Music is a part of people’s daily lives. People listen to music to focus, dance, sing along or purely to be inspired and start their own music journey, people enjoy music because of the variety of genres, such as R&B, hip-hop, pop, jazz and many more; many artists in the past either directly or indirectly contributed to modern day music. One of these influential artists is Louis Armstrong.
Louis Armstrong was an African-American trumpeter and vocalist born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He became popular when he joined King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. Armstrong made many contributions to jazz and his records are very influential in the music industry. He appeared on Broadway and toured around the world until his death, in 1971, which was a result of a heart attack.
Lorenzo M. Thrower, a Security Officer for Safety, talks about Louis Armstrong and his impact on jazz and modern day music. He says, “To have a talented young man who started playing at the age of 11, he just had a unique sound in his music which transcended music as a whole, and catapulted jazz music to another level.”
Louis Armstrong developed the rhythmic language of swing, which is a style of music in which the beat feels bouncy and flowy. Armstrong made it the basis of jazz, he also inspired a new approach to singing.
According to the New York Times, “By the 1940s and ‘50s he was regularly included on lists of the most admired Americans.”
Armstrong was not only an inspiring jazz musician, he was also considered a hero for being the only Black jazz musician to speak out against school segregation. He risked his career and called out the government because of the injustice taking place at Little Rock, in Arkansas, by stating, “The way they’re treating my people in the south, the government can go to hell.”
Educating youth and other people of different stages about African-American history is crucial since it helps broaden a person’s knowledge of Black history and allows them to understand the achievements of African-Americans, despite being constantly discriminated against in the past.
Thrower shares, “Well, if you want people to know more about Black history, something you can do is you talk about it and mention specific individuals. Did you know that there was a famous African-American who developed or invented a particular device. By sharing that and talking about it, you would be educating people since they probably wouldn’t have known that.”
Black Student Association member and senior, Sarah Sore, talks about the importance of Black History Month and learning more about individuals like Louis Armstrong, stating, “I feel like there’s nothing that really gets told about Black History Month. If the school was to do something like a little advisory lesson or something like that would be really good and I feel like a lot of people during Black History Month think of the bad but they don’t think of the good.”
School education and stopping someone to tell them about an invention an African-American invented is not the only way to educate people about Black history. The media plays a role in raising awareness about Black history.
BSA member, Cece Brown, senior, shares, “I feel like spreading awareness through Instagram posts, articles, there’s literally everything on the internet so I feel like in order to gain a lot of attention and recognition to a lot of Black artists, then yeah, the media does play a role in promoting Black history.”
Louis Armstrong overall had a major impact on jazz and modern day music. By starting music young, he inspired many artists, despite being African-American, which was considered a disadvantage in the past. He is not the only person who should be remembered during Black History Month. Black History Month should not be overlooked and the educating of Black history in schools is crucial since it broadens a person’s knowledge of the topic and allows pupils to view life in different perspectives. Many accounts on social media apps promote Black history and many artists as well are proud of being African-American and proudly represent their culture.
