louis armstrong biography for students

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Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed " Satchmo ", " Satch ", and " Pops ", was an American trumpeter and vocalist . He was among the most influential figures in jazz . His career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz. He received numerous accolades including the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance for Hello, Dolly! in 1965, as well as a posthumous win for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972, and the induction into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2017.

Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans . Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. Around 1922, he followed his mentor, Joe "King" Oliver , to Chicago to play in the Creole Jazz Band  [fr] . He earned a reputation at "cutting contests", and his fame reached band leader Fletcher Henderson . He moved to New York City , where he became a featured and musically influential band soloist and recording artist. By the 1950s, he was a national musical icon, assisted in part, by his appearances on radio and in film and television, in addition to his concerts.

His best known songs include "What a Wonderful World", "La Vie en Rose", "Hello, Dolly!", "On the Sunny Side of the Street", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "When You're Smiling" and " When the Saints Go Marching In ". He collaborated with Ella Fitzgerald producing three records together Ella and Louis (1956), Ella and Louis Again (1957), and Porgy and Bess (1959). He also appeared in films such as A Rhapsody in Black and Blue (1932), Cabin in the Sky (1943), High Society (1956), Paris Blues (1961), A Man Called Adam (1966), and Hello, Dolly! (1969).

With his instantly recognizable rich, gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer and skillful improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song. He was also skilled at scat singing . By the end of Armstrong's life, his influence had spread to popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first popular African-American entertainers to "cross over" to wide popularity with white (and international) audiences. He rarely publicly politicized his race, to the dismay of fellow African Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation in the Little Rock crisis . He was able to access the upper echelons of American society at a time when this was difficult for black men.

Riverboat education

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Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. His parents were Mary Estelle "Mayann" Albert and William Armstrong. Mary Albert was from Boutte, Louisiana , and gave birth at home when she was about sixteen. Less than a year and a half later, they had a daughter, Beatrice "Mama Lucy" Armstrong (1903–1987), who was raised by Albert. William Armstrong abandoned the family shortly thereafter.

Louis Armstrong was raised by his grandmother until the age of five when he was returned to his mother. He spent his youth in poverty in a rough neighborhood known as The Battlefield, on the southern section of Rampart Street. At six he attended the Fisk School for Boys, a school that accepted black children in the racially segregated system of New Orleans.

At the age of 6, Armstrong lived with his mother and sister and worked for the Karnoffskys, a family of Lithuanian Jews, at their home. He would help their two sons, Morris and Alex, collect "rags and bones" and deliver coal. In 1969, while recovering from heart and kidney problems at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City, Armstrong wrote Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family in New Orleans, LA., the year of 1907 , a memoir describing his time working for the Karnofsky family.

Armstrong writes about singing "Russian Lullaby" with the Karnofsky family when their baby son David was put to bed and credits the family with teaching him to sing "from the heart." Curiously, Armstrong quotes lyrics for it that appear to be the same as the "Russian Lullaby", copyrighted by Irving Berlin in 1927, about twenty years after Armstrong remembered singing it as a child. Gary Zucker, Armstrong's doctor at Beth Israel hospital in 1969, shared Berlin's song lyrics with him, and Armstrong quoted them in the memoir. This inaccuracy may simply be because he wrote the memoir over 60 years after the events described. Regardless, the Karnoffskys treated Armstrong extremely well. Knowing he lived without a father, they fed and nurtured him.

In his memoir, Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family in New Orleans, La., the Year of 1907 , he described his discovery that this family was also subject to discrimination by "other white folks" who felt that they were better than Jews: "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." He wrote about what he learned from them: "how to live—real life and determination." His first musical performance may have been at the side of the Karnoffskys' junk wagon. To distinguish them from other hawkers, he tried playing a tin horn to attract customers. Morris Karnoffsky gave Armstrong an advance toward the purchase of a cornet from a pawn shop. Armstrong wore a Star of David until the end of his life in memory of this family who had raised him.

When Armstrong was eleven, he dropped out of school. His mother moved into a one-room house on Perdido Street with Armstrong, Lucy, and her common-law husband, Tom Lee, next door to her brother Ike and his two sons. Armstrong joined a quartet of boys who sang in the streets for money. He also got into trouble. Cornetist Bunk Johnson said he taught the eleven-year-old to play by ear at Dago Tony's honky tonk. (In his later years Armstrong credited King Oliver.) He said about his youth, "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."

Borrowing his stepfather's gun without permission, he fired a blank into the air and was arrested on December 31, 1912. He spent the night at New Orleans Juvenile Court, then was sentenced the next day to detention at the Colored Waif's Home. Life at the home was spartan. Mattresses were absent; meals were often little more than bread and molasses. Captain Joseph Jones ran the home like a military camp and used corporal punishment.

Armstrong developed his cornet skills by playing in the band. Peter Davis, who frequently appeared at the home at the request of Captain Jones, became Armstrong's first teacher and chose him as bandleader. With this band, the thirteen-year-old Armstrong attracted the attention of Kid Ory .

On June 14, 1914, Armstrong was released into the custody of his father and his new stepmother, Gertrude. He lived in this household with two stepbrothers for several months. After Gertrude gave birth to a daughter, Armstrong's father never welcomed him, so he returned to his mother, Mary Albert. In her small home, he had to share a bed with his mother and sister. He found a job as a musician at a dance hall owned by Henry Ponce. There he met the six-foot tall drummer Black Benny, who became his guide and bodyguard.

He briefly studied shipping management at the local community college, but was forced to quit after being unable to afford the fees. While selling coal in Storyville, he heard spasm bands, groups that played music out of household objects. He heard the early sounds of jazz from bands that played in dance halls such as Pete Lala's, where King Oliver performed.

Early in his career, Armstrong played in brass bands and riverboats in New Orleans, first on an excursion boat in September 1918. He traveled with the band of Fate Marable , which toured on the steamboat Sidney with the Streckfus Steamers line up and down the Mississippi River. Marable was proud of his musical knowledge, and he insisted that Armstrong and other musicians in his band learn sight reading . Armstrong described his time with Marable as "going to the University", since it gave him a wider experience working with written arrangements . In 1919, Armstrong's mentor, King 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.

Throughout his riverboat experience, Armstrong's musicianship began to mature and expand. At twenty, he could read music. He became one of the first jazz musicians to be featured on extended trumpet solos, injecting his own personality and style. He also started singing in his performances.

In 1922, Armstrong moved to Chicago at the invitation of King Oliver, although Armstrong would return to New Orleans periodically for the rest of his life. Playing second cornet to Oliver in Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in the black-only Lincoln Gardens in Chicago's black neighborhood, he could make enough money to quit his day jobs. Although race relations were poor, Chicago was booming. The city had jobs for blacks making good wages at factories with some left over for entertainment.

Oliver's band was among the most influential jazz bands in Chicago in the early 1920s. Armstrong lived luxuriously in his own apartment with his first private bath. Excited as he was to be in Chicago, he began his career-long pastime of writing letters to friends in New Orleans. Armstrong could blow two hundred high Cs in a row. As his reputation grew, he was challenged to cutting contests by other musicians.

His first studio recordings were with Oliver for Gennett Records on April 5–6, 1923. They endured several hours on the train to remote Richmond, Indiana , and the band was paid little. The quality of the performances was affected by lack of rehearsal, crude recording equipment, bad acoustics, and a cramped studio. These early recordings were true acoustic , the band playing directly into a large funnel connected directly to the needle making the groove in the master recording. (Electrical recording was not invented until 1926 and Gennett installed it later.) Because Armstrong's playing was so loud, when he played next to Oliver, Oliver could not be heard on the recording. Armstrong had to stand fifteen feet away from Oliver, in a far corner of the room.

Lil Hardin , who Armstrong would marry in 1924, urged Armstrong to seek more prominent billing and develop his style apart from the influence of Oliver. At her suggestion, Armstrong began to play classical music in church concerts to broaden his skills; and he began to dress more in more stylish attire to offset his girth. Her influence eventually undermined Armstrong's relationship with his mentor, especially concerning his salary and additional money that Oliver held back from Armstrong and other band members. Armstrong's mother, May Ann Albert, came to visit him in Chicago during the summer of 1923 after being told that Armstrong was "out of work, out of money, hungry, and sick"; Hardin located and decorated an apartment for her to live in while she stayed.

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 time. He switched to the trumpet to blend in better with the other musicians in his section. His influence on Henderson's tenor sax soloist, Coleman Hawkins , can be judged by listening to the records made by the band during this period.

Armstrong adapted to the tightly controlled style of Henderson, playing trumpet and experimenting with the trombone. The other members were affected by Armstrong's emotional style. His act included singing and telling tales of New Orleans characters, especially preachers. The Henderson Orchestra played in prominent venues for white patrons only, including the Roseland Ballroom, with arrangements by Don Redman . Duke Ellington's orchestra went to Roseland to catch Armstrong's performances.

During this time, Armstrong recorded with Clarence Williams (a friend from New Orleans), the Williams Blue Five, Sidney Bechet , and blues singers Alberta Hunter , Ma Rainey , and Bessie Smith .

In 1925, Armstrong returned to Chicago largely at the insistence of Lil, who wanted to expand his career and his income. In publicity, much to his chagrin, she billed him as "The World's Greatest Trumpet Player". For a time he was a member of the Lil Hardin Armstrong Band and working for his wife. He formed Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and recorded the hits "Potato Head Blues" and "Muggles".

The Hot Five included Kid Ory (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Johnny St. Cyr (banjo), Lil Armstrong on piano, and usually no drummer. Over a twelve-month period starting in November 1925, this quintet produced twenty-four records. Armstrong's band leading 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." Among the Hot Five and Seven records were "Cornet Chop Suey", "Struttin' With Some Barbecue", "Hotter Than that" and "Potato Head Blues", all featuring highly creative solos by Armstrong. According to Thomas Brothers, recordings, such as "Struttin' with Some Barbeque", were so superb, "planned with density and variety, bluesyness, and showiness," that the arrangements were probably showcased at the Sunset Café. His recordings soon after with pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines , their famous 1928 "Weather Bird" duet and Armstrong's trumpet introduction to and solo in "West End Blues", remain some of the most influential improvisations in jazz history. Young trumpet players across the country bought these recordings and memorized his solos.

