Thus began one of the great periods in the life of jazz music, the history of the city of Chicago, and the career of Louis Armstrong. Jazz and dancing were hot, and the opening of a large number of dance halls on Chicago's North and South sides had taken a bite out of the loop theatre business. King Oliver had struck gold in Chicago, and his band was recognized as one of the hottest in town. Louis and Oliver were soon playing harmonized trumpet breaks that had club patrons and musicians alike packing into the Lincoln Gardens to hear the band. Armstrong soon realized that, as the new trumpet player in Oliver's band, he was a bit of a celebrity. He and the band's pianist, Lil Hardin, began to hang out together, taking in the clubs and variety of music that the city had to offer. Hardin had a side gig at the Edelweiss Gardens, an after-hours club, and Louis used to accompany her there.

In 1923 King Oliver got offers to take the band on the road for good money, and Louis accepted the travel, even though some members of the band didn't want to tour and were replaced. Much of the year was spent on the road, and at the end of the year, Louis was summoned to New York to be part of Fletcher Henderson's band. Armstrong explained to Oliver that this was his big chance to go to New York and Oliver, big-hearted and paternal towards Louis as he was, released Armstrong. Arriving in New York, Armstrong took his place in Henderson's band alongside such names as Coleman Hawkins, Don Redman, Kaiser Marshall, and Charles Dixon. During his tenure with the band they recorded extensively, working with Bessie Smith and Clarence Williams. Around the end of 1925, Lil Hardin, to whom Louis was now married, suggested that he return to Chicago "because it would be nicer for us to starve together than to be apart so long." Some say that Armstrong left because Henderson was unwilling to allow the gravel-voiced trumpet player to sing.

Upon his arrival back in Chicago, Armstrong began to record under his own name and to build the work that cemented his reputation as one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time. There was still a lot of opportunity for a musician in Chicago, and Louis and Lil worked in a variety of groups and venues. But it was his recordings as leader of the Hot Fives (later the Hot Sevens) that really gained Louis fame. The group included Armstrong, Hardin (piano), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Kid Ory (trombone), and Johnny St. Cyr (banjo).

The effect of these performances on the future direction of jazz music can hardly be overemphasized. The New Orleans ensemble style of playing had reigned from its inception to the mid-twenties. Armstrong and King Oliver had created a sensation with their ensemble work when Louis first arrived in Chicago, but now he helped usher in the new era of the jazz soloist. Part of the reason for this musical shift is simply that Louis was an inventive and innovative improviser, and his solos could carry the scrutiny of close listening without becoming repetitive or boring. This is truly the music on which Armstrong's reputation as a jazz musician rests, and it is magnificent. The band eventually expanded into the Hot Sevens (adding drums and tuba) and beyond into larger bands, with musicians such as Jack Teagarden and Earl Hines applying Louis' solo inventiveness to their own instruments. It is often pointed out that Louis' supporting musicians on the early Hot Fives sides aren't really in the same league with him musically. This is largely true, not because the other musicians aren't able and excellent musicians, but rather because Armstrong is simply that far out in front of them with his conception of what he is playing. As Wynton Marsalis points out, "That's what makes Armstrong so unbelievable, is the confidence that he did it with. There's no hesitation. It's really manifested in the breaks, when the whole band stops, and he plays by himself. It's like the ultimate moment of truth."

The recording of the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens sides was an extraordinary project, since the groups were really studio bands that Armstrong never played with live. It was as if he absorbed what was going on in jazz in New York for a few years with Fletcher Henderson's band, then returned to Chicago to turn the jazz world on its ear. His solos on "Potato Head Blues" and the famous "West End Blues" demonstrate that he had thoroughly mastered his instrument and was very much a jazz virtuoso. To his technical prowess he added boldness and an absolute belief in the music he was making. His recording here of "Heebie Jeebies" is generally credited with being the invention of (or at least the first mainstream example of) scat singing. Though many of the tunes on these recordings are popular music or rather banal blues of the time, Armstrong always jumps out with his seemingly endless inventiveness and an enthusiasm that rescues almost any material.

The 1920's in Chicago are often thought of as the Golden Age of Jazz. Chicago was the jazz center of the universe and Armstrong was its most innovative practitioner. The depression would end all that, though it could not stop the career of Louis Armstrong. The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens recordings made him wildly famous, and by 1929 he was ready to leave Chicago and return to New York to claim the place in popular culture that he had made for himself. Though he still had some fine performances ahead of him, never again would Louis seem to be so ahead of the jazz mainstream. As he himself said: "It sort of choked me up to leave. All in all, looking back, in Chicago from 1922 to 1929 I spent some of my finest days, maybe even my best."

Louis Armstrong Artist Page
Louis' New Orleans Days