CHAPTER 6: Louis Armstrong and the First Great Soloists
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. All of the following are aspects of Louis Armstrong’s legacy EXCEPT:
a.
transformed the social music of New Orleans into an art
b.
influenced popular and country performers with his phrasing and spontaneity
c.
influenced symphonic trumpet players with his vibrato
d.
only major figure of Western music to influence the music of his era equally as an
instrumentalist and as a vocalist
e.
became the most influential composer in the jazz community
2. How did Louis Armstrong change people’s understanding of the blues?
a.
showed that the blues were a mere fashion, like ragtime
b.
arranged blues tunes with Broadway-style scoring
c.
established blues scales and blues feeling as the foundation of jazz style
d.
established a large repertoire of blues vocal tunes that are often played by today’s jazz
musicians
e.
introduced the blues to New York City
3. In what way did Louis Armstrong help to shape our understanding of the role of improvisation
within jazz practice?
a.
established collective improvisation as the main kind of jazz improvisation
b.
established jazz as music that prizes individual expression through solo improvisation
c.
wrote an influential series of guides to improvisation
d.
established the development of technique as an end in itself
e.
carefully composed a large body of passages and played them the same every time
4. Which best describes Louis Armstrong’s innovative approach to singing?
a.
established a virtuosic singing style, full of rapid vocal runs and embellishments
b.
in his solos, alternated singing and playing trumpet phrase by phrase
c.
brought a formal, classical style of singing into jazz
d.
with his scat vocals and his delivery of lyrics, introduced a true jazz vocal style
e.
he combined elements from the styles of Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday into something
new
5. What was unique about Louis Armstrong’s song repertory?
a.
Unlike most singers, he stayed within the strict boundaries of traditional New Orleans
repertoire.
b.
He recorded only tunes by African American songwriters.
c.
He broadened jazz repertoire by creating masterworks based on Tin Pan Alley tunes.
d.
He recorded only his own original compositions.
e.
He made use of no preexisting songs, instead improvising all aspects of every
performance.
6. In what way was Louis Armstrong’s approach to rhythm innovative?
a.
adhered closely to ragtime rhythmic style when it was going out of style
b.
introduced an energetic, joyful approach to swing
c.
recorded only medium- and slow-tempo pieces
d.
recorded tunes in odd meters well before other jazz musicians did
e.
performed with metronomic precision and expected the same of his bandmates
7. Why did Louis Armstrong claim that his birthdate was July 4, 1900?
a.
He was born that day.
b.
He called himself “America’s Baby.”
c.
He wanted to perform on Mississippi riverboats, but he was underage.
d.
So that he could join the army.
e.
He planned to run for political office.
8. In 1918, Louis Armstrong replaced Joe Oliver in the band led by:
a.
Kid Ory
b.
Jelly Roll Morton
c.
Fletcher Henderson
d.
Bix Beiderbecke
e.
Lil Hardin
9. What experience did Louis Armstrong gain through his work with Fate Marable?
a.
improved his ability to read musical notation
b.
learned to adapt the expressive New Orleans style to written arrangements
c.
enlarged his repertoire of songs
d.
grew accustomed to the rigors of constant travel
e.
all of the above
10. In 1922, Joe Oliver sent Louis Armstrong a message inviting him to join Oliver’s band in which
northern city?
a.
New York
b.
Chicago
c.
Detroit
d.
Philadelphia
e.
Boston
11. What did Louis Armstrong’s second wife, musician Lil Hardin, encourage him to do?
a.
return to New Orleans
b.
stop playing jazz and study classical music
c.
leave King Oliver’s band and establish himself as a bandleader
d.
explore the Los Angeles jazz scene
e.
join Fletcher Henderson in New York
12. Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings updated conventional ideas about small
group jazz in all of the following ways EXCEPT:
a.
shifted emphasis from collective improvisation to solo improvisation
b.
replaced multistrain ragtime form with single-theme choruses of popular song and blues
c.
limited improvisations to two- and four-measure breaks
d.
presented daring and creative improvisations
e.
included solo improvisations lasting a full chorus or more
13. Louis Armstrong’s “Hotter Than That” features which musician as a guest?
a.
Robert Johnson, guitarist
b.
Jelly Roll Morton, pianist
c.
Sidney Bechet, saxophonist
d.
Lonnie Johnson, guitarist
e.
Coleman Hawkins, saxophonist
14. Which of the following describes Earl Hines’s approach to rhythm?
a.
steady, on-the-beat background chords
b.
propulsive boogie-woogie patterns
c.
slow-moving regular rhythms
d.
using tremolo to give the sense of no rhythmic movement
e.
an idiosyncratic style that played constant games with the rhythmic pulse
15. Which of the following is a benefit of learning jazz through recordings?
a.
Young people were exposed to jazz without needing to live in a particular area.
b.
Owning records encouraged repetition and memorization.
c.