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, 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 scat singing (improvised vocal jazz using nonsensical words) and was among the first to record it, on the Hot Five recording "Heebie Jeebies" in 1926. The recording was so popular that the group became the most famous jazz band in the United States, even though they had seldom performed live. Young musicians across the country, black or 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 renamed Louis Armstrong and his Stompers, though Hines was the music director and Glaser managed the orchestra. Hines and Armstrong became fast friends and successful collaborators. It was at the Sunset Café that Armstrong accompanied singer Adelaide Hall . It was during Hall's tenure at the venue that she experimented, developed and expanded her scat singing with Armstrong's guidance and encouragement.

In the first half of 1927, Armstrong assembled his Hot Seven group, which added drummer Al "Baby" Dodds and tuba player, Pete Briggs, while preserving most of his original Hot Five lineup. John Thomas replaced Kid Ory on trombone. Later that year he organized a series of new Hot Five sessions which resulted in nine more records. In the last half of 1928, he started recording with a new group: Zutty Singleton (drums), Earl Hines (piano), Jimmy Strong (clarinet), Fred Robinson (trombone), and Mancy Carr (banjo).

Armstrong made a huge impact during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance . His music touched well-known writer Langston Hughes . Hughes admired Armstrong and acknowledged him as one of the most recognized musicians of the era. Hughes wrote many books that celebrated jazz and recognized Armstrong as one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance's newfound love of African-American culture. The sound of jazz, along with musicians such as Armstrong, helped shape Hughes as a writer. Just like the musicians, Hughes wrote his words with jazz.

Armstrong changed jazz during the Harlem Renaissance. As "The World's Greatest Trumpet Player" during this time, Armstrong cemented his legacy and continued a focus on his vocal career. His popularity brought together many black and white audiences.

Armstrong returned to New York in 1929, where he played in the pit orchestra for the musical Hot Chocolates , an all-black revue written by Andy Razaf and pianist Fats Waller . He made a cameo appearance as a vocalist, regularly stealing the show with his rendition of "Ain't Misbehavin'". His version of the song became his biggest selling record yet.

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 had considerable success with vocal recordings, including versions of songs composed by his old friend Hoagy Carmichael. His 1930s recordings took full advantage of the RCA ribbon microphone, introduced in 1931, which imparted warmth to vocals and became an intrinsic part of the 'crooning' sound of artists like Bing Crosby . Armstrong's interpretation of 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 were already standards.

Armstrong's radical re-working of Sidney Arodin and Carmichael's "Lazy River" (recorded in 1931) encapsulated his groundbreaking approach to melody and phrasing. The song begins with a brief trumpet solo, then the main melody is introduced 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 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 for jazz vocal interpretation. The uniquely gravelly coloration of his voice became an archetype that was endlessly imitated. His scat singing 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 Great Depression of the early 1930s 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, later moving to Paris 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 Los Angeles 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 .

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, had a hero's welcome, and saw old friends. He sponsored a local baseball team known as Armstrong's Secret Nine and had a cigar named after him. But soon he was on the road again. After a tour across the country shadowed by the mob, he fled to Europe.

After returning to the United States, he undertook several exhausting tours. His agent Johnny Collins's erratic behavior and his own spending ways left Armstrong short of cash. Breach of contract violations plagued him. He hired Joe Glaser as his new manager, a tough mob-connected wheeler-dealer, who began to straighten out his legal mess, mob troubles and debts. Armstrong also began to experience problems with his fingers and lips, 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.

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.

Bookings for big bands tapered off during the 1940s due to changes in public tastes. Ballrooms closed and there was competition from other types of music, especially pop vocals, becoming more popular than big band music. It became impossible under such circumstances to finance a 16-piece touring band.

A widespread revival of interest in the 1940s in the traditional jazz of the 1920s made it possible for Armstrong to consider a return to the small-group musical style of his youth. Armstrong was featured as a guest artist with Lionel Hampton's band at the famed second Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, produced by Leon Hefflin Sr., on October 12, 1946. He also led a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with trombonist/singer Jack Teagarden. During the concert, Armstrong and Teagarden performed a duet on Hoagy Carmichael's "Rockin' Chair" they then recorded for Okeh Records.

Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser, changed the Armstrong big band on August 13, 1947 into a six-piece traditional jazz group featuring Armstrong with (initially) Teagarden, Earl Hines and other top swing and Dixieland musicians, most of whom were previously leaders of big bands. The new group was announced at the opening of Billy Berg's Supper Club.

This smaller 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 "Buddy" Catlett, Cozy Cole , Tyree Glenn, Barrett Deems , Mort Herbert, Joe Darensbourg, Eddie Shu, Joe Muranyi and percussionist Danny Barcelona.

On February 28, 1948, Suzy Delair sang the French song "C'est si bon" at the Hotel Negresco during the first Nice Jazz Festival. Louis Armstrong was present and loved the song. On June 26, 1950, he recorded the American version of the song (English lyrics by Jerry Seelen) in New York City with Sy Oliver and his Orchestra. When it was released, the disc was a worldwide success and the song was then performed by the greatest international singers.

He was the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine , on February 21, 1949. Louis Armstrong and his All Stars were featured at the ninth Cavalcade of Jazz concert also at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles produced by Leon Hefflin Sr. held on June 7, 1953, along with Shorty Rogers, Roy Brown , Don Tosti and His Mexican Jazzmen, Earl Bostic , and Nat "King" Cole .

Over 30 years, Armstrong played more than 300 performances a year, making many recordings and appearing in over thirty films.

By the 1950s, Armstrong was a widely beloved American icon and cultural ambassador who commanded an international fanbase. However, a growing generation gap became apparent between him and the young jazz musicians who emerged in the postwar era such as Charlie Parker , Miles Davis , and Sonny Rollins . The postwar generation regarded their music as abstract art and considered Armstrong's vaudevillian style, half-musician and half-stage entertainer, outmoded and Uncle Tomism. "... he seemed a link to minstrelsy that we were ashamed of." He called bebop "Chinese music". While touring Australia in 1954, he was asked if he could play bebop. "'Bebop?' he husked. 'I just play music. Guys who invent terms like that are walking the streets with their instruments under their arms'".

In the 1960s, he toured Ghana and Nigeria .

After finishing his contract with Decca Records, he went freelance and recorded for other labels. He continued an intense international touring schedule, but in 1959 he suffered a heart attack in Italy and had to rest.

In 1964, after over two years without setting foot in a studio, he recorded his biggest-selling record, "Hello, Dolly!", a song by Jerry Herman , originally sung by Carol Channing . Armstrong's version remained on the Hot 100 for 22 weeks, longer than any other record produced that year, and went to No. 1 making him, at 62 years, 9 months and 5 days, the oldest person to accomplish that feat. His hit dislodged The Beatles from the No. 1 position they had occupied for 14 consecutive weeks with three different songs.

Armstrong toured well into his 60s, even visiting part of the Communist Bloc in 1965. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under the sponsorship of the US State Department with great success, earning the nickname "Ambassador Satch" and inspiring Dave Brubeck to compose his jazz musical The Real Ambassadors . By 1968, he was approaching 70 and his health was failing. His heart and kidney ailments forced him to stop touring. He did not perform publicly in 1969 and spent most of the year recuperating at home. Meanwhile, his longtime manager Joe Glaser died. By the summer of 1970, his doctors pronounced him fit enough to resume live performances. He embarked on another world tour, but a heart attack forced him to take a break for two months.

Armstrong made his last recorded trumpet performances on his 1968 album Disney Songs the Satchmo Way .

Personal life

In a memoir written for Robert Goffin between 1943 and 1944, Armstrong stated, "All white folks call me Louie," suggesting that he himself did not, or that no whites addressed him by one of his nicknames such as Pops. That said, Armstrong was registered as "Lewie" for the 1920 U.S. Census. On various live records he is called "Louie" on stage, such as on the 1952 "Can Anyone Explain?" from the live album In Scandinavia vol.1 . The same applies to his 1952 studio recording of the song "Chloe", where the choir in the background sings "Louie ... Louie", with Armstrong responding "What was that? Somebody called my name?". "Lewie" is the French pronunciation of "Louis" and is commonly used in Louisiana.

Armstrong was performing at the Brick House in Gretna, Louisiana , when he met Daisy Parker. On March 19, 1919, Armstrong and Parker married at City Hall. They adopted a three-year-old boy, Clarence, whose mother, Armstrong's cousin Flora, had died soon after giving birth. Clarence Armstrong was mentally disabled as a result of a head injury at an early age, and Armstrong spent the rest of his life taking care of him. His marriage to Parker ended when they separated in 1923.

On February 4, 1924, he married Lil Hardin Armstrong , King Oliver's pianist. She had divorced her first husband a few years earlier. His second wife helped him develop his career, but they separated in 1931 and divorced in 1938. Armstrong then married Alpha Smith. His relationship with Alpha began while he was playing at the Vendome during the 1920s and continued long after. His marriage to her lasted four years; they divorced in 1942. Louis then married Lucille Wilson, a singer at the Cotton Club in New York, in October 1942. They remained married until his death in 1971.

Armstrong's marriages produced no offspring. However, in December 2012, 57-year-old Sharon Preston-Folta claimed to be his daughter from a relationship he had with Lucille "Sweets" Preston. In a 1955 letter to his manager, Joe Glaser, Armstrong affirmed that Lucille's child was his daughter, and ordered Glaser to pay a monthly allowance of $400, $5,462 in 2022 dollars , to mother and child.

Armstrong was colorful and charismatic. His autobiography vexed some biographers and historians because he had a habit of telling tales, particularly about his early childhood when he was less scrutinized, and his embellishments lack consistency.

