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![Hello - David Cook [HQ]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110527064716im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mpR0uunWmGQ/0.jpg "Hello - David Cook [HQ]")
| Title | Hello |
|---|---|
| Image file | Hello! magazines.jpg | image_size = 200px | image_caption = |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Category | Celebrity |
| Company | Hello Ltd (Spain) |
| Firstdate | 1988 |
| Fiinaldate | - |
| Finalnumber | - |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Website | www.hellomagazine.com |
HELLO! is a weekly magazine specializing in celebrity news and human-interest stories, published in the United Kingdom. HELLO! is sister magazine to ¡Hola!, the Spanish weekly magazine launched in Spain in 1944. ¡HOLA! Spanish, HELLO! UK, and ¡HOLA! Mexican – launched in 2006 – make up the magazines published by HOLA, S.A and distributed in over 100 countries. Local editions of the magazine are also published in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Greece, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Middle East, Morocco, Russia, Serbia, Thailand, Bulgaria and Turkey.
¡HOLA! launched HELLO! in the U.K. in 1988 and it quickly became known for its excellent photos and respectful treatment of celebrities. In the U.K., HELLO! magazine is an award-winning weekly celebrity news magazine and a household name.
The success of both magazines led to the expansion of the brand across the world, after exports to over 70 countries bolstered the company’s international presence. Today, editions of the magazine are produced in Brazil, Canada, Greece, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Middle East, Morocco, Russia, Serbia, Thailand, and Turkey. In total there are 14 editions of the magazine and seven websites.
The magazine’s respectful treatment of celebrities allows it to maintain a friendly relationship with many stars. Through these relationships the magazine often obtains exclusive photos and interviews directly from the stars. Many of the biggest exclusives in recent memory have been published by HELLO!, including the births of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children Shiloh, Vivienne and Knox, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ wedding, and Sandra Bullock’s debut of her son. Coverage of royalty comprises a significant portion of the magazine’s content.
| Name | Hellomagazine.com |
|---|---|
| Url | www.hellomagazine.com |
| Commercial | yes |
| Type | Celebrity & Lifestyle |
| Language | English |
| Owner | Hello! |
| Author | Hello Ltd. (Spain) |
| Launch date | January, 2001 |
| Current status | active |
Hellomagazine.com is the official website of the weekly celebrity news magazine HELLO!. Started in 2001 to complement the magazine, the website contains separate content to the weekly magazine, reporting celebrity news on a daily rather than weekly basis. The site is updated throughout the day, seven days a week.
The site provides users with photos, news stories and video content in the following categories: Celebrities, Fashion, Royalty, Beauty, Brides, Cuisine, Travel and Your Weddings.
At the end of each year, hellomagazine.com hosts three polls that draw international attention: Most Attractive Man, Most Attractive Woman, and Most Elegant Woman. In January 2010, Hugh Laurie was named Most Attractive Man, while Kristen Stewart won Most Attractive Woman, and Angelina Jolie was voted Most Elegant Woman. Altogether, the polls totaled close to 750,000 votes.
Aside from the British website, the HELLO! group has websites in:
2006 – Hello!, which secured the British rights to the first images of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's newborn daughter, launched legal action with People against two websites that printed a leaked exclusive shot of the couple with their new baby daughter. The leaked photo, which contains Hello! magazine's logo, shows a headline which reads: "The biggest exclusive of the year. Angelina and Brad with their new Baby Shiloh Nouvel." People magazine reportedly paying more than $4 million USD to secure the American rights.
Category:British magazines Category:Serbian magazines Category:Turkish magazines Category:Canadian entertainment magazines Category:News magazines Category:Celebrity magazines Category:Entertainment magazines Category:Weekly magazines Category:Magazines established in 1988
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Lionel Richie |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Lionel Brockman Richie |
| Born | June 20, 1949 Tuskegee, Alabama, United States |
| Instrument | Vocals, piano/keyboards, saxophone |
| Genre | Soul, R&B;, pop, pop rock |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer, actor |
| Years active | 1968–present |
| Label | Island, MCA, Motown |
| Associated acts | Diana Ross, Commodores, Nicole Richie, Alabama (band), Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Patti Labelle, USA for Africa |
| Url |
By the late 1970s, he had begun to accept songwriting commissions from other artists. He composed "Lady" for Kenny Rogers, which hit #1 in 1980, and produced Rogers's album Share Your Love the following year. Richie and Rogers maintained a strong friendship in later years. Latin jazz composer and salsa romantica pioneer La Palabra enjoyed international success with his cover of "Lady," which was played at Latin dance clubs. Also in 1981, Richie sang the theme song for the film Endless Love, a duet with Diana Ross. Issued as a single, the song topped the UK and U.S. pop music charts, and became one of Motown's biggest hits. Its success encouraged Richie to branch out into a full-fledged solo career in 1982. He was replaced as lead singer for The Commodores by Skyler Jett in 1983. His debut album, Lionel Richie, produced another chart-topping single, "Truly," which continued the style of his ballads with the Commodores.
Several more Top 10 hits followed, the most successful of which was the ballad "Hello" (1984), a sentimental love song that showed how far Richie had moved from his R&B; roots. Richie had three more Top Ten hits in 1984, "Stuck on You" (#3), "Running with the Night" (#7) and "Penny Lover" (#8). Now described by one critic as "the black Barry Manilow," in 1985 Richie wrote and performed a suitably soothing theme song, "Say You, Say Me," for the film White Nights, winning an Oscar for his efforts as well as reaching #1 on the U.S. charts and staying there for four weeks, making it the #1 song of 1985 according to Billboard's year-end Hot 100 chart. He also collaborated with Michael Jackson on the charity single "We Are the World" by USA for Africa, another #1 hit.
In 1986, Richie released Dancing on the Ceiling, his last widely popular album, which produced a run of US and UK hits including "Say You, Say Me" (U.S. #1), "Dancing on the Ceiling" (U.S. #2), "Ballerina Girl" (U.S. #7), and "Se La" (U.S. #20), Richie's most recent U.S. Pop Top Twenty hit. The title selection was accompanied by a video directed by Stanley Donen, which drew inspiration from Royal Wedding, a 1951 Fred Astaire film Donen had directed. The critical consensus was that this album represented nothing more than a consolidation of his previous work, though Richie's collaboration with the country group Alabama on "Deep River Woman" did break new ground. By 1987, Richie was exhausted from his work schedule and after a controversial year laid low taking care of his father in Alabama. His father, Lionel Sr., died in 1990. Richie made his return to recording and performing following the release of his first greatest-hits collection, Back to Front, in 1992.
Since then, his ever-more-relaxed schedule has kept his recording and live work to a minimum. He broke the silence in 1996 with Louder Than Words, on which he resisted any change of style or the musical fashion-hopping of the past decade, sticking instead with his chosen path of well-crafted soul music, which in the intervening years has become known as Contemporary R&B;.
Richie's albums in the 1990s such as Louder Than Words and Time failed to match the commercial success of his earlier work. Some of his recent albums, such as Renaissance, have returned to his older style and achieved success in Europe but only modest notice in the United States. Since 2004, he has produced a total of six Top 40 singles in the UK. On February 1, 2010, Richie made a remix of "We Are The World" in which Justin Bieber sings Richie's original part in the song. Lionel Richie is to tour Australia next year and is scheduled to perform at several winery events in March 2011.
Later in 2004, he also appeared on the British motoring television series Top Gear in the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment where he was interviewed by host Jeremy Clarkson. During his lap, the Suzuki Liana he was driving lost a wheel due to hard cornering.
In November 2005, Lionel Richie performed with Kenny Rogers on a CMT Crossroads special. The show gave an informative insight into their friendship both in and out of the music world. Richie was also the headliner at a 2000 Fourth of July tribute concert with Fantasia Barrino at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. On May 7, 2006, Richie performed on the main stage (Acura Stage) at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, replacing Antoine "Fats" Domino, who had fallen ill. Richie released his eighth studio album entitled "Coming Home" on September 12, 2006. The first single of the album was "I Call It Love" and was premiered in July 2006, becoming his biggest hit in the U.S. in ten years. The album was an incredible success for Richie in the United States, peaking at #6. His adopted daughter Nicole Richie stars in the music video for this track.
