Louis Armstrong and Jazz Improvization.

Beach Runner

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Aug 28, 2004, 4:01:52 PM8/28/04

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I've been changed on some statements about Louis Armstrong.

This is someo of where I based my views. I could be wrong. I included
some sources.

Where was it documented that Louis was the first to improvise strictly
along chord changes versus working around the melody?

Black Music of Two Worlds, p 215, John Storhm Roberts, written in 1972.

It surprised me. It was from research conducted in 1974. It also
included personal interviews with Arvill Shaw, who was his bass player.

If I'm wrong, please let me know? It wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.

Louis played what he was singing in his mind. It was all about singing
on the trumpet.

Satchmo opened up the world. He played with such feeling and emotion.

Believe it or not, "Hello Dolly" beat the the Beatles for Number 1 on
the hit parade in 1963.

I quote:
"One way of isolating Louis Armstrong is to compare him with what was
going on around him in the early days. He picks up the entire
performance and made it soar with a brilliant solo" in I ain't gonna
play no second fiddle with Fletcher Henedrson. It was entirely
improvised with little or no references to a theme. (The Enjoyment of
Music, p 583.

I am open up to other American references to improvisation freed of the
melody before Louis. I think he was one of the world's most important
musicians, and had worldwide significance.

Yes, the Mvet of Africa improvised, but was it done in the US before
Louis? It certainly didn't include the Western Influence so clearly
heard in Louis's music. African Music, a People's Art", by Frances Bebey.

Improvisation, by itself is not an American or Jazz invention.

One of the things many trumpet players don't realize was how difficult
it was to play his solos, until they actually tried.

For all the millions he made, he saw very little of it.

My research is at least 30 years old. If it can be updated, I'd
certainly open to it. Please correct me. It did include reading,
researching and interviewing Arvill Shaw, his bass player.

Louis Armstrong made more friends for America than all the ambassadors
combined. He was the first to play behind the iron curtain.

Dizzy Gillespi acknowledged his musical indebtedness to Louis Armstrong
(The Blues People, p 31).

Right after Lumungo was assassinated in the Congo, he played in a soccer
stadium and they STOPPED the war. Solders from both sides sat side by
side for three days. After he left, the war resumed. It shows the power
of music, which is the power of love. This story was told by Arvill Shaw.

Now a practical suggestion from Louis, which still to his day drives me
crazy. Try practicing with the Metronome clicking on 2 and 4. Try it.

Bob

Max Leggett

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Aug 28, 2004, 4:40:52 PM8/28/04

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On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 20:01:52 GMT, Beach Runner <b...@nospam.com> wrote:

>I've been changed on some statements about Louis Armstrong.
>This is someo of where I based my views. I could be wrong. I included
>some sources.
>Where was it documented that Louis was the first to improvise strictly
>along chord changes versus working around the melody?

I'd tend to agree that Pops was, to my ears, the first to create new
melodies over existing changes. Bunk Johnson, whom Armstrong said was
his teacher, improvised by playing arpeggios with little links over
changes. Bunk always called what he played 'ragtime', which is one of
the immediate precursors of jass. Bunk claims to have learnt that from
Buddy Bolden, which is probaly one of Bunk's stories, but listen to
the George Lewis Band, with Kid Howard or Percy Humphrey and you'll
hear the same thing. Armstrong with Oliver in The Creole Band in the
mid 20s was doing it, too, although you can hear longer 'links' than
you can in Bunk. Or Keppard, or Howard, or pretty much anyone else.
Armstrong in West End Blues never stops making up melodies, either
singing or playing. If he wasn't the first, he developed it further
than anyone else. Jabbo Smith was supposed to have been up there with
Armstrong, but what I've heard of him wasn't as melodic. There _were_
a lot of notes, though, and it wasn't just triadic development. So
maybe he and Pops and who knows who else were all aiming at the same
thing, but only Pops had the melodic genius to really pull it off.

>It surprised me. It was from research conducted in 1974. It also
>included personal interviews with Arvill Shaw, who was his bass player.

I like Arvell. Very nice bass player. Played with Armstrong in the All
Stars in the late 40s. For what it's worth in '72 I took a [very
brief] bass lesson from Montudie Garland who played in Chicago at the
same time as Armstrong and Oliver. Tudie called it Dixieland, a term I
still despise, but I wasn't going to argue with him.

>I quote:
>"One way of isolating Louis Armstrong is to compare him with what was
>going on around him in the early days. He picks up the entire
>performance and made it soar with a brilliant solo"

If you listen to the Fletcher Henderson recordings, what you hear is
"plod plod tweetle toot," and then Armstrong stands up and the whole
thing comes alive. Dies again as soon as he sits down.

>I am open up to other American references to improvisation freed of the
>melody before Louis. I think he was one of the world's most important
>musicians, and had worldwide significance.

A giant of the 20th century. Possibly/probably the first to really
nail melodic as opposed to triadic improvisation. He also moved
improvisation out of a collective improvisation in to an individual
thing. Listen to Armstrong and Oliver and then listen to the Hot 5s.
And you can listen to Bunk Johnson and George Lewis, recorded in the
40s, to get a good feel of where Pops came from. And listen to Jabbo
Smith, to get a feel of another approach to the growth of
improvisaiton

>Yes, the Mvet of Africa improvised, but was it done in the US before
>Louis? It certainly didn't include the Western Influence so clearly
>heard in Louis's music. African Music, a People's Art", by Frances Bebey.

Gunther Schuller - Early Jazz.

>Now a practical suggestion from Louis, which still to his day drives me
>crazy. Try practicing with the Metronome clicking on 2 and 4. Try it.

Here's a practical suggestion. Don't sneer at people and tell them
they don't know the music. If you want to take exception to what
people say, feel free to do so, but you might couch it in at least a
modicum of manners.