In addition to being an entertainer, Armstrong was a leading personality. He was beloved by an American public that usually offered little access beyond their public celebrity to even the greatest African American performers, and he was able to live a private life of access and privilege afforded to few other African Americans during that era.

He generally remained politically neutral, which at times alienated him from members of the black community who expected him to use his prominence within white America to become more outspoken during the civil rights movement . However, he did criticize President Eisenhower for not acting forcefully enough on civil rights.

The trumpet is notoriously hard on the lips , and Armstrong suffered from lip damage over most of his life. This was due to his aggressive style of playing and preference for narrow mouthpieces that would stay in place more easily, but which tended to dig into the soft flesh of his inner lip. During his 1930s European tour, he suffered an ulceration so severe that he had to stop playing entirely for a year. Eventually he took to using salves and creams on his lips and also cutting off scar tissue with a razor blade. By the 1950s, he was an official spokesman for Ansatz-Creme Lip Salve.

During a backstage meeting with trombonist Marshall Brown in 1959, Armstrong received the suggestion to see a doctor and receive proper treatment for his lips instead of relying on home remedies, but he did not get around to that until his final years, by which point his health was failing and the doctors considered surgery too risky.

Also in 1959, Armstrong was hospitalized for pneumonia while on tour in Italy . Doctors were concerned about his lungs and heart, but by June 26 he rallied.

The nicknames "Satchmo" and "Satch" are short for "Satchelmouth". The nickname origin is uncertain. The most common tale that biographers tell is the story of Armstrong as a young boy in New Orleans dancing for pennies. He scooped the coins off the street and stuck them into his mouth to prevent bigger children from stealing them. Someone dubbed him "satchel mouth" for his mouth acting as a satchel. Another tale is that because of his large mouth, he was nicknamed "satchel mouth" which was shortened to "Satchmo".

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.

The nickname "Pops" came from Armstrong's own tendency to forget people's names and simply call them "Pops" instead. The nickname was turned on Armstrong himself. It was used as the title of a 2010 biography of Armstrong by Terry Teachout.

After a competition at the Savoy, he was crowned and nicknamed "King Menelik", after the Emperor of Ethiopia, for slaying "ofay jazz demons".

Armstrong celebrated his heritage as an African American man from a poor New Orleans neighborhood and tried to avoid what he called "putting on airs". Many younger black musicians criticized Armstrong for playing in front of segregated audiences and for not taking a stronger stand in the American civil rights movement . When he did speak out, it made national news, including his criticism of President Dwight D. Eisenhower , calling him "two-faced" and "gutless" because of his inaction during the conflict over school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. As a protest, Armstrong cancelled 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"; 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.

When asked about his religion, Armstrong answered that he was raised a Baptist , always wore a Star of David , and was friends with the pope. He wore the Star of David in honor of the Karnoffsky family who took him in as a child and lent him money to buy his first cornet. He was baptized a Catholic in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in New Orleans, and he met Pope Pius XII and Pope Paul VI .

Armstrong was concerned with his health. He used laxatives to control his weight, a practice he advocated both to acquaintances and in the diet plans he published under the title Lose Weight the Satchmo Way . His laxative use began as a child when his mother would collect dandelions and peppergrass around the railroad tracks to give to her children for their health.

The concern with his health and weight was balanced by his love of food, reflected in such songs as "Cheesecake", "Cornet Chop Suey", and "Struttin' with Some Barbecue". He kept a strong connection throughout his life to the cooking of New Orleans , always signing his letters, " Red beans and ricely yours ...".

A fan of Major League Baseball, he founded a team in New Orleans that was known as Raggedy Nine and transformed the team into his Armstrong's "Secret Nine Baseball".

Armstrong's gregariousness extended to writing. On the road, he wrote constantly, sharing favorite themes of his life with correspondents around the world. He avidly typed or wrote on whatever stationery was at hand, recording instant takes on music, food and childhood memories.

Louis Armstrong was not, as claimed, a Freemason . Although he has been cited as a member of Montgomery Lodge No. 18 (Prince Hall) in New York, no such lodge ever existed. Armstrong did state in his autobiography that he was a member of the Knights of Pythias, which although real, is not a Masonic group. During the krewe's 1949 Mardi Gras parade, Armstrong presided as King of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, for which he was featured on the cover of Time magazine .

In his early years, Armstrong was best known for his virtuosity with the cornet and trumpet. Along with his "clarinet-like figurations and high notes in his cornet solos", he was also known for his "intense rhythmic 'swing', a complex conception involving ... accented upbeats, upbeat to downbeat slurring, and complementary relations among rhythmic patterns." The most lauded recordings on which Armstrong plays trumpet include the Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions, as well as those of the Red Onion Jazz Babies. Armstrong's improvisations, while unconventionally sophisticated for that era, were also subtle and highly melodic. The solo that Armstrong plays during the song "Potato Head Blues" has long been considered his best solo of that series.

Prior to Armstrong, most collective ensemble playing in jazz, along with its occasional solos, simply varied the melodies of the songs. Armstrong was virtually the first to create significant variations based on the chord harmonies of the songs instead of merely on the melodies. This opened a rich field for creation and improvisation, and significantly changed the music into a soloist's art form.

Often, Armstrong re-composed pop-tunes he played, simply with variations that made them more compelling to jazz listeners of the era. At the same time, however, his oeuvre includes many original melodies, creative leaps, and relaxed or driving rhythms. Armstrong's playing technique, honed by constant practice, extended the range, tone and capabilities of the trumpet. In his records, Armstrong almost single-handedly created the role of the jazz soloist, taking what had been essentially a collective folk music and turning it into an art form with tremendous possibilities for individual expression.

Armstrong 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.

As his music progressed and popularity grew, his singing also became very important. Armstrong was not the first to record scat singing, but he was masterful at it and helped popularize it with the first recording on which he scatted, "Heebie Jeebies". At a recording session for Okeh Records, when the sheet music supposedly fell on the floor and the music began before he could pick up the pages, Armstrong simply started singing nonsense syllables while Okeh President E.A. Fearn, who was at the session, kept telling him to continue. Armstrong did, thinking the track would be discarded, but that was the version that was pressed to disc, sold, and became an unexpected hit. Although the story was thought to be apocryphal, Armstrong himself confirmed it in at least one interview as well as in his memoirs. On a later recording, Armstrong also sang out "I done forgot the words" in the middle of recording "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas".

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. Armstrong once told Cab Calloway that his scat style was derived "from the Jews rockin ", an Orthodox Jewish style of chanting during prayer.

Armstrong was a gifted composer who wrote more than fifty songs, some of which have become jazz standards (e.g., "Gully Low Blues", "Potato Head Blues" and "Swing That Music").

During his long career he played and sang with some of the most important instrumentalists and vocalists of the time, including Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington , Fletcher Henderson , Earl Hines , Jimmie Rodgers , Bessie Smith , and Ella Fitzgerald . His influence upon 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).

Armstrong recorded two albums with Ella Fitzgerald, Ella and Louis and Ella and Louis Again , for Verve Records. The sessions featured the backing musicianship of the Oscar Peterson Trio with drummer Buddy Rich on the first album and Louie Bellson on the second. Norman Granz then had the vision for Ella and Louis to record Porgy and Bess .

His two recordings for Columbia Records , Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (1954) and Satch Plays Fats (all Fats Waller tunes) (1955), were both being considered masterpieces, as well as moderately well selling. In 1961, the All Stars participated in two albums, The Great Summit and The Great Reunion (now together as a single disc) with Duke Ellington . The albums feature many of Ellington's most famous compositions (as well as two exclusive cuts) with Duke sitting in on piano. His participation in Dave Brubeck 's high-concept jazz musical The Real Ambassadors (1963) was critically acclaimed and features "Summer Song", one of Armstrong's most popular vocal efforts.

In the week beginning May 9, 1964, his recording of the song "Hello, Dolly!" went to number one. An album of the same title was quickly created around the song, and also shot to number one, knocking The Beatles off the top of the chart. The album sold very well for the rest of the year, quickly going "Gold" (500,000). His performance of "Hello, Dolly!" won for best male pop vocal performance at the 1964 Grammy Awards .

Armstrong had nineteen "Top Ten" records including "Stardust", "What a Wonderful World", " When The Saints Go Marching In ", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Ain't Misbehavin'", "You Rascal You", and "Stompin' at the Savoy". "We Have All the Time in the World" was featured on the soundtrack of the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service , and enjoyed renewed popularity in the UK in 1994 when it was featured on a Guinness advertisement. It reached number 3 in the charts on being re-released.

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 .

In February 1968, he 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 UK with "What a Wonderful World", which topped the British charts for a month. Armstrong appeared on the October 28, 1970, Johnny Cash Show , where he sang Nat King Cole 's hit "Ramblin' Rose" and joined Cash to re-create his performance backing Jimmie Rodgers on "Blue Yodel No. 9".

Armstrong enjoyed many types of music, from blues to the arrangements of Guy Lombardo , to Latin American folksongs, to classical symphonies and opera . He incorporated influences from all these sources into his performances, sometimes to the bewilderment of fans who wanted him to stay in convenient narrow categories. Armstrong was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence . Some of his solos from the 1950s, such as the hard rocking version of "St. Louis Blues" from the WC Handy album, show that the influence went in both directions.

Armstrong appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films, usually playing a bandleader or musician. His most familiar role was as the bandleader cum narrator in the 1956 musical High Society , starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly , Frank Sinatra , and Celeste Holm . He appears throughout the film, sings the title song, and performs the duet "Now You Has Jazz" with Crosby. In 1947, he played himself in the movie New Orleans opposite Billie Holiday, which chronicled the demise of the Storyville district and the ensuing exodus of musicians from New Orleans to Chicago. In the 1959 film The Five Pennies , Armstrong played himself, sang, and played several classic numbers. He performed a duet of "When the Saints Go Marching In" with Danny Kaye during which Kaye impersonated Armstrong. He had a part in the film alongside James Stewart in The Glenn Miller Story .