On December 9, 2006, Richie hosted and performed live on the British television show An Audience with Lionel Richie. Two months later, he performed "Hello" on the 49th Grammy Awards show.
On November 25, 2007, he made a surprise appearance on the Australian Idol grand finale performing "All Night Long (All Night)" at the Sydney Opera House. Richie donated to Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign.
On May 2, 2008, Lionel Richie was the 21st recipient of the George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Achievement Award at UCLA's annual Spring Sing. In accepting the award, Richie said: "Forget about surviving 30 some odd years in the music business, Lionel Richie survived 27 years of Nicole Richie."
Recently, he has announced that he would like to get The Commodores back together soon, "or in the next 10 years no one will care." Richie is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
On December 31, 2008, Richie performed in Times Square for the New Year's Eve celebration and ball drop. He also performed on the 2009 season finale for American Idol with Danny Gokey.
A new album, Just Go was released in spring 2009 - around the time Lionel confirmed there is to be a Commodores reunion in the near future.
On July 7, 2009, Richie performed "Jesus is Love" at Michael Jackson's memorial service.
On May 30, 2010, Richie performed at the National Memorial Day Concert in Washington D.C., singing "Stuck on You" and "America the Beautiful." Richie himself is from a military family.
Ritchie will return to Australia in 2011 where he and guest artist Guy Sebastian will tour Australia and New Zealand with concert tour dates spread throughout the months of March and April 2011.
Category:1949 births Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:African American singer-songwriters Category:Musicians from Alabama Category:American keyboardists Category:American male singers Category:American pianists Category:American pop singers Category:American record producers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American soul singers Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Motown artists Category:People from Joliet, Illinois Category:People from Tuskegee, Alabama Category:Rhythm and blues pianists Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Tuskegee University alumni Category:Island Records artists
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Martin Solveig |
|---|---|
| Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| Born | September 22, 1976 Paris, France |
| Instrument | Turntable, Vocals |
| Genre | House Pop Funk |
| Occupation | Producer, DJ |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Label | Mixture Stereophonic |
| Url | www.martinsolveig.com |
Martin Picandet, better known under his stage name Martin Solveig (born September 22, 1976) is a French electronic music DJ and producer from Paris. He also hosts a weekly radio show called "C'est La Vie" on stations worldwide including FG DJ Radio in his homeland. His label is called Mixture Stereophonic.
He chose his pseudonym as an homage to the French actress Solveig Dommartin.
Solveig started to edit old tracks and loop percussions to add something different to his dj sets, then at 21 he took advantage of an internship while studying at business school to start up his own label Mixture Stereophonic. He released Heart of Africa which he took inspiration from the ‘twangy’ voice of his English teacher. The record went on to sell 10,000 copies and acted as a catalyst for Martin's career, attracting the attention of his peers and resulting in Bob Sinclar asking Martin to join the Africanism project. As part of the project, the collective released Edony which thrust Martin into an elite group of producers from France that had broken into the global market. Following graduation, Solveig ditched the books and donned the headphones, touring multiple countries around Europe.
Another interesting twist to the album was the introduction of Martin’s own vocal performances, specifically on Bottom Line and Beauty False. He uses the microphone as a tool or instrument, singing, doing sound effects and beat-boxing bass line's and rhythms.
Off the back of the success of C'est La Vie, Martin decided to reward fans by releasing a collection of remixes of tracks from the album on C'est La Vie Remixes. It featured versions of familiar favourites from Laidback Luke, Felix Da Housecat, Popof, Les Petit Pilous, the Bloody Beetroots, Tiger Stripes and Fedde Le Grand. Rejection the norm, Solveig decided to release the album via free giveaways on magazine covers to say a thank you to fans that have supported his career. It featured on the cover of DJ Mag in the UK in October 2009 and Deejay Spain in the same month.
The ‘Remixes’ CD had one addition from the original album; Boys and Girls generated huge hype across 2009. Originally selected by Jean Paul Gaultier, the track was used to celebrate his Ma Dame Rose'n'Roll fragrance and to mark Ma Dame’s 1st anniversary.
Following an infamous meeting in a bar, Gaultier told Solveig of his admiration of his work and how he would love to use a track in some way. Boys and Girls was born; the video was shot at the legendary Maison De Couture and has received over 2 million hits on Youtube to date.
The track was also available as a free download on the Ma Dame website, and its success has led to a full release scheduled for the end of 2009.
Laidback Luke, Les Petit Pilous, Bart B More and David E. Sugar have remixed Boys and Girls, with plays from Pete Tong, Kissy Sell Out and Andy George and Jaymo on BBC Radio 1.
A songwriter, composer, DJ, producer and even singer on rare occasions, Solveig's well behaved manner and unconcerned looks, couped with his sense of self mockery has endeared him to many across the world. In 2009, he was awarded the Chevalier Des Arts et Des Lettres from the French Minister of Culture to recognise significant contribution to the arts, literature or the propagation of these fields in France. Solveig further solidified his position as one of France’s most revered producers by receiving the Artiste de Musiques Electroniques de l’Annee at the French Victoires de la Musique this year. His popularity is not confined to his homeland; huge success across Europe has confirmed Solveig's longevity and talent for making music. In Belgium and Eastern Europe Martin enjoys a high level of respect, as he does in the U.K.
Notes: - Solveig was credited as Africanism.
Category:Club DJs Category:French DJs Category:French house musicians Category:Living people Category:1976 births
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Tristan Prettyman |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Born | May 23, 1982 |
| Origin | San Diego, California |
| Instrument | Acoustic Guitar |
| Label | Virgin |
| Associated acts | Jason Mraz |
| Url | Official Site |
Tristan Prettyman (born May 23, 1982) is a singer-songwriter and former Roxy model from San Diego, California. She is signed to Virgin Records and released her first major label album twentythree on August 2, 2005, followed by her second album Hello...x which was released on April 15, 2008. She is currently working on a new album according to her blogs on her Myspace page.
She attended Torrey Pines High School in neighboring SD area Carmel Valley.
At 15, she was given a cassette of Ani DiFranco's 1993 Puddle Dive by her half-brother's friend. She played the album constantly and it still has great sentimental value to her. It serves as a reminder of when her musical ambitions started to blossom.
House of Blues in 2006.]]Inspired by DiFranco's music and due in part to her nature of being a self-described "nosy kid" she entered her parents' room and began playing around with her father's old acoustic guitar. Although her parents were initially angry with her for "taking" her father's guitar, they eventually became supportive of her interest in music.
She began playing in front of friends at their homes and they encouraged her to begin writing her own material. One night, while performing for some friends, an employee of the production company The Moonshine Conspiracy, run by surf filmmaker Taylor Steele and professional surfer Chris Malloy, heard her and asked Tristan to appear in the film the company was working on at the time entitled Shelter. Tristan's song, "Anything At All" was chosen to be on the soundtrack.
Prettyman began playing in clubs and bars throughout San Diego County before being invited to join fellow San Diegan, Jason Mraz, on his national tour. The two dated and split up in 2006. According to her Twitter, Tristan dated G. Love after splitting with Mraz. In December 2010, Mraz and Prettyman announced their engagement.
Prettyman spent winter 2004 in New York collaborating with producer Josh Deutsch who had worked with Mraz and Lenny Kravitz.
Prettyman's half-brother is Cody McClintock, an independent film producer.
Tristan credits her brother with much influence on her thinking and the title of her debut album t w e n t y t h r e e pays partial homage to the 23 Enigma. A perceptual concept which refers to the abnormally high occurrence of the number 23 in daily life as described in the book Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson, as derived from friend and fellow author William S. Burroughs.
t w e n t y t h r e e was released shortly after Tristan turned 23 on May 23 of 2005. It peaked at 24 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart.
