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.
Solitude
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You haunt me
With dreadful ease
Of days gone by
In my solitude
You taunt me
With memories
I sit in my chair
And filled with despair
There's no one could be so sad
With gloom everywhere
I sit and I stare
I know that I'll soon go mad
In my solitude
I'm afraid
Dear Lord above
Send back my love
I sit in my chair
Filled with despair
There's no one, no one
No onecould be so sad
With gloom everywhere
I sit and I stare
I know that I'll soon go mad
In my solitude
I'm afraid
Dear Lord above
Send back my love
These lyrics are expressing the feeling of loneliness and how it can haunt a person, bringing back memories of the past that never seem to fade away. The singer in the song is sitting alone in their chair, filled with despair and gloom. They feel as though they are the saddest person in the world and fear that their loneliness will drive them mad.
The line, "in my solitude, you haunt me," suggests that the memories from the past are haunting the singer in their current state of loneliness. Additionally, the line "dear lord above, send back my love," implies that the singer's loneliness is due to the absence of a loved one. The lyrics also convey desperation as the singer prays to God for a solution to their solitude indicating that the loneliness is unbearable.
Line by Line Meaning
In my solitude
Alone with my thoughts
You haunt me
You always come to mind
With dreadful ease
As if it's effortless to cause pain
Of days gone by
Of memories from the past
You taunt me
You tease and torment me
With memories
With thoughts and recollections
That never die
That linger and persist
I sit in my chair
I'm immobile and still
And filled with despair
Overwhelmed with hopelessness
There's no one could be so sad
No one could possibly understand my sorrow
With gloom everywhere
In a bleak and dark environment
I sit and I stare
I gaze blankly at nothing
I know that I'll soon go mad
I feel like I'm losing my sanity
In my solitude
Once again alone in my thoughts
I'm afraid
I'm scared and worried
Dear Lord above
An appeal to a higher power
Send back my love
Bring back the person I love
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: DUKE ELLINGTON, EDDIE LANGE DE, IRVING MILLS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
ilona frissina
My dad left me so many of his LPs-- I realize now what a treasure I have. Just love listening to such great musicians and singers.
Busta Bass
Satch and The Duke. Man, it just doesn't get any better than this. All the beautiful music they created is personified in this one collaboration. It will live forever, for untold generations to explore and appreciate. 🎺🎹👑
Marcos Moraes
Ele foi o maior músico de todos os tempos. Voz e instrumento, pura sonoridade.
Marcelle Souza
Mais do que maravilhoso. Tomar um vinho escutando essa música é bom demais.
Mosthigh Entertainment
One of the best jazz classics of all time. . . Benny Goodman is on the Clarinet 💗
Bill Kirchner
Not so--it's Barney Bigard on clarinet. He had long stints with both Armstrong and Ellington.
Mosthigh Entertainment
One of the greatest songs ever made.🥇
Jose manuel Lopes salvador
Muito bom
Tillmannstoasty123
love it !
Ana Cardoso
Gosto do cantor !