Hayes Stanbery Professor Neidlinger MUS 110 5 April 2017 Louis Armstrong and the Jazz Age “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.” These are lyrics to one of Louis Armstrong’s most popular songs, “What a Wonderful World” that exploded in the 1920’s (Riccardi). The 1920’s dealt with issues regarding depression, poverty, targeted hate towards certain group(s) of people, and a transition of standard of living. Despite the hardships of the 1920’s, it became a revolutionary era that birthed Jazz and with it, the face of jazz, Louis Armstrong. John Green, established author, vlogger, writer, and producer has won many awards and nominations for his novels and filmography/ …show more content…
He explains that one of the more distinctive features of jazz is personal expression, another would be the use of improvisation. Jazz was the soundtrack of African American life. Holmes reports the roots of jazz go back to the 19th century and begin with the slaves coming from Africa. It was through the slaves that a fusion of cultural elements as well as musical elements would combine. Jazz was born in New Orleans, then spread to Chicago, New York City, Kansas City, and eventually took America as a whole by storm. Jazz was considered to have begun around 1900 in New Orleans (xxii). Jazz is a unique collaboration of several different musical forms that includes the instruments: cornet, trumpet, trombone, or clarinet to play melodies, guitar, banjo, string bass, tuba, and drums to play chords and rhythm …show more content…
It was his charisma and personality that allowed jazz to flourish in its popularity during the time. He was the first great jazz soloist, a part of jazz that was not common before Armstrong. Armstrong’s scat singing was also was a hit; something he was said to do when he forgot the words which demonstrated the improvisation frequent in jazz (6). Holmes notes he was the member of several groups through-out his career including the Hot Five and Hot Seven and later Armstrong’s All Stars. Armstrong also spent a great deal of time touring even into Europe where his fame was also