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.
Gambler
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
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Saw my baby there
Stretched out on a long white table
So sweet, so cold, so fair
Let her go, let her go, God bless her
Wherever she may be
She can look this wide world over
When I die, want you to dress me in straight-lace shoes
Box-back coat and a Stetson hat
Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain
So the boys'll know that I died standin' pat
The lyrics to Louis Armstrong's Hot Five's song St. James Infirmary tell a melancholic story of a man who goes down to the St. James Infirmary, where he sees his baby on a long white table, dead. He describes her as sweet, cold, and fair, indicating a deep love for her, and then asks God to bless her wherever she may be. The man then claims that she'll never find a sweet man like him, implying that he was a good partner to her. He concludes the song by saying that when he dies, he wants to be dressed in straight-lace shoes, a box-back coat, and a Stetson hat. He also requests a twenty-dollar gold piece to be put on his watch chain so that the boys will know that he died standing pat, or not making any changes to his hand in a poker game.
The song St. James Infirmary has been covered by numerous artists, including Cab Calloway, Django Reinhardt, and The White Stripes, among others. Its origins are unclear, but it is believed to have evolved from an 18th-century English folk song known as The Unfortunate Rake. It has also been suggested that it was inspired by a song called The Gambler's Blues, performed by Porter Grainger and Bessie Smith in 1927.
Line by Line Meaning
I went down to the St. James Infirmary
I visited the infirmary at St. James
Saw my baby there
Saw the body of my lover there
Stretched out on a long white table
Their body was laid out on a table, long and white
So sweet, so cold, so fair
Despite being dead, my lover still looked lovely and pure
Let her go, let her go, God bless her
I release her from this world, and may she find peace in the afterlife by God's grace
Wherever she may be
Though she is gone, she will continue to exist somewhere
She can look this wide world over
She may wander and search the world freely
She'll never find a sweet man like me
But she will never find a man as kind and loving as me
When I die, want you to dress me in straight-lace shoes
When I pass away, I wish to be dressed in proper, formal attire
Box-back coat and a Stetson hat
A stylish jacket and hat are also required, reflecting my personal style
Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain
Place a gold coin worth 20 dollars on my watch chain, signifying my wealth and status
So the boys'll know that I died standin' pat
This gesture demonstrates that I remained unyielding and resolute until the very end, which I want others to recognize and respect
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JOE PRIMROSE, IRVING MILLS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Anonymous
on What A Wonderful World
What A Wonderful World - Casey Abrams - Lyrics
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Singing how do you do
They're really singing
I love you
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll learn much more
Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Musical Interlude
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Singing how do you do
They're really singing
I love you
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They goin’ learn much more
Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I think to myself
What a wonderful world