In 1937, Armstrong was the first African American to host a nationally broadcast radio show. In 1969, he had a cameo role in Gene Kelly 's film version of Hello, Dolly! as the bandleader Louis where 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 television appearances, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, including appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson .

In 1949, his life was dramatized in the Chicago WMAQ radio series Destination Freedom .

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" (The Great Cronopio).

There is a pivotal scene in Stardust Memories (1980) in which Woody Allen is overwhelmed by a recording of Armstrong's "Stardust" and experiences a nostalgic epiphany.

Against his doctor's advice, Armstrong played a two-week engagement in March 1971 at the Waldorf-Astoria 's Empire Room. At the end of it, he was hospitalized for a heart attack . He was released from the hospital in May, and quickly resumed practicing his trumpet playing. Still hoping to get back on the road, Armstrong died of a heart attack in his sleep on July 6, 1971, two days after celebrating his alleged 71st birthday, and a month before his actual 70th birthday. He was residing in Corona, Queens , New York City, at the time of his death. He was interred in Flushing Cemetery, Flushing , in Queens , New York City. His honorary pallbearers included Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald , Dizzy Gillespie , Pearl Bailey , Count Basie , Harry James , Frank Sinatra , Ed Sullivan , Earl Wilson, Alan King , Johnny Carson and David Frost . 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.

Awards and honors

Armstrong was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972 by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. This Special Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy's National Trustees to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.

Recordings of Armstrong were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance".

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed Armstrong's West End Blues on the list of 500 songs that shaped Rock and Roll.

In 1995, the U.S. Post Office issued a Louis Armstrong 32-cent commemorative postage stamp.

In 1999 Armstrong was nominated for inclusion in the American Film Institute 's 100 Years ... 100 Stars .

The influence of Armstrong on the development of jazz is virtually immeasurable. His irrepressible personality both as a performer and as a public figure 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. Additionally, jazz itself was transformed from a collectively improvised folk music to a soloist's serious art form largely through his influence. 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. Even special musicians like Duke Ellington have praised Armstrong through strong testimonials. Duke Ellington, DownBeat magazine in 1971, said, "If anybody was a master, it was Louis Armstrong. He was and will continue to be the embodiment of jazz". In 1950, Bing Crosby , the most successful vocalist of the first half of the 20th century, said, "He is the beginning and the end of music in America".

In 1991, an asteroid was named 9179 Satchmo in his honor. In the summer of 2001, in commemoration of the centennial of Armstrong's birth, New Orleans's main airport was renamed Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The entrance to the airport's former terminal building houses a statue depicting Armstrong playing his cornet. In 2002, the Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings (1925–1928) were 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.

Congo Square was a common gathering place for African-Americans in New Orleans for dancing and performing music. The park where Congo Square is located was later renamed Louis Armstrong Park. Dedicated in April 1980, the park includes a 12-foot (3.7 m) statue of Armstrong, trumpet in hand.

The house where Armstrong lived for almost 28 years was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977 and is now a museum. The Louis Armstrong House Museum , at 34–56 107th Street between 34th and 37th avenues in Corona, Queens , presents concerts and educational programs, operates as a historic house museum and makes materials in its archives of writings, books, recordings and memorabilia available to the public for research. The museum is operated by the Queens College, City University of New York, following the dictates of Lucille Armstrong's will. The museum opened to the public on October 15, 2003. A new visitors center is planned.

According to literary critic Harold Bloom, "The two great American contributions to the world's art, in the end, are Walt Whitman and, after him, Armstrong and jazz ... If I had to choose between the two, ultimately, I wouldn't. I would say that the genius of this nation at its best is indeed Walt Whitman and Louis Armstrong".

• Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong collaborations
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Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong was an internationally famous jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and singer known for songs like “What a Wonderful World,” “Hello, Dolly!,” ”Star Dust,” and “La Vie En Rose.”

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Who Was Louis Armstrong?

Jazz musician Louis Armstrong, nicknamed “Satchmo” and “Ambassador Satch,” was an internationally famous jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and singer. An all-star virtuoso, the New Orleans native came to prominence in the 1920s and influenced countless musicians with both his daring trumpet style and unique vocals. He is credited with helping to usher in the era of jazz big bands. Armstrong recorded several songs throughout his career, including “Star Dust,” “La Vie En Rose,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “What a Wonderful World.” Ever the entertainer, Armstrong became the first Black American to star in a Hollywood movie with 1936’s Pennies from Heaven . The legendary musician died in 1971 at age 69 after years of contending with heart and kidney problems.

Quick Facts

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FULL NAME: Louis Daniel Armstrong BORN: August 4, 1901 DIED: July 6, 1971 BIRTHPLACE: New Orleans, Louisiana SPOUSES: Daisy Parker (c. 1918-1923), Lillian Hardin (1924-1938), Alpha Smith (1938-1942), and Lucille Wilson (1942-1971) CHILDREN: Clarence and Sharon ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Leo

Louis Daniel Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, in a New Orleans neighborhood so poor that it was nicknamed “The Battlefield.”

He had a difficult childhood. His father was a factory worker and abandoned the family soon after Louis’ birth. His mother, who often turned to prostitution, frequently left him with his maternal grandmother.

Armstrong was obligated to leave school in the fifth grade to begin working. A local Jewish family, the Karnofskys, gave young Armstrong a job collecting junk and delivering coal. They also encouraged him to sing and often invited him into their home for meals.

On New Year’s Eve in 1912, when Armstrong was 11 years old, he fired his stepfather’s gun in the air during a celebration and was arrested on the spot. He was then sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys. It proved to be a pivotal time in his life. There, Armstrong received musical instruction on the cornet and fell in love with music. In 1914, the home released him, and he immediately began dreaming of a life making music.

While he still had to work odd jobs selling newspapers and hauling coal to the city’s famed red-light district, Armstrong began earning a reputation as a fine blues player. One of the greatest cornet players in town, Joe “King” Oliver, began acting as a mentor to young Armstrong, showing him pointers on the horn and occasionally using him as a sub.

In 1918, Armstrong replaced Oliver in Kid Ory’s band, then the most popular band in New Orleans. He was soon able to stop working manual labor jobs and began concentrating full-time on his cornet, playing parties, dances, funeral marches, and at local honky-tonks, a name for small bars that typically host musical acts.

Beginning in 1919, Armstrong spent his summers playing on riverboats with a band led by Fate Marable. It was on the riverboat that Armstrong honed his music reading skills and eventually had his first encounters with other jazz legends, including Bix Beiderbecke and Jack Teagarden.

Influencing the Creation of the First Jazz Big Band

Although Armstrong was content to remain in New Orleans, in the summer of 1922, he received a call from Oliver to come to Chicago and join his Creole Jazz Band on second cornet. Armstrong accepted, and he was soon taking Chicago by storm with both his remarkably fiery playing and the dazzling two-cornet breaks that he shared with Oliver. Armstrong made his first recordings with Oliver on April 5, 1923; that day, he earned his first recorded solo on “Chimes Blues.”

Lillian Hardin, the band’s female pianist whom Armstrong married in 1924, made it clear she felt Oliver was holding Armstrong back. She pushed her husband to cut ties with his mentor and join Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, the top African American dance band in New York City at the time.

Armstrong followed her advice, joining Henderson in the fall of 1924. He immediately made his presence felt with a series of solos that introduced the concept of swing music to the band. Armstrong had a great influence on Henderson and his arranger, Don Redman, both of whom began integrating Armstrong’s swinging vocabulary into their arrangements. The changes transformed Henderson’s band into what is generally regarded as the first jazz big band.

However, Armstrong’s southern background didn’t mesh well with the more urban, Northern mentality of Henderson’s other musicians, who sometimes gave Armstrong a hard time over his wardrobe and the way he talked. Henderson also forbade Armstrong from singing, fearing that his rough way of vocalizing would be too coarse for the sophisticated audiences at the Roseland Ballroom. Unhappy, Armstrong left Henderson in 1925 to return to Chicago, where he began playing with his wife’s band at the Dreamland Café.

While in New York, Armstrong cut dozens of records as a sideman, creating inspirational jazz with other greats, such as Sidney Bechet, and backing numerous blues singers, including Bessie Smith .

Back in Chicago, OKeh Records decided to let Armstrong make his first records with a band under his own name: Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five. From 1925 to 1928, Armstrong made more than 60 records with the Hot Five and, later, the Hot Seven.

Today, these are generally regarded as the most important and influential recordings in jazz history. On the records, Armstrong’s virtuoso brilliance helped transform jazz from an ensemble music to a soloist’s art. His stop-time solos on numbers like “Cornet Chop Suey” and “Potato Head Blues” changed jazz history by featuring daring rhythmic choices, swinging phrasing, and incredible high notes.

Armstrong also began singing on these recordings, popularizing wordless “scat singing” with his hugely popular vocal on 1926’s “Heebie Jeebies.” In 2002, all the tapes were preserved in the National Recording Registry.

The Hot Five and Hot Seven were strictly recording groups, however. Armstrong performed nightly during this period with Erskine Tate’s orchestra at the Vendome Theater, often playing music for silent movies. While performing with Tate in 1926, Armstrong finally switched from the cornet to the trumpet.

Armstrong’s popularity continued to grow in Chicago throughout the 1920s, as he began playing other venues, including the Sunset Café and the Savoy Ballroom. A young pianist from Pittsburgh named Earl Hines assimilated Armstrong’s ideas into his piano playing.

Together, Armstrong and Hines formed a potent team and made some of the greatest recordings in jazz history in 1928, including their virtuoso duet, “Weather Bird,” and “West End Blues.” The latter performance is one of Armstrong’s best known works, opening with a stunning cadenza that features equal helpings of opera and the blues. With its release, “West End Blues” proved to the world that the genre of fun, danceable jazz music was also capable of producing high art.

In the summer of 1929, Armstrong headed to New York, where he had a role in a Broadway production of Connie’s Hot Chocolates , featuring the music of Fats Waller and Andy Razaf. Armstrong was featured nightly on Ain’t Misbehavin’ , breaking up the crowds of (mostly white) theatergoers nightly.

