Topic > Louis Armstrong: Role Model for Young African Americans in the 1920s

The 1920s were a time of victory, freedom, and the widespread growth of jazz. World War I had just ended and many Americans felt free and ready to celebrate. This has led to an increase in people frequenting bars and nightclubs. One of the most famous names in jazz is Louis Armstrong, who became a huge hit in nightclubs such as the Cotton Club. Armstrong was ordered to perform "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue" by a New York gangster , Dutch Schultz. His version of "Black and Blue" became one of the most popular versions of that song. Louis Armstrong's version of the song represented 1920s jazz very well thanks to its use of breaks and riffs. For example, his repetition of the phrase “Black and Blue”. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. However, his style was different from the upbeat, fast-paced jazz that many were accustomed to in the 1920s. Louis Armstrong introduced a more bluesy approach to jazz which caused a change in the late 1920s. This can be seen through "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue" as the song has a different style than the jazz many were used to. It uses blue notes, a blues chord progression, call and response, improvisation, and a repeating lyrical structure. These characteristics differed from traditional jazz and aroused the interest of many Americans, not just Americans. While Armstrong was in Ghana as US ambassador, he played several songs for the 100,000 citizens who showed up to his concert. During the concert, many riots broke out, leading the police to use clubs on the audience. Because of the sympathy for the people, Armstrong played "Black and Blue". “He was referring to the sense of struggle between a people who were emerging from decades of colonialism with optimism but were not yet free, that sense of shared struggle was reciprocated. Among the scenes captured by the film crew was a shot of Nkrumah as Armstrong sang "Black and Blue." The prime minister had tears in his eyes." Armstrong's version of the song “Black and Blue” was not the only version of the song. An early rendition of the song was written by Fats Waller and sung by Edith Wilson. This version of the song was written as a jazz piece. It was an example of underground jazz as it used two singers and a piano. The original meaning behind this version was the unfair treatment of African Americans. At the time this article was being written, racism was still widespread, and Waller wanted to shed light on the limited rights and privileges that African Americans had compared to other races in the United States. Many restaurants, workplaces, swimming pools, and even fountains and bathrooms were racially segregated. This unfair advantage led to African Americans getting harder jobs with more hours and less pay. However, Louis Armstrong took a very different approach to the song in his version. He pared down the lyrics and added his own touches to the instrumentals. He tried to take a more fun approach to the song due to where his music sounded. He played clubs that hosted rich white people most of the time, and they didn't want to hear about how oppressed African Americans were when they were trying to relax and party. “In Hot Chocolates Razaf's lyrics were preceded by a line in which a dark-skinned woman complains about intraracial prejudice. On one record, Armstrong ditched the verse and turned the chorus into a threnody for blacks of all shades. Yet there was nothing eerie about the way he sang “Black/.