Jazz Age

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Armstrong closed the book on the dynastic tradition in New Orleans jazz.
The first true virtuoso soloist of jazz, Louie Armstrong was a dazzling improviser, technically, emotionally, and intellectually. Armstrong, often called the “father of jazz,” always spoke with deference, bordering on awe, of his musical roots, and with especial devotion of his mentor Joe Oliver. He changed the format of jazz by bringing the soloist to the forefront, and in his recording groups, the Hot Five and the Hot seven, demonstrated that jazz improvisation could go far beyond simply ornamenting the melody. Armstrong was one of the first jazz musicians to refine a rhythmic conception that abandoned the stiffness of ragtime, employed swing light-note patterns, and he used a technique called “rhythmic displacement.” Rhythmic displacement was sometimes staggering the placement of an entire phrase, as though he were playing behind the beat. He created new melodies based on the chords of the initial ...

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accept a cut in pay to join his band. Many accounts suggest that Henderson, in fact , preferred the playing of cornetist Joe Smith, and that Armstrong was hired only because Smith was unavailable. Smith lacked Armstrong’s rhythmic drive, yet his warm sound and ease of execution could hardly be faulted and may have been better receive by the average dancehall patron. Henderson was not even enthusiastic about Armstrong’s singing, an attitude that deeply frustrated the new band member. Years later Armstrong would later exclaim: “ Fletcher didn’t dig me like Joe Oliver. He had a million dollar talent in his band and he never thought to let me sing.”
Almost from the start, jazz ...

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