight in the sky,
When the city is quiet and the night is dark,
That's the time the festive chink starts to wink his other eye,
That's when the people of Chinatown come alive and have fun
Starts to wink his dreamy eye, lazily you'll hear him sigh.
The people of Chinatown are relaxed and carefree
Strangers taking in the sights, pigtails flying here and there.
Tourists are taking in the sights of Chinatown and are amused by the people's hairstyles
See that broken wall street sport, still thinks he's a millionaire.
There is a man in Chinatown who is down on his luck but still has hope for a better future
Still thinks he's a millionaire, pipe dreams banish every care.
He still has hope and dreams, which makes him feel better about his situation
Chinatown, my Chinatown
This song is about Chinatown
Where the lights are low,
The lighting in Chinatown is dim and relaxing
Hearts that know no other land,
The people of Chinatown have a strong connection to their homeland and culture
Drifting to and fro.
The people in Chinatown are carefree and wandering around
Dreamy dreamy Chinatown,
Chinatown has a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere
Almond eyes of brown,
The people in Chinatown have brown eyes that are shaped like almonds
Hearts seems light and life seems bright,
The people in Chinatown seem happy and carefree
In dreamy Chinatown
Chinatown is a peaceful and dreamy place
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jean Schwartz, William Jerome
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Georgi Valtscheff
I'm just passing by to tell you how much I appreciate what you're doing. I especially love your serbian pieces. You've just earned a subscriber. Good luck from Bulgaria.
Steven Kozobarich
Thanks so much for the nice comment Georgi! I really appreciate it!
57dogsbody
This is why Louis is the Greatest.
lopov74
Great record Steve. I also have a large Jazz 78 collection. The trumpet solo and the orchestra backing at the end of the song has so much energy.
Steven Kozobarich
I love his recordings with this orchestra. The band has a lot of enthusiasm and they work well together. I don't have many jazz 78s, but I wish I had more Louis Armstrong records. I'd love to find a copy of "Aint Misbehavin'" or "Stardust" in this condition. I love his old blues recordings too. Actually I love just about everything Louis Armstrong ever did. He's one of the few musicians who only got better as time passed.
Ted Lawrence
Early Armstrong discs are hard to find in top condition
lopov74
If you ever get a chance check out the song swing that music by Louis Armstrong I think it's one of his best. The ride out on the end is awesome the whole orchestra behind him sounds like its about to explode.
Steven Kozobarich
Oh yeah, I love that one! There are actually two versions on Decca and they're both amazing. The first was recorded with his orchestra (really Luis Russell's orchestra) on May 18, 1936, and the second was recorded on August 7, 1936, with Jimmy Dorcey's orchestra. Do you have the Mosaic Decca box set (1935-1946)? The sound quality is unbelievable and it has all of the alternate takes. I have all of Louis Armstrong's recordings made between 1923-1934 (including all of the blues accompaniments and appearances with other orchestras like Fletcher Henderson, Clarence William's Blue Five, Perry Bradford's Jazz Phools, Erskine Tate's Vendome Orchestra, etc..) and most of his recordings through the late 1940s and beyond. There's also a great live version of "Swing That Music" from the June 25, 1938 episode of "Saturday Night Swing Club". Have you heard his 1937 Fleischmann's Yeast radio broadcasts? Those are really great too.
V A L E N T I N A
@Steven Kozobarich Where did you find such an amazing collection? Do you just go thrift shopping or you bought them from real collectors? I guess finding records in the US is much easier than in Europe :)
henok ghebreghergis
Thanks alot for this record! 👌💪👍