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.
Perdido Street Blues
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I look for my heart
It's perdido
I lost it way down in Torito
The day the fiesta started
Bolero
I sway that they play the Bolero
And that's when my heart departed
High was the sun when I held her close
Low was the moon when we said, "Adios"
Perdido
My heart ever since is Perdido
I know I must go to Torito
To find what I lost Perdido
High was the sun when I held her close
Low was the moon when we said, "Adios"
Perdido
Goodnight perdido
I lost perdido
The song Perdido Street Blues by Louis Armstrong And His Orchestra depicts the loss of love and the search to find it again. The lyrics convey the story of the singer who has lost his heart, or "perdido" in Spanish, in Torito during a fiesta. The Bolero music makes him sway and he falls in love with a woman wearing a sombrero, but unfortunately, his heart departs and he is left searching for it. The song references the contrast of high and low times, with the sun rising high above them when they were in love and the moon low when they said goodbye.
The lyrics are sung with deep emotion and the use of jazz instruments adds to the song's overall sense of longing. The singer knows that he must go back to Torito to find what he has lost and bring his heart back to life, symbolizing the theme of second chances in love. The use of Spanish language gives a vibrant and lively quality to the song, making it more authentic and relatable to people who understand the language.
Overall, Perdido Street Blues is a song about the search for love and second chances. It depicts a common human experience that many can relate to through the use of poetic language, jazz rhythms, and Spanish elements.
Line by Line Meaning
Perdido
I am looking for something.
I look for my heart
I am searching for my true emotions.
It's perdido
I have lost it.
I lost it way down in Torito
I lost my emotions in a certain place.
The day the fiesta started
It was a certain day when I lost my emotions.
Bolero
The music I am listening to now is Bolero.
I sway that they play the Bolero
I am moved by the music.
I kissed me the listing sombrero
I have done something special while under the influence of the music.
And that's when my heart departed
It was at a certain moment when I lost my emotions.
High was the sun when I held her close
It was a happy time when I was with someone.
Low was the moon when we said, "Adios"
It was a sad time when we parted ways.
My heart ever since is Perdido
I have never found my true emotions again.
I know I must go to Torito
I need to return to a certain place.
To find what I lost Perdido
To look for my true emotions that I lost in that place.
Goodnight perdido
Farewell to my lost emotions.
I lost perdido
I have lost something important to me.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: LILLIAN HARDIN ARMSTRONG
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
SkunkBunk
The clarinet solo in the beginning is the most amazing thing I've ever heard.
Tenzin Khan
That clarinet makes me think about Sidney Bechet.
Tom Detroit01
@Tenzin Khan it is Sidney Bechet
emilianoturazzi
you should have to listen to Johnny Dodds' Perdido Street Blues
Vern Marshall
A great recording, and as Bluesgerd and Telfer have pointed out, make sure you're aware original Johnny Dodds recording - 2 very different approaches and both of them wonderful. Amongst the many highlights, maybe the highest for me is the way Bechet comes growling in at the end with a 'let's close this out!'
Antonio Fernando Lendini
Sensacional, espetacular
Elvis Falconi
this song is so great... is my life!!!! the sound is excepcional....
amparo ospina
Fabuloso
AK cristo
best song ever!! After "perdido" you can´t find track like this again
Bluesgerd47 Wauker
I recommend you to listen to the original version of Johnny Dodds! As many musicians throughout the world I`ve tried in my young years to cover it originally: As far as I know no one ever succeeded. It is absolutely unbelievable how Johnny could play!