What Did I Do To Be So, Black And Blue

Louis Armstrong’s performance of “(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue”, along with many of his other works, helped establish the “bluesy” feeling as part of Jazz’s harmonic foundation. In observing Armstrong’s performances, the meaning of his lyrics and the emotion behind the words are what helped makes jazz music so unique. Some of the lyrics that he sings, such as “I’m white… inside… but, that don’t help my case…” helped give Jazz expressivity as well as shows how Jazz could be very blue. Louis’ voice while singing this particular song comes off as sad or down. There seems to be a lot of emotion and pain behind his words. This is some of the expression in Jazz music that helped to set Jazz apart from most other music, which at the time was more upbeat and happy. With Armstrong being able to sing and play, along with his creativity and ability to throw together his own style within the music, he helped to bring improvisation into jazz music. Armstrong essentially is the main reason that Jazz is soloist music. Edith Wilson’s version of “Black and Blue” has a much more soother and slower background compared to Louis Armstrong’s. She describes many of the discriminations that happen
to her because she’s black. She sings about how she’s sad and alone because she’s too black and men prefer lighter girls. Armstrong’s version includes background music with a slightly quicker tempo while also embracing a more somber sound. His version also lets the music set most of the tone. The part of the song that he sings emphasizes more how rough life is in general for the Black community. During this time period, there was still a large amount of racial prejudice towards the Black community. Even though the Black community was now free, life was still very rough for them and they were still treated unfairly. In the song “Black and Blue” Armstrong sings about how rough his life is just because of his color, singing, “my only sin… is my skin….” Armstrong was a man who was against racism. An example of this was in 1957, when his trip to Ghana was temporarily postponed because Armstrong wasn’t willing to leave unless Eisenhower enforced integration of Arkansas schools. Not only did he want equality for the Black community, he wanted for everybody to get along. An example of this was in 1949 when Armstrong refused to perform in a concert in New Orleans because the officials didn’t approve of the trombonist who was white. This shows that Armstrong was fighting for peace between the two races. In my opinion I don’t believe that Armstrong was an effective advocate for racial tolerance and equality.
I believe that he was a good advocate but not an effective one. My reasons why are because he was not looked up to by everybody. Armstrong was constantly criticized for certain choices that he had made. One of these choices was that Armstrong had appeared in multiple movies where he would be wearing stereotypical clothes such as leopard skins or talking in a stereotypical way. This did not please the Black community and Armstrong was thought to be okay with playing into these stereotypical roles. Another choice that he made that, although he was pleased with, did not please others was in 1949 when Armstrong appeared in a parade as King of the Zulu Social club wearing black
face.
Many others, along with Armstrong, were honored to have been chosen. One of who was Sidney Bechet who said, “It is the ambition of every big guy in New Orleans to be King of the Zulus.” Unfortunately for Armstrong, the younger people in the community did not have the same opinion about the honor. In Time magazine it was stated, “Among Negro intellectuals, the Zulus and their doings are considered offensive vestiges of the minstrel show, Sambo-type Negro.” This was only one of the statements showing that the attitude of the Black community towards Armstrong had changed. Not only were they offended by some of the choices that Armstrong had made, much of the younger community didn’t appreciate his music either. James Baldwin had written in one of his stories, “I suggested helpfully: ‘You mean- like Louis Armstrong?’ His faced closed as though I’d struck him. ‘No I’m not talking about non of that old-time, down home crap.’” This was part of Baldwin’s book “Sonny’s Blues” and is a reflection of what much of the young black community thought of Armstrong’s work now. This is one of the large reasons for why I don’t believe that Armstrong was an effective advocate for racial tolerance. Although he had done many acts to try an strengthen equality and racial tolerance among Blacks and Whites, because of some of the stereotypical things that he had done and how much of the younger Black community viewed him I don’t believe that Armstrong was a good enough role model to have been an effective advocate for his time.