Her second album, Hello...x, sold 18,187 in its first week and debuting at 27 on the Billboard 200.
She remains very actively involved in consistently updating her official MySpace profile and blog with stories from the road, streams of consciousness, and even a "musical" collaboration with fellow songwriters Anya Marina and Greg Laswell entitled "Lindsay Goes To Rehab," a tongue-in-cheek but friendly tribute to Lindsay Lohan, who recently entered a rehabilitation facility "to take care of [her] personal health."
Tristan plays and endorses Taylor Guitars. A former Roxy model, the ever-photogenic Tristan has also has appeared in many ads for various musical products such as Taylor Guitars (including a rather famous ad where she bares the soles of her feet).
In 2008, MensFitness.com interviewed Tristan on surfing and staying active while on tour.
Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American female singers Category:American folk singers Category:American pop singers Category:American female guitarists Category:People from San Diego, California Category:Musicians from California Category:Surf musicians
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Todd Rundgren |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Born | June 22, 1948 |
| Origin | Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Genre | Rock, Progressive rock, soft rock, power pop, pop rock, hard rock, blue-eyed soul |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, video director, recording engineer, computer programmer |
| Instrument | Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, saxophone, theremin |
| Years active | 1967–present |
| Birth name | Todd Harry Rundgren |
| Label | Ampex, Bearsville |
| Associated acts | Nazz, Utopia, The New Cars, Meat Loaf, Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band |
| Url | http://www.tr-i.com/ |
| Notable instruments | Guitar |
Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings as solo artist, and during the seventies and eighties with the band Utopia. He has also been prolific as a producer and engineer on the recorded work of other musicians.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Rundgren engineered and/or produced many notable albums for other acts, including Stage Fright by The Band, We're an American Band by Grand Funk Railroad, Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf (now ranked as the fifth biggest-selling album of all time), and Skylarking by XTC. In the 1980s and 1990s his interest in video and computers led to Rundgren's "Time Heals" being the eighth video played on MTV, and "Change Myself" was generated on commercially available Amiga Computers.
His best-known songs include "Hello It's Me" and "I Saw the Light" which have heavy rotation on classic rock radio stations, and "Bang the Drum All Day" featured in many sports arenas, commercials, and movie trailers.
Rundgren's distinctive style was informed by a wide variety of musical influences—British pop-rock (notably The Beatles, The Who, The Yardbirds, Cream and The Move), the intricate vocal harmonies of the The Beach Boys, classic American rock'n'roll, Broadway musicals, the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan and American soul and R&B;, but as his music evolved he demonstrated an increasing interest in other genres as well, such as hard rock and experimental music.
Particularly during the early years of his career, Rundgren's songwriting was heavily influenced by the music of singer-songwriter Laura Nyro:
:"I knew her fairly well. I met her right after Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. I actually had arranged a meeting, just because I was so infatuated with her and I wanted to meet the person who had produced all this music. We got along, and we were kind of friendly, and actually, after I met her the first time, she asked me if I wanted to be her band leader. But the Nazz had just signed a record contract and I couldn't skip out on the band, even though it was incredibly tempting."
Rundgren's debut solo album Runt (1970) includes the strongly Nyro-influenced "Baby Let’s Swing", which was written about her and mentions her by name.
Nazz manager Michael Friedman who had joined Albert Grossman management brought Rundgren to the firm where he became both a solo artist and producer for many artists in the Grossman stable.
By 1972, the "Runt" persona/band identity had been abandoned and Rundgren's next project, the ambitious double-LP Something/Anything? (1972) was credited simply to Rundgren, who wrote, played, sang, engineered and produced everything on three of the four sides of the album. Something/Anything? featured the top 20 U.S. hits "I Saw The Light" (#16; an original song, not the Hank Williams classic), and a remake of the Nazz near-hit "Hello It's Me", which reached #5 in the U.S. and is Rundgren's biggest hit. The former song featured Rundgren on all vocals and instruments. On his ensuing concert tour, he introduced his backing band as The Hello People, whose own album he later produced.
:"It (Ritalin) caused me to crank out songs at an incredible pace. 'I Saw the Light' took me all of 20 minutes. You can see why, too, the rhymes are just moon/June/spoon kind of stuff..."
Speaking of the effect on A Wizard, A True Star, Rundgren commented:
:"With drugs I could suddenly abstract my thought processes in a certain way, and I wanted to see if I could put them on a record. A lot of people recognised it as the dynamics of a psychedelic trip - it was almost like painting with your head." Rundgren played it extensively during the early years of Utopia before retiring the instrument, which he eventually auctioned off; he now owns a reproduction NME - September 1974
His 1976 album Faithful marked a return to the pop/rock genre, featuring one side of original songs and one side of covers of significant songs from 1966, including the Yardbirds' "Happening Ten Years Time Ago" (the B-side of that Yardbirds single gave Nazz its name) and a nearly identical re-creation of the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations". Faithful was followed by Hermit of Mink Hollow (1978); this included the hit ballad "Can We Still Be Friends", which reached #29 in the U.S. and was accompanied by an innovative self-produced music video, and the album became the second most successful of his career (after Something? Anything!), reaching #36 in the U.S. During 1978 Rundgren undertook an American tour playing at smaller venues including The Bottom Line in New York and the Roxy in Los Angeles; this resulted in the double live album Back to the Bars, which featured a mixture of material from his solo work and Utopia, performed with backing musicians including Utopia, Edgar Winter, Spencer Davis, Daryl Hall and John Oates and Stevie Nicks.
Subsequent solo releases included the album-long concept work Healing (1981) and the New Wave-tinged The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect (1982) which included a cover of The Small Faces hit "Tin Soldier". The latter album also marked the end of Rundgren's tenure with Bearsville Records. He then signed with Warner Bros. Records who issued his next album, A Cappella (1985), which was recorded using Rundgren's multi-tracked voice, accompanied by arrangements constructed entirely from programmed vocal samples. "Bang the Drum All Day", from The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect was a minor chart hit which has become more prominent in subsequent years, having been adopted as an unofficial theme by several professional sports franchises, notably the Green Bay Packers, and becoming popular on radio, where it was often featured on Friday afternoons. It is now considered one of Rundgren's most popular songs. In 1986, Rundgren scored four episodes of the popular children's television show Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Nearly Human (1989) and 2nd Wind (1991) were both recorded live - the former in the studio, the latter in a theater before a live audience, which was instructed to remain silent. Each song on these albums was recorded as a complete single take with no later overdubbing. Both albums marked, in part, a return to his Philly soul roots. 2nd Wind also included several excerpts from Rundgren's musical Up Against It, which was adapted from the screenplay (originally titled "Prick Up Your Ears") that British playwright Joe Orton had originally offered to The Beatles for their never-made follow-up to Help!. 2nd Wind was Rundgren's last release through a major label and all his subsequent recordings have been self-released.
After a long absence from touring, Rundgren hit the road with Nearly Human - 2nd Wind band, which included brass and a trio of slinky backup singers (one of whom, Michele Gray, Rundgren married). He also toured during this period with Ringo Starr's All-Starr band.
The next few years saw Rundgren recording under the pseudonym TR-i ("Todd Rundgren interactive") for two albums. The first of these, 1993's No World Order, consisted of hundreds of seconds-long snippets of music that could be combined in various ways to suit the listener. Initially targeted for the Philips CD-i platform, No World Order featured interactive controls for tempo, mood, and other parameters, along with pre-programmed mixes by Rundgren himself, Bob Clearmountain, Don Was, and Jerry Harrison. The disc was also released for PC and Macintosh and in two versions on standard audio CD, the continuous mix disc No World Order and, later, the more song-oriented No World Order Lite. The music itself was quite a departure from Rundgren's previous work, with a dance/techno feel and much rapping by Rundgren. The follow-up, 1995's The Individualist, featured interactive video content that could be viewed or in one case, played; it was a simple video game along with the music, which was more rock-oriented than No World Order.