That same year, he recorded with small New Orleans–influenced groups, including the Hot Seven, and began recording larger ensembles. Instead of doing strictly jazz numbers, OKeh Records began allowing Armstrong to record popular songs of the day, including “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Star Dust,” and “Body and Soul.”

Armstrong’s daring vocal transformations of these songs completely changed the concept of popular singing in American popular music, and had lasting effects on many singers who came after him, including Bing Crosby , Billie Holiday , Frank Sinatra , and Ella Fitzgerald .

Armstrong’s 1950 recording of “La Vie En Rose” remains one of his most recognizable vocals. It was notably featured on the soundtrack of the 2008 animated film WALL-E . Other popular songs of his included “Swing That Music,” “Jubilee,” “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue,” and the Grammy-winning “Hello, Dolly!,” his only No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (The chart began in August 1958, well into Armstrong’s career.)

Like his Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, Armstrong’s 1938 song “When the Saints Go Marching In” and his jazz transformation of Kurt Weill’s “Mack the Knife” from 1956 were enshrined in the National Recording Registry.

Armstrong and Fitzgerald partnered on a collection of duets and made three albums in the second half of the 1950s. The songs include “Makin’ Whoopee,” “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” and “Cheek to Cheek,” originally written for the 1935 film Top Hat starring Fred Astaire . All their duets were released on a four-disc set in 2018 to celebrate Fitzgerald’s 100 th birthday.

One of Armstrong’s most beloved song is “What a Wonderful World,” which the musician recorded in 1967. Different from most of his recordings of the era, the ballad features no trumpet and places Armstrong’s gravelly voice in the middle of a bed of strings and angelic voices. Armstrong sang his heart out on the number, thinking of his home in New York City’s Queens as he did so.

“What a Wonderful World” received little promotion in the United States. The tune did, however, become a No. 1 hit around the world, including in England and South Africa. Eventually, it became an American classic after it was used in the 1986 Robin Williams film Good Morning, Vietnam .

By 1932, Armstrong was known as “Satchmo,” a shortened version of satchel mouth, on account of his large mouth. He had also had begun appearing in movies and made his first tour of England. While he was beloved by musicians, he was too wild for most critics, who gave him some of the most racist and harsh reviews of his career.

Satchmo didn’t let the criticism stop him, however, and he returned an even bigger star when he began a longer tour throughout Europe in 1933. In a strange turn of events, it was during this tour that Armstrong’s career fell apart.

Years of blowing high notes had taken a toll on Armstrong’s lips, and following a fight with his manager Johnny Collins—who already managed to get Armstrong into trouble with the Mafia —he was left stranded overseas by Collins. Armstrong decided to take some time off soon after the incident and spent much of 1934 relaxing in Europe and resting his lip.

Swing That Music

When Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1935, he had no band, no engagements, and no recording contract. His lips were still sore, and there were still remnants of his mob troubles. His wife Lillian was also suing Armstrong following the couple’s split.

He turned to Joe Glaser for help. Glaser had mob ties of his own, having been close with Al Capone . But he had loved Armstrong from the time he met him at the Sunset Café, which Glaser had owned and managed. Armstrong put his career in Glaser’s hands and asked him to make his troubles disappear. Glaser did just that. Within a few months, Armstrong had a new big band and was recording for Decca Records.

With his career back on track, Armstrong set a number of African American firsts. In 1936, he became the first Black jazz musician to write an autobiography: Swing That Music . That same year, he became the first African American to get featured billing in a major Hollywood movie with his turn in Pennies from Heaven , starring Bing Crosby . Armstrong continued to appear in major movies with the likes of Mae West , Martha Raye, and Dick Powell.

In 1937, Armstrong became the first Black entertainer to host a nationally sponsored radio show when he took over Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann’s Yeast Show for 12 weeks. He was a frequent presence on radio and often broke box-office records at the height of what is now known as the Swing Era.

By the mid-’40s, the Swing Era was winding down, and the era of big bands was almost over. Seeing the writing on the wall, Armstrong scaled down to a smaller six-piece combo, the All Stars, who he performed live with until the end of his career. Personnel frequently changed. Members of the group, at one time or another, included Jack Teagarden, Earl Hines, Sid Catlett, Barney Bigard, Trummy Young, Edmond Hall, Billy Kyle, and Tyree Glenn, among other jazz legends.

Armstrong continued recording for Decca in the late 1940s and early ’50s, creating a string of popular hits, including “Blueberry Hill,” “That Lucky Old Sun,” “A Kiss to Build a Dream On,” and “I Get Ideas.”

Armstrong signed with Columbia Records in the mid-’50s and soon cut some of the finest albums of his career for producer George Avakian, including Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy and Satch Plays Fats .

Armstrong wed four times, the first during his teen years. In 1918, he married Daisy Parker, a sex worker. That commenced a stormy union marked by many arguments and acts of violence that ultimately ended in 1923.

During his first marriage, Armstrong adopted a 3-year-old boy named Clarence. The boy’s mother was Armstrong’s cousin who had died in childbirth. Clarence suffered a head injury at a young age and was mentally disabled for the rest of his life.

Armstrong’s second wife was a fellow musician. Shortly after joining the Creole Jazz Band in Chicago, he started dating the female pianist in the group, Lillian Hardin. They married in 1924 but separated seven years later.

During his marriage to Hardin, Armstrong began a relationship with a young dancer named Alpha Smith. In 1938, Armstrong finally divorced Hardin and married Smith, whom he had been dating for more than a decade. Their marriage was not a happy one, however, and they divorced in 1942.

That same year, Armstrong married for the fourth and final time. He wed Lucille Wilson, a Cotton Club dancer. They remained married until his death in 1971.

Armstrong’s four marriages never produced any biological children. Because he and his wife Lucille had actively tried for years to no avail, many believe him to be incapable of having children.

However, controversy regarding Armstrong’s fatherhood struck in 1954, when a girlfriend that the musician had dated on the side named Lucille “Sweets” Preston claimed she was pregnant with his child. Preston gave birth to a daughter, Sharon Preston, in 1955.

Louis Armstrong, In His Own Words: Selected Writings

Shortly thereafter, Armstrong bragged about the child to his manager Joe Glaser in a letter that was later published in the book Louis Armstrong In His Own Words (1999). Thereafter until his death in 1971, however, Armstrong never publicly addressed whether he was Sharon’s father.

Armstrong’s alleged daughter, who now goes by the name Sharon Preston-Folta, has publicized various letters between her and her father. The letters, dated as far back as 1968, prove that Armstrong had always believed Sharon to be his daughter and that he even paid for her education and home, among several other things, throughout his life. Perhaps most importantly, the letters also detail Armstrong’s fatherly love for Sharon.

In December 2012, Preston-Folta published the memoir Little Satchmo: Living in the Shadow of My Father , Louis Daniel Armstrong , about her relationship and connection with the famous musician.

A DNA test could officially prove whether a blood relationship does exist between Armstrong and Preston-Folta, but if one has been conducted, it hasn’t been publicly shared. However, believers and skeptics can at least agree on one thing: Sharon’s uncanny resemblance to the jazz legend.

When Armstrong’s popularity overseas skyrocketed, it led some to alter his longtime nickname “Satchmo” to “Ambassador Satch.” He performed all over the world in the 1950s and ’60s, including throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. Legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow followed Armstrong with a camera crew on some of his worldwide excursions, turning the resulting footage into a theatrical documentary, Satchmo the Great , released in 1957.

Although his popularity was hitting new highs in the 1950s, and despite breaking down so many barriers for his race, making him a hero in the Black community, Armstrong began to lose standing with two segments of his audience: modern jazz fans and young African Americans.

Bebop, a new form of jazz, had blossomed in the 1940s. Featuring young geniuses such as Dizzy Gillespie , Charlie Parker , and Miles Davis , the younger generation of musicians saw themselves as artists, not as entertainers. They saw Armstrong’s stage persona and music as old-fashioned and criticized him in the press. Armstrong fought back, but for many young jazz fans, he was regarded as an out-of-date performer with his best days behind him.

The Civil Rights Movement was growing stronger with each passing year, with more protests, marches, and speeches from Black Americans wanting equal rights. To many young jazz listeners at the time, Armstrong’s ever-smiling demeanor seemed like it was from a bygone era. The trumpeter’s refusal to comment on politics for many years only furthered perceptions that he was out of touch.

Armstrong’s previous silence on racial issues changed in 1957, when the musician saw the Little Rock Central High School integration crisis on television. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus sent in the National Guard to prevent the Little Rock Nine , a group of nine African American students, from entering the public school.

When Armstrong saw this, as well as white protesters hurling invective at the students, he blew his top to the press, telling a reporter that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had “no guts” for letting Faubus run the country. “The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell,” Armstrong said.

His words made front-page news around the world. Although he had finally spoken out after years of remaining publicly silent, he received criticism at the time from both Black and white public figures. Not a single jazz musician who had previously criticized him took his side, but today, this is seen as one of the bravest, most definitive moments of Armstrong’s life.

Armstrong continued a grueling touring schedule into the late ’50s, and it caught up with him in 1959 when he had a heart attack while traveling in Spoleto, Italy. The musician didn’t let the incident stop him, however. After taking a few weeks off to recover, he was back on the road, performing 300 nights a year into the 1960s.

Armstrong was still a popular attraction around the world in 1963 but hadn’t made a record in two years. That December, he was called into the studio to record the title number for a Broadway show that hadn’t opened yet, Hello, Dolly!

The record “Hello, Dolly!” was released in 1964 and quickly climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, hitting the No. 1 slot in May 1964. The chart-topper even dethroned The Beatles at the height of Beatlemania. It also earned Armstrong his only Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance.

This newfound popularity introduced Armstrong to a new, younger audience, and he continued making both successful records and concert appearances for the rest of the decade, even cracking the Iron Curtain with a tour of Communist countries such as East Berlin and Czechoslovakia in 1965.

