Louis Armstrong: A Musical Revolution

Louis Armstrong: A Musical Revolution Throughout generations, music has been a tool for self expression and cultural identification. With one song, an artist is able to convey many messages and ideas that are able to inspire listeners into using the artist’s work to shape their own identity. For example, during the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans were beginning to separate themselves from white culture, creating their own culture in a still de facto racist country. Heavy dependence on music as a catalyst for the separation of their culture lead to the creation of America's first true art form: Jazz. Of course with any music and art comes the artists who pioneer and create the founding principles of that art or genre and one of the most

But alongside Armstrong's morality, his unique techniques in jazz created a larger audience for himself and even influenced jazz forever. While being primarily a trumpeter and a singer, Armstrong, according to Joyce McDonough, Harold Danko and Jason Zentz “formal jazz, was not Armstrong’s style” (2). Instead of conforming to the typical jazz style, Armstrong created a new sense in jazz by applying new tempo, and rhythm change to his songs, and allowing for more solos and improvisation to fashion new trends in jazz. However anothering reason, Armstrong was able to influence jazz so much was because Armstrong was able to hit high notes such as F and G that separated him from other trumpeters (Steven Lewis 1). He also had a raspy voice that created a new sound in jazz that lives on today when we hear one of his most popular songs: “A wonderful

He was often called overseas to perform for other countries. According to larmstrongsoc.org Armstrong “played for presidents, European royalty, and the kings and queens of his beloved Africa” (1). This permitted Armstrong to share his musical genius with the rest of the world and influence the music being produced in other countries, earning him the nickname “Ambassador Satch”. While there hasn’t been a specific artist who claimed to have had taken inspiration from Armstrong, Armstrong has added a new dimension to jazz that altered jazz as a whole and not a specific category in jazz. For example, in the song “Caravan” presented in the 2014 movie “Whiplash”, presents a jazz drum solo at the end that mixes improv, and change in tempo and rhythm, which were all qualities that Armstrong made more apparent in his career. However on the flip side, civil rights discrimination hasn’t changed much. White supremacy is still apparent, and the fight for equal rights continue. Armstrong tried to benefit the future with his music, by including lyrics against oppression, however, it seems he was unable to do so. This being said there are modern songs that also sing about oppression against African Americans, for example in 1988 N.W.A presented a song called “Fuck the Police” which has a more aggressive tone. N.W.A raps “A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown” (1), which in contrast to