4. LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo, was an American jazz trumpeter, cornet player and singer. He was born into a very poor family on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, in Louisiana, the grandson of slaves. He spent his youth in poverty, his father, abandoned the family when Louis was an infant. His mother, then left Louis and his sister Beatrice in the care of his grandmother. At five he went to live with his mother and her relatives. His money as a paper boy was not enough to keep his mother away from prostitution.

At the age of five he joined a quartet of boys who sang in the streets for money. He also worked for a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant family that treated him as a family member. He later wrote a memoir of his relationship with this family. In it he describes his discovery that this family was also subject to discrimination by other white folks’ nationalities who felt that they were better than the Jewish race. He always wore the star of David in honour of the Jewish family that took him in as a child and lent him the money to buy his first cornet. Later he began travelling with the band of Fate Marable which toured on a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River.

He described this time as “going to university”. In 1918 he Married Daisy Parker . They adopted a 3 year old boy , Clarence Armstrong who was mentally disabled as a result of a head injury when he was very little. Louis took care of him even when his marriage with Daisy Parker failed and they separated. Armstrong married four times but, he had no legitimate children.

At twenty he could read music and he started to play trumpet solos, one of the jazzmen to do this. He was an influential singer , an improviser. He also influenced the popular music. His skin colour was secondary to his music in an America that was racially divided. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper American society restricted for a black man.

Armstrong made many recordings and appeared in over thirty films. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia earning the nickname “Ambassador Satch”. The nickname Satchmo is short for Satchel mouth and has origin when Louis, as a young boy, danced for pennies in the streets of New Orleans. He put the pennies into his mouth to avoid that the bigger children steal them. Someone called him “ satchel mouth” for his mouth acting as a satchel. During his long career he played and sang with some of the most important instrumentalists and vocalists of the time: among them were Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald. Armstrong had many hit records including “ Stardust”, “ What a Wonderful World”, “ When the Saints go Marching in”. He enjoyed many types of music, from blues to folksongs, to classical music.

Armstrong died of a heart attack in his sleep on July 6, 1971 at the age of 69. On the centennial of Armstrong’s birth, New Orleans’s airport was renamed, “ Louis Armstrong International Airport ” in his honour and the house where he lived is now a museum.

ACTIVITIES

Answer the questions about the text

  • How was L. Armstrong nicknamed? Why?
  • Which instruments did he play?
  • Where and when was he born?
  • How did he spent his youth? Why?
  • Why did he wear the star of David?
  • Did he marry and did he have legitimate children?
  • Who was Clarence?
  • How was the upper American society’s behavior towards him?
  • What is the origin of the nickname “Satchmo”?
  • Name some important instrumentalists and vocalists who played with him
  • Did he prefer a particular type of music?
  • Name some of his hit records
  • When and how did he die?

Listen and sing the song “What A Wonderful World”

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

I see skies of blue, clouds of white

The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night

And I think to myself what a wonderful world

The colours of the rainbow so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people going by

I see friends shaking hands saying

“how do you do”


They're really saying I love you

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow

They learn much more than I'll ever know

And I think to myself what a wonderful world

Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world

Vedo alberi verdi e rose rosse

Li vedo fiorire per me e per te

E penso tra me: che mondo meraviglioso

Vedo cieli azzurri, nuvole bianche

Il giorno luminoso e benedetto, la notte sacra e oscura

E penso tra me: che mondo meraviglioso

I colori dell’ arcobaleno, così graziosi nel cielo

Sono anche sui volti delle persone che passano

Vedo amici che si stringono la mano, dicendo

"come stai”?


In realtà si stanno dicendo “ti voglio bene”

Sento bambini piangere, li vedo crescere

Imparano più di quanto io mai potrò sapere

E penso tra me “ che mondo meraviglioso”

Si, penso tra me “ che mondo meraviglioso”