Rundgren returned to recording under his own name for With a Twist, an album of bossa-nova covers of his older material. His Patronet work, which trickled out to subscribers over more than a year, was released in 2000 as One Long Year. In 2004, Rundgren released Liars, a concept album about "paucity of truth" that features a mixture of his older and newer sounds.
In early 2008, Rundgren launched his official myspace page. Later that year, he released the rock album Arena. In concert, he had been performing the album in full and in sequence before its release.
Rundgren released the live compilation album, For Lack of Honest Work, in 2010. The album was advertised as a collection of bootleg recording that were approved by Rundgren himself.
A slightly altered version of this group performed on the eclectic 1975 live album Another Live. It featured three new extended progressive tracks (which appear only on this LP), a version of "Heavy Metal Kids" (from Todd) and covers of "Something's Coming" (from "West Side Story") and "Do Ya" by The Move. By the time this album was recorded the Utopia lineup included keyboard player/trumpeter/vocalist Roger Powell and drummer John "Willie" Wilcox.
In 1976 Siegler left Utopia and was replaced by Kasim Sulton (bass, keybaords, vocals), who had previously played with New York singer-poetess Cherry Vanilla. This formidable ensemble was widely regarded as one of the best live acts of its day -- all four members were highly accomplished on their main instrument as well as being able to played multiple other instruments, and all four could sing lead vocals.
After 1977's prog-rock fusion homage, Ra, Utopia moved toward a more concise pop-oriented style with 1977's Oops! Wrong Planet, which included "Love Is the Answer", later a hit for England Dan & John Ford Coley, followed by the more successful Adventures In Utopia in 1980, which spawned the hits "Road to Utopia", "Set Me Free" and "Caravan". During that year Utopia also acted as the backing band for the Rundgren-produced Shaun Cassidy solo album Wasp.
Other releases include Deface the Music (also 1980), an uncanny Beatles homage that borders on parody; the more politicised Swing to the Right (1981), incorporating more new wave elements; their pop-referenced, self-titled album Utopia (1982), as well as their 1983 Oblivion, which showed a cynical side of Utopia, sporting a black cover; 1985's P.O.V. includes "Mated", later a staple of Rundgren solo tours. Rundgren eventually disbanded Utopia in the mid-80s; they released Trivia (1986) as their "swan song" effort. However, in 1992 a brief tour of Japan reunited the Rundgren/Powell/Sulton/Wilcox lineup, and "Redux '92: Live In Japan" was released on Rhino Records.
Eventually, the compilation Oblivion, P.O.V. and Some Trivia was released in 1996, an effort by Rhino Records to re-release selections from the Todd/Utopia discography. In addition, many Utopia concerts from the mid-1970s onwards were taped (e.g. their 1975 London debut, recorded by BBC Radio) and these were widely bootlegged by fans, although some have since gained an official release and can now be obtained as commercial digital downloads from iTunes.
Rundgren has long been on the cutting edge of music and video technologies. His music video for the song "Time Heals" was among the first videos aired on MTV, and a video he produced for RCA, accompanied by Gustav Holst's The Planets, was used as a demo for their videodisc players. His experience with computer graphics dates back to 1981, when he developed one of the first computer paint programs, dubbed the Utopia Graphics System; it ran on an Apple II with Apple's digitizer tablet. He is also the co-developer of the computer screensaver system Flowfazer.
In the 1990s, Rundgren was an early adopter of the NewTek Video Toaster and made several videos with it. The first, for "Change Myself" from 2nd Wind, was widely distributed as a demo reel for the Toaster; he also used the system for videos from No World Order (songs "Fascist Christ" and "Property"). Later, he set up a company to produce 3D animation using the Toaster; this company's first demo, "Theology" (a look at religious architecture through the ages featuring music by former Utopia bandmate Roger Powell) also became a widely-circulated item among Toaster users. Most of Rundgren's Toaster work is available on the video compilation The Desktop Collection.
Rundgren composed music for the 1986 TV series Pee-wee's Playhouse and Crime Story as well as the movies "Undercover" (a/k/a "Under Cover") (1987), and Dumb and Dumber (1994), plus background cues for several other TV shows. He hosted a syndicated radio show called "The Difference" in the early 1990s.
As the Internet gained mass acceptance in the mid-1990s Rundgren, along with longtime manager Eric Gardner and Apple digital music exec Kelli Richards, started Patronet, which offered fans (patrons) access to his works in progress and new unreleased tracks in exchange for a subscription fee, cutting out record labels. The songs from Rundgren's first Patronet run were later released as the album One Long Year. Since then, Rundgren has severed his connections with major record labels and continues to offer new music direct to subscribers via his website, although he also continues to record and release CDs through independent labels. (However, as of November 2007, the PatroNet.com website offers the following message: "PatroNet is undergoing a major software revision and is not accepting memberships at this time.")
In the summer of 2001, Rundgren joined artists such as Alan Parsons, The Who's John Entwistle, Heart's Ann Wilson and Ambrosia's David Pack for the successful "A Walk Down Abbey Road" tour, in which the musicians played their own hits alongside Beatles favorites.
Rundgren toured the US and Europe in 2004 with Joe Jackson and the string quartet Ethel, appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien performing their collaborative cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". (video)
In 2009, Rundgren produced Cause I Sez So by the New York Dolls. In October, in one of the last concerts at the famed Wachovia Spectrum, Rundgren and Philadelphia area musicians The Hooters and Hall & Oates headlined a concert titled "Last Call". Tickets were as low as $6.00, the deep discount reflected ticket prices in 1967 when the Spectrum first staged concerts.
The year also included a lecture at DePauw University in Indiana, in which he discussed "Music, Technology and Risk-Taking."
In late-October to early-November 2010, Rundgren was the IU Class of 1963 Wells Scholars Professor at Indiana University. He taught a course with IU Professor Glenn Gass entitled The Ballad of Todd Rundgren.
In late 2005, rumors began circulating that the influential Boston-based band The Cars were planning to re-form despite bass player Benjamin Orr's death and the oft-mentioned refusal of former lead singer Ric Ocasek to even consider any reunion. Soon the rumors mentioned that Rundgren had joined Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes in rehearsals for a possible new Cars lineup. Initial speculation pointed to The New Cars being fleshed out with Clem Burke of Blondie and Art Alexakis of Everclear. Eventually it was revealed that The New Cars were to complete their lineup with veteran bass player and former Rundgren bandmate Kasim Sulton and studio drummer Prairie Prince of The Tubes, who had played on XTC's Rundgren-produced Skylarking and who has recorded and toured with Rundgren.
In early 2006, the new lineup played a few private shows for industry professionals, played live on The Tonight Show and made other media appearances before commencing a 2006 summer tour with the re-formed Blondie.
Rundgren has referred to the project as "an opportunity ... for me to pay my bills, play to a larger audience, work with musicians I know and like, and ideally have some fun for a year."
The New Cars' first single, "Not Tonight," was released on March 20, 2006. A portion of the song is featured on a promotional teaser for the band online. A live album/greatest hits collection, The New Cars: It's Alive, was released in June, 2006. The album includes classic Cars songs (and two Rundgren hits) recorded live plus three new studio tracks.
In December 2009, Rundgren once again took the AWATS Live show on the road with four shows in California. Roger Powell returned to his real job in the computer/software industry and was replaced by Ralph Schuckett, who played keyboards on the studio recording of the original album.
The AWATS show has had two European dates as well; playing in London, England at the Hammersmith Apollo on February 6, 2010, and the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Holland on February 8, 2010. Rundgren opened the London and Amsterdam shows by showcasing his new project, entitled 'Todd Rundgren's Johnson'; consisting of Rundgren, Jesse Gress (guitar), Prairie Prince (drums) and Kasim Sulton (bass) reworking Robert Johnson songs.
In January 2010 Rundgren gave his first ever concert performance in Australia as a participant in the Rogue's Gallery show, produced by Hal Willner for the 2010 Sydney Festival. In October 2010 Rundgren returned for a three-date tour of Australia performing his 'Johnson' project, with concerts at The Basement, Sydney, the Great Southern Blues Festival at Bateman's Bay and the Corner Hotel in Melbourne.The band consisted of Todd, guitarist Jesse Gress, Australian bassplayer Damien Steele Scott and Australian drummer Mick Skelton.
