Jazz

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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 tune. He also set standards for all later jazz singers, not
only by the ...

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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."
During the 1930s a new style of jazz emerged. It became the
most ...

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