The Blues/Louis
Armstrong
Connecting to Invisible Man
Catherine Gubbels
Storm
P. 3
a music genre based on
using the blues chord
progressions and the blue
notes
 It emerged in the 19th
century for self-expression in
African-American
communities of the United
States from spirituals, work
songs, field hollers, shouts
and chants, and rhymed
simple narrative ballads
 The blues is prominent for
call-and-response patterns in
the music and lyrics which
reflect its African influences

What is..the blues?
The term "the blues" refers to
the "the blue devils", meaning
melancholy and sadness
 I.M. walks through the street
and starts singing a call-andresponse blues song that a
fellow man on the bus was
singing..showing the way the
blues affected them as a form of
expression and release.
 This shows how the music
travels through the people
effortlessly, and how the blues
was a form of identity for many.

Blues and Invisible Man..
Born August 4, 1901 as the
grandson of slaves in a very
poor family in an area of
New Orleans, Louisiana
called “Back of Town”
 His childhood was troubled
as his father abandoned his
family, mother turned toward
prostitution and left him in
nightclubs often, and he
lived in a very segregated
city.
 Although he suffered many
hardships, he only draws
inspiration from it for his
music and successful career

Louis Armstrong..




Getting started..
“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.”[7]
Armstrong played trumpet by ear, a
fellow cortet member named Bunk
Johnson taught him, and sang
throughout his young adulthood
with a cortet, and got started with
his career playing on a steamboat
that traveled up and down the
Mississippi River
A professor named Peter Davis
gave him both disciple, for he was
troubled in his youth, and official
musical training
The famous Joe “king” Oliver also
became Armstrong’s mentor and
father figure.

Visit:
http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=0Y6E
MMhDCGo
to see Louis
Armstrong sing and
play.
Music..





Armstrong was known in the
1920s as an innovative
cornet and trumpet player,
He also had great influence
on jazz music and was gifted
at improvisation
He had a distinctive raspy
boice, and would bend the
lyrics and melody of a song
for expressive purposes.
He was a great scat singer
Because of his charismatic
stage presence, deep,
recognizable voice, and
trumpet-playing Armstrong
influenced not only jazz but
all popular music in general
as well.






Armstrong had many hit records
including "Stardust“, "What a Wonderful
World“, "When The Saints Go Marching
In”, "Ain't Misbehavin”, "We Have All the
Time in the World”, and "Hello, Dolly
his early years were known for his
cornet and trumpet playing, which is
heard on his Hot Five and Hot Seven
records.
Armstrong's improvisations on these
albums “were daring and sophisticated
for the time while often subtle and
melodic.”
He also 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.”
Armstrong turned his music into an art
form with limitless possibilities for self
expression, and spread that ideal
among many.

Listen to Louis Armstrong
perform “Hello, dolly” on
this site:

http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=kmfeKUNDDYs&f
eature=related
Career..




When writing Invisible Man,
Ralph Ellison weaved the blues
rhythms and call-and-response
lyrics with the story of Invisible
Man’s journey from southern
Caroline to Harlem, as well as
his journey to finding identity.
The presence of blues played as
large role in this journey for a
identity.
In the beginning, both Invisible
Man and Blues were born in the
south..and then migrated north
When he arrives in New York,
blues is all around him and more
and more blues lyrics are woven
in and out of the text revealing
truths I.M. could not unveil
without the song.
Such as the song about the
bird..
Connecting blues and I.M.

Invisible Man also listens
and references to the music
of Louis Armstrong in the
novel
 . He says he enjoys listening
to Louis because "...he's
made poetry out of being
invisible,”
 In the prologue he listens to
the song by Louis Armstrong
, "What Did I Do to Be so
Black and Blue,“ (page 8)
 This song, as well as the
term black and blue is a
starting point for the reader
in I.M.’s journey

Armstrong in the beginning..
He mentions Louis Armstrong
once more at the end of the
novel when he tells the reader
that he is going out into the
world again. Invisible Man
proclaims that he will shake off
his old skin, but just like
Armstrong would not throw
"...old Bad Air out, because it
would have broken up the music
and the dance..." (page 581),

he will not throw away all his
experiences and ideals, but hold
on to them as he sheds all the
bad ideals and thoughts he has
kept for too long
 Armstrong and his lyrics help
I.M. to discover this about
himself and his future.

Armstrong in the end..