A Photographic Journal of each American show was created by rock photographer J Bloomrosen.
In October 2010, Rundgren was selected as the Class of 1963 Wells Scholars Professor at Indiana University (Bloomington). In that capacity, he taught two weeks of a four-week, one-credit hour honors seminar designed for 22 Wells Scholars (HON-H300: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren). Co-teaching the class was IU Professor of Music Glenn Gass -- whose relationship with Rundgren helped make the professorship possible -- and IU Distinguished Professor of Sociology Bernice Pescosolido, who was instrumental in helping to plan the course.
In September 2010, Rundgren performed his "Todd" and "Healing" albums live for the first time ever in Akron, OH and followed that up with five more of the album concerts in Muskegon MI, Indianapolis IN, St. Louis MO, Glenside PA, and Morristown NJ. A large LED display and lasers were on display throughout the shows with Todd and the band dressed in extravagant costumes. Todd brought out his SG Gibson "The Fool" replica guitar and also performed a few songs on the piano. Todd's band consisted of Jesse Gress, Greg Hawkes, Prairie Prince, Bobby Strickland, and Kasim Sulton. Led by Choir Master Dirk Hillyer, local choirs from near each venue joined Todd and the band during parts of the "Healing" album set which added a brand new element to the music for fans that had only heard it by listening to the album. The shows closed with the song, "Sons Of 1984" which included fan participation even after Todd and the band left the stage.
In March of 2011, Todd will take the "Todd" and "Healing" albums live concerts back on the road for a mini-tour to include stops in Hartford CT, Boston MA, Red Bank NJ, Toledo OH, and Columbus OH. More information about the tour is available at SonsOf1984.com.
His song "Izzat Love?" was sampled by Neon Indian for their song "Deadbeat Summer".
His song "Hodja" from his album A Cappella is performed by John Stamos and others in the "Full House" episode "A Pox in Our House."
TV Girl samples "Hello, It's Me" on "If You Want It" from the self-titled 2010 debut EP.
Category:1948 births Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:American pop pianists Category:American record producers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:The Cars members Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Category:American New Wave musicians Category:Protopunk musicians Category:Progressive rock musicians
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| Name | Louis Armstrong |
|---|---|
| Img alt | A picture of Louis Armstrong. Short-haired black man in his fifties blowing into a trumpet. He is wearing a light-colored sport coat, a white shirt and a bow tie. He is faced left with his eyes looking upwards. His right hand is fingering the trumpet, with the index finger down and three fingers pointing upwards. The man's left hand is mostly covered with a handkerchief and it has a shining ring on the little finger. He is wearing a wristwatch on the left wrist. |
| Landscape | Yes |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Louis Daniel Armstrong |
| Born | August 4, 1901New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | July 06, 1971Corona, Queens, New York City, U.S. |
| Instruments | Trumpet, cornet, vocals |
| Genre | Dixieland, jazz, swing, traditional pop |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Spouse | Daisy Parker |
| Years active | c. 1914–1971 |
| Associated acts | Joe "King" Oliver, Ella Fitzgerald, Kid Ory |
Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performance.
With his instantly recognizable deep and distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics.
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general.
Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross-over," whose skin-color was secondary to his amazing talent in an America that was severely racially divided. It allowed him socially-acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a person of color. While he rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, he was privately a huge supporter of the Civil Rights movement in America.
Armstrong was born into a very poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana, the grandson of slaves. He spent his youth in poverty, in a rough neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, known as “Back of Town”, as his father, William Armstrong (1881–1922), abandoned the family when Louis was an infant and took up with another woman. His mother, Mary "Mayann" Albert (1886–1942), then left Louis and his younger sister Beatrice Armstrong Collins (1903–1987) in the care of his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong, and at times, his Uncle Isaac. At five, he moved back to live with his mother and her relatives, and saw his father only in parades.
He attended the Fisk School for Boys. It was there that he likely had his first exposure to Creole music. He brought in some money as a paperboy and also by finding discarded food and selling it to restaurants, but it was not enough to keep his mother from prostitution. He hung out in dance halls close to home, where he observed everything from licentious dancing to the quadrille. For extra money he also hauled coal to Storyville, the famed red-light district, and listened to the bands playing in the brothels and dance halls, especially Pete Lala's where Joe "King" Oliver performed and other famous musicians would drop in to jam.
After dropping out of the Fisk School at age eleven, Armstrong joined a quartet of boys that sang in the streets for money. But he also started to get into trouble. Cornet player Bunk Johnson said he taught Armstrong (then 11) to play by ear at Dago Tony's Tonk in New Orleans, although in his later years Armstrong gave the credit to Oliver. Armstrong hardly looked back at his youth as the worst of times but instead drew inspiration from it, “Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine—I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans...It has given me something to live for.”
He also worked for a Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant family, the Karnofskys, who had a junk hauling business and gave him odd jobs. They took him in and treated him as almost a family member, knowing he lived without a father, and would feed and nurture him. He later wrote a memoir of his relationship with the Karnofskys titled, Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family in New Orleans, La., the Year of 1907. In it he describes his discovery that this family was also subject to discrimination by "other white folks' nationalities who felt that they were better than the Jewish race. I was only seven years old but I could easily see the ungodly treatment that the White Folks were handing the poor Jewish family whom I worked for." Armstrong wore a Star of David pendant for the rest of his life and wrote about what he learned from them: "how to live—real life and determination." The influence of Karnofsky is remembered in New Orleans by the Karnofsky Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to accepting donated musical instruments to "put them into the hands of an eager child who could not otherwise take part in a wonderful learning experience."
Armstrong developed his cornet playing seriously in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he had been sent multiple times for general delinquency, most notably for a long term after firing his stepfather's pistol into the air at a New Year's Eve celebration, as police records confirm. Professor Peter Davis (who frequently appeared at the Home at the request of its administrator, Captain Joseph Jones) instilled discipline in and provided musical training to the otherwise self-taught Armstrong. Eventually, Davis made Armstrong the band leader. The Home band played around New Orleans and the thirteen year old Louis began to draw attention by his cornet playing, starting him on a musical career. At fourteen he was released from the Home, living again with his father and new stepmother and then back with his mother and also back to the streets and their temptations. Armstrong got his first dance hall job at Henry Ponce’s where Black Benny became his protector and guide. He hauled coal by day and played his cornet at night.
He played in the city's frequent brass band parades and listened to older musicians every chance he got, learning from Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, Kid Ory, and above all, Joe "King" Oliver, who acted as a mentor and father figure to the young musician. Later, he played in the brass bands and riverboats of New Orleans, and began traveling with the well-regarded band of Fate Marable, which toured on a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River. He described his time with Marable as, "going to the University," since it gave him a much wider experience working with written arrangements.
In 1919, Joe Oliver decided to go north and resigned his position in Kid Ory's band; Armstrong replaced him. He also became second trumpet for the Tuxedo Brass Band, a society band.
Through all his riverboat experience Armstrong’s musicianship began to mature and expand. At twenty, he could read music and he started to be featured in extended trumpet solos, one of the first jazzmen to do this, injecting his own personality and style into his solo turns. He had learned how to create a unique sound and also started using singing and patter in his performances. In 1922, Armstrong joined the exodus to Chicago, where he had been invited by his mentor, Joe "King" Oliver, to join his Creole Jazz Band and where he could make a sufficient income so that he no longer needed to supplement his music with day labor jobs. It was a boom time in Chicago and though race relations were poor, the “Windy City” was teeming with jobs for black people, who were making good wages in factories and had plenty to spend on entertainment.
