History of Jazz. Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke: Musical Styles and Philosophies

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Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke: Musical Styles and Philosophies 1. Introduction
In a jazz worldview, myth and lore often conspire to generate stories about jazz musicians and players. Originating in a South blues history and locale, and urbanized amid mass migration of black musicians and players to urban and metropolitan areas particularly to Chicago and New York, jazz has come to be a defining music genre in early 20th century and, revived, as a phoenix reemerging to confirm an enduring myth and an intergenerational lore. Perhaps, a few music genres – and, for that matter, musicians and players of such genre – continue to raise questions, and unearth new evidence, about origins, influences and developments such as in jazz. The mythical and folkloric aura of jazz becomes, moreover, further shrouded in mystery for musicians and players whose origins, development and, not least, performance styles date back to early heydays of jazz. The so-called founders or fathers of modern jazz are a case in point. Two musicians are, for current purposes, of central interest: Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke. Recognized, critically and popularly, as “founding” figures of jazz, Armstrong and Beiderbecke might, however, share little, if at all, in musicianship. Against radically different social origins, racial affiliation, musical apprenticeship, and, not least, performance styles, Armstrong and Beiderbecke are, perhaps, at odds in several music and non-music-related ways. To put matters into perspective, a closer examination is required of how each artist, raised and
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developed differently, has come to be one as is now perceived and, perhaps, more importantly,
has been developed into one specific cast. In an attempt to understand Armstrong and
Beiderbecke, current essay aims to offer a critical overview of Louis Armstrong’s and Bix
Beiderbecke’s musical background and influences as well as political and social conditions each
developed under in order to understand each artist’s musical styles and philosophies and to,
ultimately, reflect on why Armstrong has risen to world popularity whilst Beiderbecke has lapsed
into relative obscurity.
2. Musical Backgrounds and Influences
Born and raised in jazz’s ultimate birthplace and development, or so myth and lore go, Armstrong had modest social origins – so common to most, if not all, African-Americans during his age. Born on August 4, 1901 to Mayann, an abandoned single mother, in “The Battlefield” neighborhood, New Orleans, Louisiana Armstrong dropped out of school early only to work for a Jewish family, Karnofskys (“Biography”). This early experience, cited by biographers and frequently recalled by Armstrong, was profound. Making money at an early age, well-treated by his employers, and, not least, having enough space away from his mother’s cramped quarters, enabled Armstrong to “stray” about listening to and learning from players in jazz’s iconic New Orleans. This sense of freedom could perhaps explain how, working in a fairly conventional ensemble-style for Joe “King...