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.
Naturally
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
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Naturally, there's a moon
That shines above.
Oh naturally, just we two,
Naturally, dreams come true
And we're in love!
You in my arms
They are divine!
To all of this,
Just add a kiss,
And then a whisper,
"Will you be mine?".
Oh naturally, a cottage small,
Will the stork make a call?
Well naturally,
For you and me!
Louis Armstrong's song "Naturally" is a romantic ballad that describes the magic and beauty of falling in love in the month of June. The lyrics convey a sense of inevitability as though the event is as natural and orderly as the changing of the seasons. The opening line "Oh naturally, the month of June," is repeated several times throughout the song serves as a metaphor for the promise of new beginnings and fresh opportunities that this season brings. The lyrics suggest that just as the moon naturally shines in June, so too does love naturally find its way into the hearts of two young lovers, as they move towards a commitment.
The chorus of the song repeats the word "naturally, " which seems to encourage a kind of organic unfolding of events and emotions. The second verse of the song, which talks about holding someone in an embrace and whispering a promise of love, reinforces this sense of natural progression that culminates in the crescendo of the song’s chorus. Finally, the lyric "Oh naturally, a cottage small, will the stork make a call?" further adds to the charming aspect of the song, as it speaks of the natural progression of a loving relationship from courtship to marriage and parenthood.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh naturally, the month of June,
It's only natural that we're together in the romantic month of June.
Naturally, there's a moon
It's natural for the moon to be shining above us.
That shines above.
The moon shines above us as a symbol of our love.
Oh naturally, just we two,
It's natural for us to be here together, just the two of us.
Naturally, dreams come true
It's natural for our dreams to come true when we're together.
And we're in love!
We're in love with each other and it feels natural and right.
You in my arms
It feels natural to hold you in my arms.
and all your charms,
You have so many captivating and alluring qualities.
They are divine!
You are truly divine and perfect in every way.
To all of this,
With all of these wonderful feelings and emotions,
Just add a kiss,
just one kiss can elevate our love to new heights.
And then a whisper,
And when we whisper sweet nothings to each other,
"Will you be mine?".
it feels natural to ask the question, 'will you be mine?'
Oh naturally, a cottage small,
It's only natural for us to want a small, cozy cottage together.
Will the stork make a call?
Will we start a family together and have children?
Well naturally,
It's only natural for us to want to start a family and grow old together.
For you and me!
Because our love is natural and meant to be.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: HARRY BARRIS, JOSEPH, SR MCCARTHY
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