By 1968, Armstrong’s grueling lifestyle had finally caught up with him. Heart and kidney problems forced him to stop performing in 1969. That same year, his longtime manager, Joe Glaser, died. Armstrong spent much of that year at home but managed to continue practicing the trumpet daily.

Armstrong restarted his public performances by the summer of 1970. After a successful engagement in Las Vegas, Armstrong began taking engagements around the world once more, including in London; Washington, D.C.; and New York City, where he performed for two weeks at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Two days after the Waldorf gig, Armstrong had a heart attack that sidelined him for two months. He returned home in May 1971, though he soon resumed playing again. He promised to perform in public once more, but it was a promise he couldn’t keep.

Armstrong he died in his sleep on July 6, 1971, at his home in the Queens borough of New York City. He was a month shy of his 70 th birthday.

Since his death, Armstrong’s stature has only continued to grow. His Queens home at 34-56 107th Street in Corona, New York was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977. He and his wife Lucille moved into the home in 1943 after she convinced him to purchase a house. Today, the building is home to the Louis Armstrong House Museum , which annually receives thousands of visitors from all over the world.

In the 1980s and ’90s, younger Black jazz musicians like Wynton Marsalis, Jon Faddis, and Nicholas Payton began speaking about Armstrong’s importance, both as a musician and a human being.

A series of biographies on Armstrong made his role as a civil rights pioneer abundantly clear and, subsequently, argued for an embrace of his entire career’s output, not just the revolutionary recordings from the 1920s.

Louis Armstrong Stadium, part of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center that annually hosts the U.S. Open in New York City, is named in his honor.

• The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician.
• If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.
• All music is folk music. I ain’t never heard a horse sing a song.
• The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, are also on the faces of people going by.
• The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
• Seems to me it ain’t the world that’s so bad but what we’re doing to it, and all I’m saying is: see what a wonderful world it would be if only we’d give it a chance. Love, baby—love. That’s the secret.
• We all do “do re mi,” but you have got to find the other notes yourself.
• Making money ain’t nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat, and when you die, you’re just as graveyard dead as he is.
• What we play is life.

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Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. He was raised by his mother Mayann in a neighborhood so dangerous it was called “The Battlefield.” He only had a fifth-grade education, dropping out of school early to go to work. An early job working for the Jewish Karnofsky family allowed Armstrong to make enough money to purchase his first cornet.

On New Year’s Eve 1912, he was arrested and sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys. There, under the tutelage of Peter Davis, he learned how to properly play the cornet, eventually becoming the leader of the Waif’s Home Brass Band. Released from the Waif’s Home in 1914, Armstrong set his sights on becoming a professional musician. Mentored by the city’s top cornetist, Joe “King” Oliver, Armstrong soon became one of the most in-demand cornetists in town, eventually working steadily on Mississippi riverboats.

In 1922, King Oliver sent for Armstrong to join his band in Chicago. Armstrong and Oliver became the talk of the town with their intricate two-cornet breaks and started making records together in 1923. By that point, Armstrong began dating the pianist in the band, Lillian Hardin. In 1924, Armstrong married Hardin, who urged Armstrong to leave Oliver and try to make it on his own. A year in New York with Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra proved unsatisfying so Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925 and began making records under his own name for the first time.

Hotter Than That

The records by Louis Armstrong and His Five–and later, Hot Seven–are the most influential in jazz. Armstrong’s improvised solos transformed jazz from an ensemble-based music into a soloist’s art, while his expressive vocals incorporated innovative bursts of scat singing and an underlying swing feel. By the end of the decade, the popularity of the Hot Fives and Sevens was enough to send Armstrong back to New York, where he appeared in the popular Broadway revue, “Hot Chocolates.” He soon began touring and never really stopped until his death in 1971.

The 1930s also found Armstrong achieving great popularity on radio, in films, and with his recordings. He performed in Europe for the first time in 1932 and returned in 1933, staying for over a year because of a damaged lip. Back in America in 1935, Armstrong hired Joe Glaser as his manager and began fronting a big band, recording pop songs for Decca, and appearing regularly in movies. He began touring the country in the 1940s.

Ambassador Satch

In 1947, the waning popularity of the big bands forced Armstrong to begin fronting a small group, Louis Armstrong and His All Stars. Personnel changed over the years but this remained Armstrong’s main performing vehicle for the rest of his career. He had a string of pop hits beginning in 1949 and started making regular overseas tours, where his popularity was so great, he was dubbed “Ambassador Satch.”

In America, Armstrong had been a great Civil Rights pioneer, breaking down numerous barriers as a young man. In the 1950s, he was sometimes criticized for his onstage persona and called an “Uncle Tom” but he silenced critics by speaking out against the government’s handling of the “Little Rock Nine” high school integration crisis in 1957.

Armstrong continued touring the world and making records with songs like “Blueberry Hill” (1949), “Mack the Knife” (1955) and “Hello, Dolly! (1964),” the latter knocking the Beatles off the top of the pop charts at the height of Beatlemania.

Good Evening Everybody

The many years of constant touring eventually wore down Armstrong, who had his first heart attack in 1959 and returned to intensive care at Beth Israel Hospital for heart and kidney trouble in 1968. Doctors advised him not to play but Armstrong continued to practice every day in his Corona, Queens home, where he had lived with his fourth wife, Lucille, since 1943. He returned to performing in 1970 but it was too much, too soon and he passed away in his sleep on July 6, 1971, a few months after his final engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

Louis talks about the Karnofskys

• SATCHMO RADIO

Louis Armstrong Biography

Louis Armstrong’s achievements are remarkable. During his career, he:

• Developed a way of playing jazz, as an instrumentalist and a vocalist, which has had an impact on all musicians to follow.
• Recorded hit songs for five decades, and his music is still heard today on television and radio and in films.
• Wrote two autobiographies, more than ten magazine articles, hundreds of pages of memoirs, and thousands of letters.
• Was the only Black Jazz musician to publicly speak out against school segregation in 1957.
• So popular that warring sides in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa temporarily stopped fighting in 1960 to attend an Armstrong concert.
• Appeared in more than thirty films (over twenty were full-length features) as a gifted actor with superb comic timing and an unabashed joy of life.
• Composed dozens of songs that have become jazz standards.
• Performed an average of 300 concerts each year, with his frequent tours to all parts of the world earning him the nickname “Ambassador Satch,” and became one of the first great celebrities of the twentieth century.

Louis Armstrong – history and achievements

Louis Armstrong (born Aug. 4, 1901, New Orleans, Louisiana—died July 6, 1971, New York City, New York), American jazz artist who is unanimously considered as the greatest jazz player in history. He is also noted for his masterpieces like “What a Wonderful World”, “Star Dust”, and “Hello, Dolly!”. His version of “Hello, Dolly!” received an induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.

Armstrong could simply do it all; he was an all-round entertainer: a great singer, bandleader, actor, and comedian.

Although on record, Louis Armstrong’s date of birth is in 1901, the jazz artist usually claimed that he was born in 1900. His full name was Louis Daniel Armstrong.

His father, a factory worker, bailed out on the family a few months after the birth of Louis Armstrong. As a result of the dire financial situation, his mother intermittently made a living as a prostitute. Armstrong was left in the care of his maternal grandmother until he was 5 years old.

Louis Armstrong left school at an early age, probably in his fifth grade. This decision of his was necessitated by his family’s poor finances, as he had to work to supplement his family’s income. He worked as a delivery boy, supplying coal, and also selling newspapers. One of his employers, a Jewish family, were the ones who encouraged him to sing.

Louis Armstrong was born in an era when jazz music was relatively in its nascent years. As a kid, his passion for music was evident for everyone to see. He was a key member of a local boys’ quartet in New Orleans. Simply put, jazz music was Armstrong’s go-to, his escape, and his saving grace.

He was born into abject poverty into a family that lived in New Orleans, Louisiana. To shore up his family’s meager income, the young Armstrong took up menial jobs.

Louis Armstrong’s troubling childhood

Exacerbated by the dire financial situation of his family, Louis Armstrong’s teenage years were extremely rough. By the time he was 13 years of age, this future jazz genius had got caught up with a bad group of friends. After firing his stepfather’s gun in the air on New Year’s Eve in 1912, he was arrested. For his rogue behavior the teenager was placed in the Colored Waifs Home for Boys.

Kid Ory band

The reform center was a blessing in disguise as it was at that very place that Armstrong began honing his skills in music. He is said to have begun mastering the cornet. With the help of his local band, Armstrong blossomed into a very good musician.

He religiously listened to early jazz musicians and pioneers like King Oliver, a famous New Orleans cornetist. The more he played with his local band as well as marching bands, the better his skills became.

It did not take too long for Armstrong to rise among jazz players in New Orleans. In 1918, he received a call up into the Kid Ory band, succeeding his role model King Oliver.

In his early career, Armstrong also had a number of showings in local marching bands in New Orleans. by his mid-20s, he was performing with a number of prominent jazz bands. | Image: Armstrong was a member of Fate Marable’s New Orleans Band in 1918, here on board the S.S. Sidney

Armstrong’s meteoric rise

As time went on Armstrong’s musical prowess had begun to catch the attention of many key stakeholders in the industry. One of such personalities was Armstrong’s role model King Oliver, who by then was dazzling patrons of jazz music in Chicago.

Oliver invited Armstrong to his band Creole Jazz Band as a second cornetist. The young musician had the pleasure of working alongside renowned artists Johnny Dodds, Lil Hardin, and Johnny Dodds.

Along with King Oliver, Armstrong, who played second cornet, helped transform the fortunes of the band.

Solo career and records

Receiving critical acclaim for his cornet duet passages (known as “breaks”), Armstrong would go on to make his first solo records “Tears” and “Chimes Blues” (1923). His band mate and later wife Lil Hardin assisted him in composing those songs.

After gaining enough credibility in the industry, Armstrong decided to go solo. He had a few collaborations with New York City -based bandleader and pianist Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952).