Oliver's band was the best and most influential hot jazz band in Chicago in the early 1920s, at a time when Chicago was the center of the jazz universe. Armstrong lived like a king in Chicago, in his own apartment with his own private bath (his first). Excited as he was to be in Chicago, he began his career-long pastime of writing nostalgic letters to friends in New Orleans. As Armstrong’s reputation grew, he was challenged to “cutting contests” by hornmen trying to displace the new phenom, who could blow two hundred high C’s in a row. Armstrong made his first recordings on the Gennett and Okeh labels (jazz records were starting to boom across the country), including taking some solos and breaks, while playing second cornet in Oliver's band in 1923. At this time, he met Hoagy Carmichael (with whom he would collaborate later) who was introduced by friend Bix Beiderbecke, who now had his own Chicago band.
Armstrong enjoyed working with Oliver, but Louis's second wife, pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, urged him to seek more prominent billing and develop his newer style away from the influence of Oliver. Armstrong took the advice of his wife and left Oliver's band. For a year Armstrong played in Fletcher Henderson's band in New York on many recordings. After playing in New York, Armstrong returned to Chicago, playing in large orchestras; there he created his most important early recordings. Lil had her husband play classical music in church concerts to broaden his skill and improve his solo play and she prodded him into wearing more stylish attire to make him look sharp and to better offset his growing girth. Lil’s influence eventually undermined Armstrong’s relationship with his mentor, especially concerning his salary and additional moneys that Oliver held back from Armstrong and other band members. Armstrong and Oliver parted amicably in 1924. Shortly afterward, Armstrong received an invitation to go to New York City to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, the top African-American band of the day. Armstrong switched to the trumpet to blend in better with the other musicians in his section. His influence upon Henderson's tenor sax soloist, Coleman Hawkins, can be judged by listening to the records made by the band during this period. Armstrong quickly adapted to the more tightly controlled style of Henderson, playing trumpet and even experimenting with the trombone and the other members quickly took up Armstrong’s emotional, expressive pulse. Soon his act included singing and telling tales of New Orleans characters, especially preachers. The Henderson Orchestra was playing in the best venues for white-only patrons, including the famed Roseland Ballroom, featuring the classy arrangements of Don Redman. Duke Ellington’s orchestra would go to Roseland to catch Armstrong’s performances and young hornmen around town tried in vain to outplay him, splitting their lips in their attempts.
During this time, Armstrong also made many recordings on the side, arranged by an old friend from New Orleans, pianist Clarence Williams; these included small jazz band sides with the Williams Blue Five (some of the best pairing Armstrong with one of Armstrong's few rivals in fiery technique and ideas, Sidney Bechet) and a series of accompaniments with blues singers, including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter.
Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925 due mostly to the urging of his wife, who wanted to pump up Armstrong’s career and income. He was content in New York but later would concede that she was right and that the Henderson Orchestra was limiting his artistic growth. In publicity, much to his chagrin, she billed him as “the World’s Greatest Trumpet Player”. At first he was actually a member of the Lil Hardin Armstrong Band and working for his wife. He began recording under his own name for Okeh with his famous Hot Five and Hot Seven groups, producing hits such as "Potato Head Blues", "Muggles", (a reference to marijuana, for which Armstrong had a lifelong fondness), and "West End Blues", the music of which set the standard and the agenda for jazz for many years to come.
The group included Kid Ory (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Johnny St. Cyr (banjo), wife Lil on piano, and usually no drummer. Armstrong’s bandleading style was easygoing, as St. Cyr noted, "One felt so relaxed working with him and he was very broad-minded ... always did his best to feature each individual." His recordings soon after with pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines (most famously their 1928 Weatherbird duet) and Armstrong's trumpet introduction to "West End Blues" remain some of the most famous and influential improvisations in jazz history. Armstrong was now free to develop his personal style as he wished, which included a heavy dose of effervescent jive, such as "whip that thing, Miss Lil" and "Mr. Johnny Dodds, Aw, do that clarinet, boy!"
Armstrong also played with Erskine Tate’s Little Symphony, actually a quintet, which played mostly at the Vendome Theatre. They furnished music for silent movies and live shows, including jazz versions of classical music, such as “Madame Butterfly,” which gave Armstrong experience with longer forms of music and with hosting before a large audience. He began to scat sing (improvised vocal jazz using non-sensical words) and was among the first to record it, on "Heebie Jeebies" in 1926. So popular was the recording the group became the most famous jazz band in the USA even though they as yet had not performed live to any great degree. Young musicians across the country, black and white, were turned on by Armstrong’s new type of jazz.
After separating from Lil, Armstrong started to play at the Sunset Café for Al Capone's associate Joe Glaser in the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra, with Earl Hines on piano, which was soon renamed Louis Armstrong and his Stompers, though Hines was the music director and Glaser managed the orchestra. Hines and Armstrong became fast friends as well as successful collaborators.
Armstrong returned to New York, in 1929, where he played in the pit orchestra of the successful musical Hot Chocolate, an all-black revue written by Andy Razaf and pianist/composer Fats Waller. He also made a cameo appearance as a vocalist, regularly stealing the show with his rendition of "Ain't Misbehavin'", his version of the song becoming his biggest selling record to date.
Armstrong started to work at Connie's Inn in Harlem, chief rival to the Cotton Club, a venue for elaborately staged floor shows, and a front for gangster Dutch Schultz. Armstrong also had considerable success with vocal recordings, including versions of famous songs composed by his old friend Hoagy Carmichael. His 1930s recordings took full advantage of the new RCA ribbon microphone, introduced in 1931, which imparted a characteristic warmth to vocals and immediately became an intrinsic part of the 'crooning' sound of artists like Bing Crosby. Armstrong's famous interpretation of Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" became one of the most successful versions of this song ever recorded, showcasing Armstrong's unique vocal sound and style and his innovative approach to singing songs that had already become standards.
Armstrong's radical re-working of Sidney Arodin and Carmichael's "Lazy River" (recorded in 1931) encapsulated many features of his groundbreaking approach to melody and phrasing. The song begins with a brief trumpet solo, then the main melody is stated by sobbing horns, memorably punctuated by Armstrong's growling interjections at the end of each bar: "Yeah! ..."Uh-huh" ..."Sure" ... "Way down, way down." In the first verse, he ignores the notated melody entirely and sings as if playing a trumpet solo, pitching most of the first line on a single note and using strongly syncopated phrasing. In the second stanza he breaks into an almost fully improvised melody, which then evolves into a classic passage of Armstrong "scat singing".
As with his trumpet playing, Armstrong's vocal innovations served as a foundation stone for the art of jazz vocal interpretation. The uniquely gritty coloration of his voice became a musical archetype that was much imitated and endlessly impersonated. His scat singing style was enriched by his matchless experience as a trumpet soloist. His resonant, velvety lower-register tone and bubbling cadences on sides such as "Lazy River" exerted a huge influence on younger white singers such as Bing Crosby.
The Depression of the early Thirties was especially hard on the jazz scene. The Cotton Club closed in 1936 after a long downward spiral and many musicians stopped playing altogether as club dates evaporated. Bix Beiderbecke died and Fletcher Henderson’s band broke up. King Oliver made a few records but otherwise struggled. Sidney Bechet became a tailor and Kid Ory returned to New Orleans and raised chickens. Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930 to seek new opportunities. He played at the New Cotton Club in LA with Lionel Hampton on drums. The band drew the Hollywood crowd, which could still afford a lavish night life, while radio broadcasts from the club connected with younger audiences at home. Bing Crosby and many other celebrities were regulars at the club. In 1931, Armstrong appeared in his first movie, Ex-Flame. Armstrong was convicted of marijuana possession but received a suspended sentence. He returned to Chicago in late 1931 and played in bands more in the Guy Lombardo vein and he recorded more standards. When the mob insisted that he get out of town, Armstrong visited New Orleans, got a hero’s welcome and saw old friends. He sponsored a local baseball team known as “Armstrong’s Secret Nine” and got a cigar named after himself. But soon he was on the road again and after a tour across the country shadowed by the mob, Armstrong decided to go to Europe to escape.
