Vocal jazz, traditional jazz: “Dream a Little Dream of Me” (two versions)

Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald (1951).

In the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys, Louis Armstrong was taught to play tambourine and drum, then alto sax, next bugle and finally cornet, eventually becoming leader of the 15-piece brass band. Then he would proudly parade through his old neighborhood or perform at country parties and public events playing popular songs and simple hymns. When he was released in 1914 he was taken into the custody of his father, who forced him to sell coal again and to work on the docks, but when his stepmother gave birth to a daughter, his father turned his back on him, so he returned to his mother and began looking for jobs as a cornetist.

Armstrong found employment in ballrooms and doing substitutions in honky-tonks (bars with musical entertainment typical of the southern United States), and gathered an ensemble with drummer John Lindsay. Soon after he met Joe Oliver in person, considered at the time the best cornetist in New Orleans and nicknamed “the King”, and took lessons from him in exchange for running errands for his wife. He learned innovative musical approaches that departed from the ragtime and blues that prevailed in Louisiana.

Then Armstrong continued to perform in different venues and developed a technique similar to that of his mentor, who was like a father to him, especially playing blues. In 1918 King Oliver got an offer to work in Chicago leaving his position in Kid Ory’s band, the most popular in town, and recommended Armstrong to replace him, since he knew the repertoire well. The massive exodus of half a million African-Americans to the north fleeing from racism and in search of new opportunities allowed Armstrong to be part of a number of street parade brass bands that needed new musicians, such as the Silver Leaf Band and the famous Tuxedo Brass Band of trumpeter Papa Celestin. In 1919 Kid Ory dissolved his group and went to California, where he participated in the first recordings of black orchestras.

Louis Armstrong & His All Stars. From the album What a Wonderful World (1968).