A clash of cultures between Armstrong, a jazz artist with strong southern background, and Henderson’s New York City-based band resulted in Armstrong parting ways with the band in 1925.

Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five

Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five (1926) | Image

From 1925 to around 1928, he was signed on to OKeh Records. He came out with more than 60 records in that period while working with his band Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five . The band later became the Hot Seven. Their records rank up there as some of the most important in jazz music history.

Some of his famous solos include “Cornet Chop Suey” and “Potato Head Blues”. His swinging phrases, high notes and rhythmic choices were some of most endearing qualities.

He is also credited with popularizing “scat singing” beginning around 1926 with his “Heebie Jeebies” record. In 1926, he switched from cornet to trumpet.

Armstrong and Earl Hines

Around the late 1920s, he collaborated with Earl Hines, a Pittsburg pianist who was a long admirer of Armstrong. Hines incorporated Armstrong’s style into his craft on so many occasions.

Armstrong and Hines collaborated to produce some of the greatest jazz songs in history, including 1928 songs like  “Weather Bird” and “West End Blues”.

Major Achievements of Louis Armstrong

Armstrong is praised as the first prominent jazz soloist

Beginning around the mid-1920s, Armstrong’s music career took an even more upward trajectory when he started playing in large orchestras in Chicago. It was in Chicago that he recorded his first few music hits such as the Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven.

Those records helped establish him as the most prominent jazz soloist at the time. His musical prowess, including his style and technique, set him miles apart from other upcoming jazz soloist in New Orleans.

Some of the great works that he came out with around that time include hits like “Wild Man Blues”, Hotter than That”, and Potato Head Blues”.

Developed a technique that was close to flawless

Louis Armstrong holds the honor as the greatest jazz artist of all time simply because he had a technique was immaculately close to flawless. Playing the trumpet, Armstrong took the jazz music genre by storm in the late 1920s. He was praised for his sharp sense of harmony as well as his ability to time his inflections. He was no ordinary trumpeter, dazzling jazz patrons with his on stage performance which complemented his well-crafted melodies. Those techniques of his were some of the reasons why jazz music became popular in America.

Jazz genius Louis Armstrong was explosive on stage, opting to hold nothing back. By the late 1920s, his solo career had lifted off, making him the most famous jazz artist of the era. He secured a number of tours across the U.S. as well in many European countries. | Selmer trumpet, given as a gift by King George V of the United Kingdom to Louis Armstrong in 1933

He had tremendous influence on jazz artists and other musicians that followed

Jazz artist and genius Armstrong was important in the transforming jazz as novelty art form into a full-fledged music genre. He paid careful attention to his technique, which in turn allowed him to fully express his emotions and be more sensitive on stage. It’s been noted that his phrasing was emulated by the likes of Bud Freeman and Coleman Hawkins. Similarly, his swing-style when playing the trumpet influenced majority of jazz horn players. Great musicians like Billie Holiday and Bing Crosby were inspired by Armstrong’s supple vocal style.

Armstrong was most known for his distinct vocals and expressive trumpet style. He also had an endearing and charismatic presence on stage. Louis Armstrong influenced countless musicians not just in the U.S. but across the world. He influenced musicians like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Freeman, and Ella Fitzgerald. | Image: “Heebie Jeebies” by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five

Louis Armstrong made a big splash in other entertainment genres

  In addition to performing in big bands and going on nonstop stops across the world, Armstrong was also noted for his acting. It’s been estimated that he featured in close to three dozen films. His last film appearance was in 1969 in Hello, Dolly!  which was directed by Gene Kelly (1912-1996)

His good humor was just one of the reasons why he was endearing whenever he made radio and television appearances.

Films like Pennies from Heaven (1936), New Orleans (1947) and Hello , Dolly! (1969) are some of the reasons why many historians praise Louis Armstrong as an all-round entertainer and one of the greatest celebrities of the 20 th century.

Other notable accomplishments of Louis Armstrong

• For more than half a century, Louis Armstrong remained one of the most famous faces in the African-American community. His hit songs dominated the music industry, particularly the jazz landscape, in that period as well.
• His energy levels were simply off the charts. It’s been estimated that took up to 300 concerts each year. While on those nonstop global tours, he earned the nickname “Ambassador Satch”. Other nicknames of this jazz genius are “Satchmo” and “Pops”.
• He is credited with composing many masterpieces, i.e. jazz songs that are timeless and still continue to inspire modern artists.
• Louis Armstrong penned two very brilliant autobiographies: Swing That Music (1936) and Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans (1954). In addition to those works, he wrote many magazine articles.
• Louis Armstrong’s 1960 concert in the central African country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo caused two warring sides into a temporary cease fire.
• His popularity increased even further after his record label, OKeh Records, allowed him to cover pop songs of the day. Most notable examples of those songs include “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and “Body and Soul”.

Louis Armstrong’s significance and most famous songs

In 1936, he became the first African American jazz musician to write an autobiography. The book was titled Swing That Music . He is also the first African American celebrity to appear in a major Hollywood movie. The movie he appeared in was Pennies from Heaven (1936). In 1937, Louis Armstrong became the first African American to host a nationally sponsored radio show.

Louis Armstrong’s illustrious career saw him secure nineteen “Top Ten” records. Some of those records were “Stardust”, “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, “You Rascal You”, “What a Wonderful World”, and “Stompin’ at the Savoy”. His song “We Have All the Time in the World” attained No. 3 in the UK in 1994 after it was re-released.

His song “Hello, Dolly!” (1964), which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, even beating The Beatles, is testimony to just how influential he was in the music industry.

Louis Armstrong and the Little Rock Nine

Initially, Armstrong was not a known figure in the civil rights movement. As a matter of fact, he was criticized for his inability to use his fame and reputation to condemn the deplorable civil right situation in the U.S. at the time.

Louis Armstrong perhaps had had enough of the situation after seeing Arkansas governor Orval Faubus use the National Guard to prevent African American students (i.e. the Little Rock Nine) from accessing a public school (Little rock Central High School). The jazz icon went all berserk and slammed the U.S. government (then during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower ) for its continued racial segregation in public schools. Armstrong was praised for his bold move considering the fact that he was perhaps the only African-American jazz artist to criticize racial segregation in schools.

More Louis Armstrong facts

In his movie career, he made appearances alongside topnotch actors like Martha Raye and Mae West. Here are a few more notable facts about Louis Armstrong:

• Armstrong was described as a very down to earth man despite his fame and riches. He maintained a house in a working-class neighborhood for quite a long time.
• The neighborhood (i.e. in New Orleans, Louisiana) that Armstrong grew up in as child was so deplorable that it was given the nickname “The Battlefield”.
• It’s been claimed that he was sterile as he had no children in all four marriages of his. He and his fourth and final wife Lucille Wilson tried for years to have children, but had no success.
• Armstrong’s “Hello, Dolly!” – title number for a Broadway show – was released in 1964. The song went top of the pop music charts in May 1964. In 2001, Armstrong’s version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
• He was one of the few artists from the West who could penetrate the “Iron Curtain” of the Soviet Union, with his performances in East Berlin and Czechoslovakia in 1965.
• During his tour of Europe in 1933, he lips became sore due to his blowing of high notes.
• Armstrong collaborated with artists like Sidney Bechet and Bessie Smith.

“What a Wonderful World”

At the time that Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” was released (In 1967), it did not receive much acclaim probably because the jazz musician’s record company did not promote it that much. Regardless, the song, a ballad with no trumpet, attained No. 1 spots in many countries around the world, including the UK and South Africa.

Interlaced with angelic voices, Armstrong’s “What a wonderful World” is one of his most-beloved songs. The song’s lyrics contain a theme of optimism by entreating the listener to appreciate the goodness of life and all its beauty and color.

The song, which featured in Robin Williams’ 1986 film Good Morning, Vietnam, has been covered by many artists, including American singer Roy Clark, Canadian singer Céline Dion, and British musician Rod Stewart, among others.How did Louis Armstrong die?

Towards the later part of the 1960s, Louis Armstrong’s health had begun to deteriorate as he battled heart and kidney problems. Those health issues forced him to stop performing in 1969. That same year, tragedy struck when his long-time manager Joe Glaser died. Armstrong tried to marshal a few performances here and there, but it was obvious that he did not have the stamina to keep on going. Years of unhealthy lifestyle had caught up with him.

On July 6, 1971, the jazz legend died in his sleep in his home in Corona, Queens, New York. His home was converted into a National Historic Landmark in 1977. The building also houses the Louis Armstrong House Museum, which receives thousands of visitors annually.

Louis Armstrong’s spouses

Louise Armstrong married four times. His last was to Lucille Wilson in 1942. The marriage lasted until his death. Image: Armstrong and his fourth wife Lucille Wilson in 1960s

His first marriage (in 1918) was to a Red-light district worker called Daisy Parker. No sooner had the marriage begun than did it get hit by irreconcilable differences and accusations of violence. He said to have adopted a three-year-old boy called Clarence, who was his second cousin. Armstrong took good care of Clarence, a child who suffered brain injuries at an early age.

He married his band mate pianist Lil Hardin in 1924. Armstrong and Hardin separated in 1931. The divorce was finalized in 1938. It was Hardin who encouraged Armstrong to break away from his mentor King Oliver’s band in Chicago.

Armstrong married Alpha Smith. Similar to his first two marriages, this marriage was an unhappy one and divorced in 1942.

In 1942, he married Lucille Wilson, a club dancer. He and Wilson made residence at his Queens, New York City home from 1943 to 1971 when he died.

Tags: 20th-century American Jazz singers African-American Singers Jazz music Louis Armstrong New Orleans-U.S. Scat singers

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As a teenager in the UK I went to see a live concert featuring Louis Armstrong and the All Stars in the Empire Pool Wembley which has since change its name to the Wembley Arena in England in the 1950’s. I once saw on TV some video footage of the concert but can’t trace any videos or references of this concert. Can you please help me locate anything relevant?

