Friday, July 6, 2012

RIP, Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)

The great jazz trumpeter and singer, Louis Armstrong, died in his sleep of a heart attack on July 6, 1971, in Queens, New York. He was 69 years old.

Armstrong's funeral attracted 25,000 individuals, including honorary pallbearers Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Harry James, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Earl Wilson, Alan King, Johnny Carson, and David Frost. Armstrong is buried in the Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, New York.

As critic William Ruhlman has said, "Louis Armstrong was the first important soloist to emerge in jazz, and he became the most influential musician in the music's history." Armstrong shifted the focus of jazz from the collective music of the traditional New Orleans ensemble to a music that valued solo performance and virtuosity.

A good example of Armstrong's improvisational genius is "Weather Bird," in which he and pianist Earl Hines turn a traditional ragtime piece into a brilliant interchange of call and response and broken rhythms.


In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends two records of Louis Armstrong:
  • Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines: The Genius of Louis Armstrong, Vol. 1 1923-1933 (Columbia CG 30416, 2 LPs)
  • Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines: Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines, 1928 (Smithsonian Collection R-002, 2 LPs)
Unfortunately, these are only available in vinyl. Jim Determan, who has updated Lyons's list of albums for CD, recommends instead the following Columbia titles:
Robert
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