After returning to the States, he undertook several exhausting tours. His agent Johnny Collins’ erratic behavior and his own spending ways left Armstrong short of cash. Breach of contract violations plagued him. Finally, he hired Joe Glaser as his new manager, a tough mob-connected wheeler-dealer, who began to straighten out his legal mess, his mob troubles, and his debts. Armstrong also began to experience problems with his fingers and lips, which were aggravated by his unorthodox playing style. As a result he branched out, developing his vocal style and making his first theatrical appearances. He appeared in movies again, including Crosby's 1936 hit Pennies from Heaven. In 1937, Armstrong substituted for Rudy Vallee on the CBS radio network and became the first African American to host a sponsored, national broadcast. He finally divorced Lil in 1938 and married longtime girlfriend Alpha.
After spending many years on the road, Armstrong settled permanently in Queens, New York in 1943 in contentment with his fourth wife, Lucille. Although subject to the vicissitudes of Tin Pan Alley and the gangster-ridden music business, as well as anti-black prejudice, he continued to develop his playing. He recorded Hoagy Carmichael's Rockin' Chair for Okeh Records.
During the subsequent thirty years, Armstrong played more than three hundred gigs a year. Bookings for big bands tapered off during the 1940s due to changes in public tastes: ballrooms closed, and there was competition from television and from other types of music becoming more popular than big band music. It became impossible under such circumstances to support and finance a 16-piece touring band.
This group was called Louis Armstrong and his All Stars and included at various times Earl "Fatha" Hines, Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole, Tyree Glenn, Barrett Deems and the Filipino-American percussionist, Danny Barcelona. During this period, Armstrong made many recordings and appeared in over thirty films. He was the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time Magazine on February 21, 1949.
In 1964, he recorded his biggest-selling record, "Hello, Dolly!". The song went to #1 on the pop chart, making Armstrong (age 63) the oldest person to ever accomplish that feat. In the process, Armstrong dislodged The Beatles from the #1 position they had occupied for 14 consecutive weeks with three different songs.
Armstrong kept up his busy tour schedule until a few years before his death in 1971. In his later years he would sometimes play some of his numerous gigs by rote, but other times would enliven the most mundane gig with his vigorous playing, often to the astonishment of his band. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under sponsorship of the US State Department with great success, earning the nickname "Ambassador Satch." While failing health restricted his schedule in his last years, within those limitations he continued playing until the day he died.
His honorary pallbearers included Governor Rockefeller, Mayor Lindsay, Bing Crosby, Scatman John, Ella Fitzgerald, Guy Lombardo, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Harry James, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Earl Wilson, Alan King, Johnny Carson, David Frost, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett and Bobby Hackett.
Peggy Lee sang The Lord's Prayer at the services while Al Hibbler sang "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" and Fred Robbins, a long-time friend, gave the eulogy.
He was not only an entertainer. Armstrong was a leading personality of the day who was so beloved by a white-controlled America, that gave even the greatest African-American performers little access beyond their public celebrity, that he was able to privately live a life of access and privilege accorded to few other African-Americans.
He tried to remain politically neutral, which gave him a large part of that access, but often alienated him from members of the African-American community who looked to him to use his prominence with white America to become more of an outspoken figure during the Civil Rights Era of U.S. history.
The most common tale that biographers tell is the story of Armstrong as a young boy dancing for pennies in the streets of New Orleans, who would scoop up the coins off of the streets and stick them into his mouth to avoid having the bigger children steal them from him. Someone dubbed him "satchel mouth" for his mouth acting as a satchel.
In 1932, Melody Maker magazine editor Percy Brooks greeted Armstrong in London with, "Hello, Satchmo!", and thence the nickname took root.
Early on he was also known as Dipper, short for Dippermouth, a reference to the piece Dippermouth Blues. and something of a riff on his unusual embouchure.
As he became older and more of an institution than another musician, Armstrong was usually addressed by friends and fellow musicians as Pops, save in the company of Pops Foster, whom Armstrong always called "George".
It was a power and privilege that he enjoyed, although he was very careful not to flaunt it with fellow performers of color, and privately, he shared what access that he could with friends and fellow musicians.
That still did not prevent members of the African-American community, particularly in the late 1950s to the early 1970s, from calling him an Uncle Tom, a black-on-black racial epithet for someone who kowtowed to white society at the expense of their own racial identity.
He was criticized for accepting the title of "King of The Zulus" for Mardi Gras in 1949. In the New Orleans African-American community it is an honored role as the head of leading black Carnival Krewe, but bewildering or offensive to outsiders with their traditional costume of grass-skirts and blackface makeup satirizing southern white attitudes.
Some musicians criticized Armstrong for playing in front of segregated audiences, and for not taking a strong enough stand in the civil rights movement.
Billie Holiday countered, however, "Of course Pops toms, but he toms from the heart." Her meaning was that Armstrong was a performer who had no animosity for audiences of any color in his public life, and he would not bring the political elements of race into his performing.
In spite of his perception by many in the African-American community as being weak on racial equality and social justice, Armstrong was anything but that. He was a major financial supporter of Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists, even if he preferred to work quietly behind the scenes, not mixing his politics with his work as an entertainer.
The few exceptions made it more effective when he did speak out. Armstrong's criticism of President Eisenhower, calling him "two-faced" and "gutless" because of his inaction during the conflict over school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 made national news.
As a protest, Armstrong canceled a planned tour of the Soviet Union on behalf of the State Department saying "The way they're treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell" and that he could not represent his government abroad when it was in conflict with its own people.
The FBI kept a file on Armstrong, for his outspokenness about integration.
In a live recording of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Velma Middleton, he changes the lyric from "Put another record on while I pour" to "Take some Swiss Kriss while I pour." The line, slightly garbled in the live recording, could just as likely be "Take some Swiss Miss while I pour"—Swiss Miss is a hot chocolate mix that would have been fairly new on the market in 1951. (The line comes at 1:04 in the song.)
He often essentially re-composed pop-tunes he played, making them more interesting. Armstrong's playing is filled with joyous, inspired original melodies, creative leaps, and subtle relaxed or driving rhythms. The genius of these creative passages is matched by Armstrong's playing technique, honed by constant practice, which extended the range, tone and capabilities of the trumpet. In these records, Armstrong almost single-handedly created the role of the jazz soloist, taking what was essentially a collective folk music and turning it into an art form with tremendous possibilities for individual expression.
Armstrong's work in the 1920s shows him playing at the outer limits of his abilities. The Hot Five records, especially, often have minor flubs and missed notes, which do little to detract from listening enjoyment since the energy of the spontaneous performance comes through. By the mid 1930s, Armstrong achieved a smooth assurance, knowing exactly what he could do and carrying out his ideas to perfection.
He was one of the first artists to use recordings of his performances to improve himself. Armstrong was an avid audiophile. He had a large collection of recordings, including reel-to-reel tapes, which he took on the road with him in a trunk during his later career. He enjoyed listening to his own recordings, and comparing his performances musically. In the den of his home, he had the latest audio equipment and would sometimes rehearse and record along with his older recordings or the radio.
Such records were hits and scat singing became a major part of his performances. Long before this, however, Armstrong was playing around with his vocals, shortening and lengthening phrases, interjecting improvisations, using his voice as creatively as his trumpet.
His influence upon Bing Crosby is particularly important with regard to the subsequent development of popular music: Crosby admired and copied Armstrong, as is evident on many of his early recordings, notably "Just One More Chance" (1931). The New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz describes Crosby's debt to Armstrong in precise detail, although it does not acknowledge Armstrong by name:
Armstrong recorded three albums with Ella Fitzgerald: Ella and Louis, Ella and Louis Again, and Porgy and Bess for Verve Records, with the sessions featuring the backing musicianship of the Oscar Peterson Trio and drummer Buddy Rich. His recordings Satch Plays Fats, all Fats Waller tunes, and Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy in the 1950s were perhaps among the last of his great creative recordings, but even oddities like Disney Songs the Satchmo Way are seen to have their musical moments. And, his participation in Dave Brubeck's high-concept jazz musical The Real Ambassadors was critically acclaimed. For the most part, however, his later output was criticized as being overly simplistic or repetitive.
