Scarica louis armstrong e il jazz e più Temi in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! In the 1920s in the United States were born: Jazz, blues, swing, dance band, and ragtime were just a few of the most popular music genres of the decade. Prior to the radio, music could be shared only through sheet music, piano rolls, or live performances. With the use of the radio waves, music of all kinds could easily be introduced to homes across the United States. Jazz music was created from the fusion of Anglo-American, African, and Creole influences, born in the melting pot of New Orleans, Louisiana. Also referring to Blues music, often associated with personal trials, it frequently shared the stories of a prejudiced and segregated South. In fact, blues music was heavily influenced by the African spirituals sung by those who were enslaved. The singing of spirituals was a form of retaining resiliency. Sometimes, a blues tune could be considered comical or even witty. The most popular songs of the 1920s covered a wide variety of genres. Louis Armstrong was a great innovator in at least three fields: instrumental technique, playing on trumpet at a speed and in a register unknown before him; jazz singing, as it was he who invented the scat and showed that you can sing jazz with any vocal timbre; and he was a great entertainer, aware that on stage everything is part of the show, even the presentations, the silences, the looks. In West End Blues you can appreciate all his talent and measure the abysmal difference that separates him from his contemporaries. The piece begins with a brilliant introduction. The trumpet exposes the theme a first time (0'15"), the word then passes to the trombone (0'50"). The theme is then presented by the clarinet (1'24") and we can listen to Armstrong as a singer. Although the voice is only a counterpoint to the clarinet sentences, this is completely eclipsed by vocal improvisations. The piece continues with the piano (2'00'). Following the recovery of the trumpet (2'33") that amazes us with a note held for four bars, creating masterfully a tension. If he hadn’t fired a borrowed gun into the air to celebrate New Year's 1913, Armstrong might have never been a professional musician at all. The 12-year-old boy was arrested by a very annoyed police officer and sent to the New Orleans Colored Waifs' Home for Boys to ponder his infamy. Fortunately for him, and the musical world as well, he fell under the influence of Peter Davis, the home’s musical instructor. Davis recognized the talent in the young black boy. He taught him singing, percussion and, finally, the trumpet. Fortune turned her back on him at first. Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, in the Storyville District of New Orleans. It was a rough and tumble neighborhood. His father was a laborer who abandoned the family soon after Louis’ birth. His mother was a part-time prostitute. Young Louis was desperately poor. His only way to earn a living was to sing on street corners for nickels. The gun incident in 1913, and his subsequent incarceration, made Louis determined to wiggle from the grasp of poverty. He was released from the boy’s home when he was 14. He worked at any honest job that would provide food. By the middle 1920s, Louis Armstrong’s star was rapidly rising.
