Music Mondays: All of Me, performed by Louis Armstrong

April 25
"All of Me," words and music by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons, performed by Louis Armstrong

Let’s end the month with the incredibly talented and possibly most well-known jazz musician, Louis Armstrong, performing a song that made it to number one in the charts and has been recorded by other greats as well, “All of Me.” The song was written in 1931, and first performed by Belle Baker. It really took off, however, with a late 1931 recording by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, followed by this early 1932 recording by Armstrong.

Louis Armstrong was already a popular musician when this song was recorded, having struck out on his own as a performer in the mid-1920s. In fact, he performed in Europe for the first time in 1932, so his popularity was definitely growing around the world in this time period. You can also hear an example of his scatting style in this song, which is honestly impressive, as he goes seamlessly back and forth from scatting/singing to playing his trumpet. If you’re interested in learning more about Armstrong’s life, I would definitely take a look at the biographies I linked below - I did not really know much about his early life, and it was interesting to learn. He is one of the stories of American rags to riches, as he grew up in a rough neighborhood in New Orleans, known as The Battleground, but was able to go on to become one of the most famous jazz musicians of all time.

The song:

Resources
About the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_of_Me_(jazz_standard)
https://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-0/allofme.htm
About Louis Armstrong: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Armstrong
https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/biography/