In 1964, Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Hello, Dolly!", which gave the 63-year-old performer a U.S. record as the oldest artist to have a number one song. His 1964 song, "Bout Time" was later featured in the film "Bewitched" (2005).
Armstrong performed in Italy at the 1968 Sanremo Music Festival where he sang "Mi Va di Cantare" alongside his friend, the Eritrean-born Italian singer Lara Saint Paul. In February 1968, he also appeared with Lara Saint Paul on the Italian RAI television channel where he performed "Grassa e Bella," a track he sang in Italian for the Italian market and C.D.I. label.
In 1968, Armstrong scored one last popular hit in the United Kingdom with the highly sentimental pop song "What a Wonderful World", which topped the British charts for a month; however, the single did not chart at all in America. The song gained greater currency in the popular consciousness when it was used in the 1987 movie Good Morning, Vietnam, its subsequent rerelease topping many charts around the world. Armstrong even appeared on the October 28, 1970 Johnny Cash Show, where he sang Nat "King" Cole's hit "Rambling Rose" and joined Cash to re-create his performance backing Jimmie Rodgers on "Blue Yodel #9".
He was the first African American to host a nationally broadcast radio show in the 1930s. In 1969, Armstrong had a cameo role in the film version of Hello, Dolly! as the bandleader, Louis, to which he sang the title song with actress Barbra Streisand. His solo recording of "Hello, Dolly!" is one of his most recognizable performances.
He was heard on such radio programs as The Story of Swing (1937) and This Is Jazz (1947), and he also made countless television appearances, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, including appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Armstrong has a record star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7601 Hollywood Boulevard.
Many of Armstrong's recordings remain popular. Almost four decades since his passing, a larger number of his recordings from all periods of his career are more widely available than at any time during his lifetime. His songs are broadcast and listened to every day throughout the world, and are honored in various movies, TV series, commercials, and even anime and computer games. "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" was included in the computer game Fallout 2, accompanying the intro cinematic. It was also used in the 1993 film Sleepless in Seattle and the 2005 film Lord of War. His 1923 recordings, with Joe Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band, continue to be listened to as documents of ensemble style New Orleans jazz, but more particularly as ripper jazz records in their own right. All too often, however, Armstrong recorded with stiff, standard orchestras leaving only his sublime trumpet playing as of interest. "Melancholy Blues," performed by Armstrong and his Hot Seven was included on the Voyager Golden Record sent into outer space to represent one of the greatest achievements of humanity. Most familiar to modern listeners is his ubiquitous rendition of "What a Wonderful World". In 2008, Armstrong's recording of Edith Piaf's famous "La Vie En Rose" was used in a scene of the popular Disney/Pixar film WALL-E. The song was also used in parts, especially the opening trumpets, in the French Film Jeux d'enfants (English: Love Me If You Dare)
Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, a self-described Armstrong admirer, asserted that a 1952 Louis Armstrong concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris played a significant role in inspiring him to create the fictional creatures called Cronopios that are the subject of a number of Cortázar's short stories. Cortázar once called Armstrong himself "Grandísimo Cronopio" (Most Enormous Cronopio).
Armstrong appears as a minor character in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series. When he and his band escape from a Nazi-like Confederacy, they enhance the insipid mainstream music of the North.
There is a pivotal scene in 1980's Stardust Memories in which Woody Allen is overwhelmed by a recording of Armstrong's Stardust and experiences a nostalgic epiphany. The combination of the music and the perfect moment is the catalyst for much of the film's action, prompting the protagonist to fall in love with an ill-advised woman.
Armstrong is referred to in The Trumpet of the Swan along with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Three siblings in the film are named Louis, Billie, and Ella. The main character, Louis, plays a trumpet, an obvious nod to Armstrong. In the original E. B. White book, he is referred to by name, by a child who hears Louis playing and comments, "He sounds just like Louis Armstrong, the famous trumpet player."
In the 2009 Disney Film The Princess and the Frog, one of the supporting characters is a trumpet-playing alligator named Louis. During the song "When I'm Human", Louis sings a line and it says "Y'all heard of Louis Armstrong".
{| class=wikitable |- | colspan="6" style="text-align:center;" | Grammy Award |- ! Year ! Category ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Result |- align=center | 1964 | Male Vocal Performance | "Hello, Dolly!" | Pop | Kapp | Winner |}
{| class=wikitable |- | colspan="6" style="text-align:center;" | Grammy Hall of Fame |- ! Year Recorded ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Year Inducted ! Notes |- align=center | 1929 | "St. Louis Blues" | Jazz (Single) | OKeh | 2008 |with Bessie Smith |- align=center | 1928 | "Weather Bird" | Jazz (Single) | OKeh | 2008 | with Earl Hines |- align=center | 1930 | "Blue Yodel #9(Standing on the Corner)" | Country (Single) | Victor | 2007 | Jimmie Rodgers (Featuring Louis Armstrong) |- align=center | 1932 | "All of Me" | Jazz (Single) | Columbia | 2005 | |- align=center | 1958 | Porgy and Bess | Jazz (Album) | Verve | 2001 | with Ella Fitzgerald |- align=center | 1964 | "Hello Dolly!" | Pop (Single) | Kapp | 2001 | |- align=center | 1926 | "Heebie Jeebies" | Jazz (Single) | OKeh | 1999 | |- align=center | 1968 | "What a Wonderful World" | Jazz (Single) | ABC | 1999 | |- align=center | 1955 | "Mack the Knife" | Jazz (Single) | Columbia | 1997 | |- align=center | 1925 | "St. Louis Blues" | Jazz (Single) | Columbia | 1993 | Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong, cornet |- align=center | 1928 | "West End Blues" | Jazz (Single) | OKeh | 1974 | |}
{| class=wikitable |- ! Year Recorded ! Title ! Label ! Group |- align=center | 1928 | West End Blues | Okeh | Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five |}
{| class=wikitable |- ! Year Inducted ! Title ! Results ! Notes |- align=center | 2007 | Louisiana Music Hall of Fame | | |- align=center | 2007 | Gennett Records Walk of Fame, Richmond, Indiana | | |- align=center | 2007 | Long Island Music Hall of Fame | | |- align=center | 2004 | Nesuhi Ertegün Jazz Hall of Fameat Jazz at Lincoln Center | | |- align=center | 1990 | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | | Early influence |- align=center | 1978 | Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame | | |- align=center | 1952 | Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame | | |- align=center | 1960 | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Star | at 7601 Hollywood Blvd. |}
The museum opened to the public on October 15, 2003. A visitors center is currently being planned, and estimated to open in 2011.
The influence of Armstrong on the development of jazz is virtually immeasurable. Yet, his irrepressible personality both as a performer, and as a public figure later in his career, was so strong that to some it sometimes overshadowed his contributions as a musician and singer.
As a virtuoso trumpet player, Armstrong had a unique tone and an extraordinary talent for melodic improvisation. Through his playing, the trumpet emerged as a solo instrument in jazz and is used widely today. He was a masterful accompanist and ensemble player in addition to his extraordinary skills as a soloist. With his innovations, he raised the bar musically for all who came after him.
Though Armstrong is widely recognized as a pioneer of scat singing, Ethel Waters precedes his scatting on record in the 1930s according to Gary Giddins and others. Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra are just two singers who were greatly indebted to him. Holiday said that she always wanted Bessie Smith's 'big' sound and Armstrong's feeling in her singing.
On August 4, 2001, the centennial of Armstrong's birth, New Orleans's airport was renamed Louis Armstrong International Airport in his honor.
In 2002, the Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings (1925–1928) are preserved in the United States National Recording Registry, a registry of recordings selected yearly by the National Recording Preservation Board for preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.
The US Open tennis tournament's former main stadium was named Louis Armstrong Stadium in honor of Armstrong who had lived a few blocks from the site.
Today, there are many bands worldwide dedicated to preserving and honoring the music and style of Satchmo, including the Louis Armstrong Society located in New Orleans, LA.
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