DiCarlo 1
Vittorio DiCarlo
Danielle Gervasio
HUM 291
12/14/15
Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, and Eminem
When Africans brought their music to America, the only people that listened to the
music was they. It began with just the voices they brought with them and something to make a
simple beat. As years past and their music began becoming more complex, it caught atten0on. It
caught the atten0on of many people from the people that created the music, to the white slave
owners that were so against it at first. Music started to become an earlier version of what we
know it as today. This form of art that nobody saw coming was blurring lines thought to be
impossible to cross. Music through the generation has changed, but not without leaving
behind traces of the last style. Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley and Marshall Mathers have
similarities and difference such as use of their voice, lyrical content, and influence that create
unique musical content throughout their generation.
Jazz as an art form developed through the advancement of styles of music such as field
hollers and spirituals. For a style of music to develop, or music in general, there have to be
artist with the willingness and talent to progress it. With that talent and willingness, the music
gains popularity and opens up opportunities for other ar0st to put their take on the music.
When an ar0st adds their style to music, it comes from their influence, and ends up leaving an
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in4uence. One person that was a massive in4uence to not only Jazz, but all music that came
a:er it, was Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong was born August 4, 1901. In the 1920’s is when
Louis Armstrong became the legend he is today. When he started creating this music, it did not
just happen on its own; Armstrong had a mentor. This mentor’s name was Joe Oliver, or Joe
“King” Oliver. “Oliver, as we have been told, taught him more than anybody else about Jazz
(Jones & Chilton, 56). Oliver began his journey in music as a trombonist and created a band
called King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. With this band, he ended up in Chicago, where Louis
Armstrong joined the band (Jones & Chilton, 40). In this band, Armstrong learn extremely
quickly, and to be a natural at music helps the process of being a successful musician. As
Armstrong continued to learn and play with Oliver, he began to develop his own stylings of the
music.
A:er working with Oliver, Armstrong went along to be one of the highest regarded jazz
soloists. However, he was not the first solo ar0st, “he standardized the “theme–solo–theme”
format that became the grammar of jazz for decades” (The Mississippi Rag). A theme–solo—
theme format of music is when the ar0st starts by playing the songs main chorus, transi0ons
into their solo, then transi0ons back to the chorus using their instrument. In the jazz world,
brass instruments are heavily used, and with brass instruments used, the length and quality of a
solo is determined by the strength of an ar0st. That stated, Louis Armstrong came from the
tradition of strength over ar0stry, being reported to have “hit over 1:y high C’s in a row” (The
Mississippi Rag). With jazz, brass is not the only instrument that is used; a strong and diverse
voice is also beneficial. Louis Armstrong began with the trumpet as his primary instrument
during the twen0es, “but it was not until the 1930’s that the full range of his vocal talents
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emerged” (The Mississippi Rag) and he was able to utilize his voice as a second instrument by
using scat singing. “Scat is almost always defined, without further comment, as singing or vocal
improvising with ‘nonsense syllables’” (Edwards, 618). With this said, Louis Armstrong was not
the first to create this style of singing, but he was known for it. What started the legacy was
“The Heebie Jeebies Dance”; a lyric by Boyd Atkins that Armstrong, along with the rest of his
Hot Five, was trying to sing. While he was trying to sing the lyrics o3 the paper, he dropped the
paper, and doing that he claims that he “turned back into the horn and just started to ScaOng”
(Edwards, 618). Scat is a general term, but there are subdivisions of this style of singing that
create different effect for what the ar0st is trying to go for. One type of scaOng is jive talk. Jive
talk was a more secre0ve type of singing that only select artist knew how to accomplish as,
“This jive is a private a3air,” Mezzrow writes, “a secret inner-circle code cooked up partly to
mys0fy the outsiders, while it brings those in the know closer together because they alone have
the key to the puzzle. The hipster’s lingo is a private kind of folk-poetry, meant for the ears of
the brethren alone” (Edwards, 626). These artist were creating styles of music inside styles of
music, adding depth to an already bottomless pit of possibility. With these endless possibilities,
jazz transformed, creating various genres of music, and one of the most important ones that
eventually developed was Rock and Roll.
Rock and Roll has become one of the most widely known genres of music ever created
and played. As this form of music caught on, musicians came out to play it, and with that, Elvis
Presley was discovered. Elvis is known to be the “King of Rock and Roll” because of all the
