The Impact Of Louis Armstrong's Influence On Racial Equality In The 1920s

The 1930’s was a time of great struggle in the USA. The New York stock market crashed in 1929 and triggered a spiral of economic depression, which hit African Americans hard.

For this analysis on Louis Armstrong’s West End Blues, I am going to concentrate on Louis Armstrong and how influential he was in the birth of Swing. He was extremely innovative in the way he played his instrument. Louis Armstrong had a brilliant trumpet sound. His power, range, and his rhythmic approach are all trademarks of his playing in the 1920s and 1930s. West End Blues is still considered one of the most influential and classic pieces in the Jazz Industry. I will explain why by breaking down the song utilizing the five elements of music; form, harmony, texture, melody, and rhythm.

African American influence in music has been an ever present and controversial subject in American history. Stemming from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds, large portions of American music was introduced by, and credited to African Americans. Although in many cases, this music was used for entertainment by the masses or majority, contrary to popular belief, black music served a greater purpose than just recreation. Dating all the way back to the beginning of slavery in the U.S. during the 17th century, music has been used to make a statement and send a message. As African American music progressed over the years, there were common themes expressed as the genres evolved. It has been an open letter to the world, documenting and protesting the ongoing oppression faced by blacks in the United States, as well as an outlet for frustration. For many African Americans, the music gave them the only voice that couldn’t be silenced by their oppressors.

During the 1950’s, black artists and entertainers chose either to directly or indirectly supported. Everyone in spite of where they came from and regardless of their identity, race, and gender all came together to fight the injustice. Black women entertainers bridged the entertainment world and popular culture to the civil rights politics. They were able to highlight the inequality between black and white people and men and women. Their activism allowed for global perspective on race relations and was continually reinforced through the interactions between entertainers, diplomats and other intellectuals. After World War II, black people in New York were rallying support for the movement by using creative strategies to represent blackness politically.

After World War I ended, the 1920’s brought on dramatic political and social changes. For most people, the 1920’s brought them more conflict. They did not like the new changes and were trying to keep them from happening. However, for a small group of young people the 1920’s was a great time to make progress and move forward from the conservative norm. After women got suffrage, they pushed through the double standards and tried and got jobs in factories and offices, instead of only doing domestic work. African Americans pushed through the discrimination they were facing and moved to the northern states, where they got better jobs and better opportunities to pursue their dreams in literature, art, music, and stage performance.

Louis Armstrong learned at a young age, not to let negative views direct your life. At the age of seven he worked for a Jewish family, and noticed how the whites treated them. It was not just the blacks in the early 1900’s that dealt with racial issues. But Louis saw one thing that left a long time mark on him. Many of the Blacks wanted Pity, but this family of Jews he worked for, did not, they made their way. This was something Louis would carry with him the rest of his life. Louis Armstrong’s influence was the style, structure, and joy of his art. It is something that can be seen in many musicians that listened to him. Listen to a Miles Davis cd, and you will hear the Great Satchmo. Yes it is Miles Davis, but the influence of Louis is there to be heard. Many of the musicians today you will also hear Louis’s influence, and not only in Jazz, Swing, Blues, but in any form. Louis Armstrong’s influence is one of the most powerful that has ever been, and may ever be.

Jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro Life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul—the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile. Yet the Philadelphia clubwoman… turns up her nose at jazz and all its manifestations—likewise almost anything else distinctly racial…She wants the artist to flatter her, to make the white world believe that all Negroes are as smug as near white in smug as she wants to be. But, to my mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist …to change through the hidden force of his art that old whispering “I want to be white,” hidden in the aspirations of his people, to “Why should I want to be white? I am Negro—and beautiful.”

Jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul-the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile. Yet the Philadelphia club woman , turns up her nose at jazz and all its manifetations-likewise almost anything else distinctly racial... She wants the artist to flatter her, to make the white world believe that all Negroes are as smug and as near white in soul as she wants to be. But, to my mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist, to change through the force of his art that old whispering "I want to be white, hidden in the aspirations of his people, to "Why should I want to he white? I am Negro-and beautiful"

A photographer was also present and a picture was taken of Armstrong while he was shaving, as he was getting ready for a gig. The following day Armstrong's words and picture made front page news around the world. Though he had finally spoken out after years of remaining publicly silent, he received criticism at the time from both black and white public figures. Other people of colour musicians such as Sammy Davis Junior said not to listen to Armstrong as he did not represent the black community. Although Armstrong experienced racism and segregation he was not treated as harshly compared to other people of colour musicians at this time. This greatly upset Louis Armstrong the most as he felt he had done so much for his own race and that he had never been appreciated for it. It wasn’t until Armstrong’s death that he was credited for his work in helping the civil rights movement. Today, this is seen as one of the bravest moments of Armstrong's

His contributions “ended one jazz era and started a new one” (Louis). Armstrong contributed to jazz by incorporating his own style of music. He was a soloist who played the cornet, trumpet, and sung. He created the Blues scale and incorporated a new feeling called the “Bleusy” feeling to Jazz. Bleusy was different from of music because it was being expressed more than the music itself. His work was also improvised, which means that he did not have a planned piece to play if he was performing. The pieces he played were made up on the spot which makes his pieces more expressive and in the moment. He turned jazz into an individual improvisation which did not break away from the ensemble. While swaying from the standard jazz form, he also transformed jazz from polyphony to solos. One of his most famous songs “Hotter Than That”

On the other hand, Blues were basically from work songs of African Americans slaves at the time. “It is a native American music, the product of the black man in this country, or, to put it more exactly the way I have come to think about it, blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives”(pp.17), said Jones and Baraka. In Jazz – A History, Frank Tirro wisely analyzes and explains the relationship between the unique background and

Rhythm and blues, also known today as “R & B”, has been one of the most influential genres of music within the African American Culture, and has evolved over many decades in style and sound. Emerging in the late 1940's rhythm and blues, sometimes called jump blues, became dominant black popular music during and after WWII. Rhythm and blues artists often sung about love, relationships, life troubles, and sometimes focused on segregation and race struggles. Rhythm and blues helped embody what was unique about black American culture and validate it as something distinctive and valuable.

No black person can escape the blues, because the blues are an inherent part of the black existence in America. To be black is to be blue. The blues tell us about black people’s attempt to carve out a significant existence in a very trying situation. The purpose of the blues is to give structure to black existence in a context where color means rejection and humiliation. Suffering and its relation to blackness is inseparable from the meaning of the blues. Without pain and suffering, and what that meant for black people in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas, there would have been no blues. The blue mood means sorrow, frustration, despair, and black people’s attempt to take these existential realities upon themselves and not lose their sanity. The blues are not art for art’s sake, music for music’s sake. They are a way of life, a life-style of the black community; and the will for survival. Thus to seek to understand the blues apart from the suffering that created them is to misinterpret them and distort the very creativity that defines them (Cone, 1980).

Nowadays the blues revolve around the meaning of sadness but doesn’t have a true message of fighting for survival or deprivation of freedom. In the process of searching for the modern day blues, it was discovered that the music is compiled by mostly Caucasian artist compared to the past where it was conceived by blacks to prompt their practices and beliefs.

At the heart of jazz, the blues was a creation of former black slaves who adapted their African musical heritage to the American environment. The blues is a 12-bar musical form with a call-and-response format between the singer and his guitar dealing with themes of personal adversity, overcoming hard luck, and other emotional turmoil.