Recordings enabled freedom from the confines of tradition.
d.
All of the above
e.
None of the above
16. Which band did Bix Beiderbecke join in 1923?
a.
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
b.
The Wolverines
c.
The Creole Jazz Band
d.
The New Orleans Rhythm Kings
e.
The Hot Nine
17. Which is NOT true of the Austin High Gang?
a.
They were a group of white jazz musicians born mostly between 1904 and 1909 and active
in Chicago.
b.
They were named after a Chicago high school some of them attended.
c.
They created the Chicago style, which featured aggressive rhythms, expansive solos, and
polyphonic theme statements.
d.
Their music was a rebellion against white middle class culture.
e.
Their ranks included only horn players.
18. The ballad tempo of “Singin’ the Blues” is novel, because such slow tempos were usually reserved
for performances in which genre?
a.
blues
b.
Tin Pan Alley
c.
symphonic jazz
d.
foxtrot
e.
polka
19. In whose big band did Coleman Hawkins play for eleven years?
a.
Duke Ellington
b.
Paul Whiteman
c.
Fletcher Henderson
d.
Louis Armstrong
e.
Bix Beiderbecke
20. Which trumpet player made a strong impact on Coleman Hawkins’s tenor saxophone style?
a.
Bix Beiderbecke
b.
Louis Armstrong
c.
James “Bubber” Miley
d.
Jimmy McPartland
e.
Joe Oliver
21. On “One Hour,” Coleman Hawkins demonstrated a new approach to jazz saxophone through his
use of:
a.
furious arpeggios
b.
on-the-beat staccato playing
c.
enigmatic rhythmic shifts
d.
relaxed, expressive legato playing
e.
high-register altissimo playing
22. Later in his career, Louis Armstrong had great success in all of the following international
locations EXCEPT:
a.
Moscow
b.
London
c.
Paris
d.
Copenhagen
e.
Accra
23. Louis Armstrong took a controversial public stand on which civil rights issue?
a.
voting rights
b.
reparations
c.
segregation
d.
equal pay
e.
social welfare
TRUE/FALSE
1. Louis Armstrong’s birthdate is July 4, 1900.
2. Louis Armstrong lived a privileged childhood and was destined for success from the day he was
born.
3. When Louis Armstrong began performing with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, his brilliant
trumpet timbre was a revelation to other Chicago musicians.
4. In 1924, Louis Armstrong worked extensively with blues singers such as Bessie Smith.
5. Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven bands played in public with great frequency in the late
1920s.
6. “Weather Bird” was an immediate hit for Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines as soon as they
recorded it in 1928.
7. By the end of the 1920s, white jazz musicians were scorned and ostracized by black artists and
white audiences.
8. Bix Beiderbecke enjoyed a long career as the most famous jazz trumpeter in America.
9. The solos by Frank Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke on “Singin’ the Blues” are believed to be the
first jazz solos to which lyrics were later added by later musicians.
10. Louis Armstrong’s recordings did not sell nearly as well as those of his white contemporaries.
11. During the Civil Rights era, Louis Armstrong became deeply invested in American politics.
12. Seventeen years after his death, Louis Armstrong had a number 1 hit with the song “Hello, Dolly.”
SHORT ANSWER
1. Louis Armstrong grew up in an area of New Orleans known as ____________, so named for the
prevalence of violence, crime, and prostitution in the neighborhood.
2. Louis Armstrong left the bands led by Fate Marable and Fletcher Henderson because they
wouldn’t let him ________.
3. In his fourteen months with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, Louis Armstrong recorded more
than _____________ songs.
4. New Orleans guitarist _______________ had a successful career as a jazz performer in the 1920s
before becoming a popular blues singer in the 1940s and after.
5. To increase the volume of his melodic lines, Earl Hines sometimes made use of __________, a
quick repeated alternation of two or more piano notes.
6. Bix Beiderbecke was among the first generation of musicians who learned about jazz via
____________.
7. The __________ saxophone has a strong, limber sound that is a cross between an alto and a tenor.
C-melody
MATCHING
Match each musician to the correct instrument that they played in Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five.
a.
Clarinet
d.
Piano
b.
Banjo
e.
Trumpet
c.
Trombone
1. Lil Hardin
2. Johnny Dodds
3. Louis Armstrong
4. Kid Ory
5. Johnny St. Cyr
ESSAY
1. Discuss Louis Armstrong’s importance to jazz and to American culture more broadly. Address his
musical innovations, but also include a discussion of his social impact as a public figure.
2. Listen to Louis Armstrong’s fanfare at the beginning of “West End Blues.” Compare and contrast
the cadenza’s two phrases in Armstrong’s use of rhythm, pitch, and phrasing. In what ways is this
fanfare analogous to Armstrong’s position within American culture?
3. What is the relationship between composers and performers in the period covered in Chapter 6?
Provide two specific examples that demonstrate the dynamics of this relationship.