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Biography of Louis Armstrong, Expert Trumpeter and Entertainer

Armstrong played a key role in the development of jazz

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Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901–July 6, 1971) was a masterful trumpet player and beloved entertainer in the 20th century. He rose above the hardship and challenges of poverty from a young age and the racism he was subjected to throughout his life to become one of the most influential musicians of his genre.

He played a key role in the development of one of the early 20th century's most important new styles of music: jazz. Though he mostly kept quiet about racial discrimination, much to the disapproval of fellow Black Americans, Armstrong sparked controversy when he spoke out publicly against segregation in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.

Armstrong's inventiveness and improvisational techniques—along with his energetic, dazzling style—have influenced generations of musicians. One of the first to perform scat-style singing, he is also well-known for his distinctive, gravelly singing voice. Armstrong wrote two autobiographies, becoming the first Black jazz musician to write an autobiography, and appeared in more than 30 films.

Fast Facts: Louis Armstrong

• Known For : World-famous trumpeter and entertainer; he was influential in the development of jazz and also appeared in more than 30 movies
• Also Known As : Satchmo, Ambassador Satch
• Born : August 4, 1901, in New Orleans
• Parents : Mary Ann, William Armstrong
• Died : July 6, 1971, in New York City
• Top Albums : "Ella and Louis," "New Orleans Nights," "Satchmo Musical Autobiography," "Under the Stars," "Porgy and Bess," "I’ve Got the World on a String"
• Awards and Honors : 1964 Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance ("Hello Dolly"), Grammy Hall of Fame (various years), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (inducted 2019)
• Spouses : Daisy Parker (m. 1918–1923), Lili Hardin Armstrong (m. 1924–1938), Alpha Smith (m. 1938–1942), Lucille Wilson (m. 1942–1971)
• Notable Quote : "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know."

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901, to 16-year-old Mary Ann Albert and her boyfriend Willie Armstrong. Willie left Mary Ann only weeks after Louis' birth, and Louis was placed in the care of his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong.

Josephine brought in some money doing laundry for White families but struggled to keep food on the table because she was paid little money for her work. Young Louis had no toys, very few clothes, and went barefoot most of the time. Despite their hardships, Josephine made sure her grandson attended school and church.

While Louis was living with his grandmother, his mother briefly reunited with Willie Armstrong and gave birth to a second child, Beatrice, in 1903. While Beatrice was still very young, Willie once again left Mary Ann.

Four years later, when Armstrong was 6 years old, he moved back in with his mother, who was then living in a highly dangerous neighborhood, a red-light district called Storyville. Because Armstrong was young during this period, not much is known about his mother's situation and why she lived there, but Black women, especially single mothers, were heavily discriminated against at the time.

When recounting his mother's occupation, Armstrong confessed that he did not know whether his mother was a sex worker, an occupation that he referred to as "hustling," or not because she "kept it out of sight." He only knew that they were poor. Nonetheless, it became Louis’ job to look after his sister while his mother worked.

Apic / Getty Images

By the age of 7, Armstrong was looking for work wherever he could find it. He sold newspapers and vegetables and made a little money singing on the street with a group of friends. Each group member had a nickname; Louis was known as "Satchelmouth" (later shortened to "Satchmo"), a reference to his wide grin.

Armstrong saved up enough money to buy a used cornet (a brass musical instrument similar to a trumpet), which he taught himself to play. He quit school at age 11 to concentrate on earning money for his family, as was common for children from poor backgrounds at this time.

While performing on the street, Armstrong and his friends came into contact with local musicians, many of whom played in Storyville honky-tonks (bars with working-class patrons, often found in the South).

Armstrong was befriended by one of the city's best-known trumpeters, Bunk Johnson, a fellow Black performer who taught him songs and new techniques and allowed Louis to sit in with him during performances in the honky-tonks.

An incident on New Year's Eve in 1912 changed the course of Armstrong's life.

The Colored Waif's Home

During a New Year's Eve street celebration at the end of 1912, 11-year-old Louis fired a pistol into the air. He was taken to the police station and spent the night in a cell. The next morning, a judge sentenced him to the Colored Waif's Home for an unspecified period of time. At this time, Black juvenile offenders were often given harsh prison sentences while White juvenile offenders were sentenced to time in reformatory homes for equal crimes. It is often the case still today that Black people and people of color receive harsher sentences than White people.   The Waif's Home made Armstrong's lesser sentence possible in a period when the justice system exercised strong bias against Black Americans.

The home, a reformatory for Black youths, was operated by a former soldier, Captain Jones. Jones was a strict disciplinarian dedicated to reducing juvenile delinquency in Black boys who "never had a chance." Records indicate that he and his wife took on parental roles for many of the boys. A Black man himself, Jones advocated for Black boys who were arrested to be placed in a reformatory home—designed specifically for Black juveniles—rather than thrown in jails with adult criminals. He wanted to give incarcerated Black boys an opportunity to rise above unfair treatment and not become the criminals that the judicial system already perceived them to be.

Due to the structure and opportunities that Armstrong received there, Jones and his home had an overall positive effect on him. Of the home, Armstrong said: "It sure was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Me and music got married in the Home...The place seemed more like a health center, or a boarding school, than a boys' jail."

Eager to participate in the home's brass band, Armstrong was disappointed when he was not allowed to join right away. Director of music Peter Davis was initially hesitant to allow a boy who had fired a gun to join his band. However, Armstrong eventually convinced him and worked his way up the ranks. He first sang in the choir and later was assigned to play various instruments, eventually taking over the cornet. Having demonstrated his willingness to work hard and act responsibly, Louis was made the leader of the band. He reveled in this role.

The home's music program played an especially large role in the direction Armstrong's life would take from there. Davis, in particular, influenced young Armstrong greatly. He saw the raw talent the boy possessed and was persistent in nurturing him into the skilled musician he would become. According to Dr. Robert S. Mikell of The Syncopated Times , when the two reunited years later, Davis' pride and Armstrong's gratitude were palpable to onlookers.

In 1914, after 18 months at the Colored Waif's Home, Armstrong returned home to his mother.

Back home, Armstrong delivered coal during the day and spent his nights in local dance halls listening to music. He became friends with Joe "King" Oliver, a leading cornet player, and ran errands for him in return for cornet lessons.

Armstrong learned quickly and began to develop his own style. He filled in for Oliver at gigs and gained further experience playing in parades and funeral marches.

When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Armstrong was too young to be drafted, but the war did indirectly affect him. When several sailors stationed in New Orleans became victims of violent crime in the Storyville district, the secretary of the Navy shut down the district, including brothels and clubs. While a large number of musicians from New Orleans moved north, many relocating to Chicago, Armstrong stayed and soon found himself in demand as a cornet player.

By 1918, Armstrong had become well-known on the New Orleans music circuit, playing at numerous venues. That year, he met and married Daisy Parker, a sex worker who worked in one of the clubs he played in.

Impressed by Armstrong's natural talent, band conductor Fate Marable hired him to play in his riverboat band on excursions up and down the Mississippi River. Though disappointed to see him go, Daisy understood that this was a good move for his career and supported him.

Armstrong played on the riverboats for three years. The discipline and high standards that he was held to made him a better musician; he also learned to read music for the first time. Yet, chafing under Marable's strict rules, Armstrong grew restless. He yearned to strike out on his own and find his unique style.

Armstrong quit the band in 1921 and returned to New Orleans. He and Daisy divorced that year.

In 1922, a year after Armstrong quit the riverboats, King Oliver asked him to come to Chicago and join his Creole Jazz Band. Armstrong played the second cornet and was careful not to outshine bandleader Oliver.

Through Oliver, Armstrong met Lil Hardin , a classically trained jazz pianist from Memphis and the second woman he would marry.

Lil recognized Armstrong's talent and thus urged him to break away from Oliver's band. After two years with Oliver, Armstrong quit the band and took a new job with another Chicago band, this time as the first trumpet; however, he only stayed a few months.

Armstrong moved to New York City in 1924 at the invitation of bandleader Fletcher Henderson . (Lil did not accompany him, preferring to stay at her job in Chicago.) The band played mostly live gigs but made recordings as well. They played backup for pioneering blues singers such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, furthering Armstrong's growth as a performer.

Just 14 months later, Armstrong moved back to Chicago at Lil's urging; Lil believed that Henderson held back Armstrong's creativity.

'The World's Greatest Trumpet Player'

Lil helped to promote Armstrong in Chicago clubs billing him as "the world's greatest trumpet player." She and Armstrong formed a studio band, called Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five. The group recorded several popular records, many of which featured Armstrong's raspy singing.

On one of the most popular of the recordings, "Heebie Jeebies," Armstrong spontaneously launched into scat-singing, in which the singer replaces the actual lyrics with nonsense syllables that often mimic the sounds made by instruments. Armstrong did not invent the singing style but helped to make it enormously popular.

During this time, Armstrong permanently switched from cornet to trumpet, preferring the brighter sound of the trumpet to the more mellow cornet.

The records gave Armstrong name recognition outside of Chicago. He returned to New York in 1929, but again, Lil did not want to leave Chicago. (They stayed married but lived apart for many years before divorcing in 1938.)

In New York, Armstrong found a new venue for his talents. He was cast in a musical revue that featured the hit song "Ain't Misbehavin'" and Armstrong's accompanying trumpet solo. Armstrong displayed showmanship and charisma, gaining a greater following after the show.

Because of the Great Depression , Armstrong, like many other Americans and especially Black Americans, had trouble finding work. In 1932, approximately one half of Black Americans were unemployed, some fired from their jobs simply because White Americans were out of work. Armstrong decided to make a new start in Los Angeles, moving there in May 1930. He found work in clubs and continued to make records.

He made his first film, "Ex-Flame," appearing as himself in the movie in a small role. Armstrong gained more fans through this widespread exposure. After an arrest for marijuana possession in November 1930, Armstrong received a suspended sentence and returned to Chicago.

According to writer Marco Medic, it is widely believed that the police officers responsible for his arrest were fans of his and that this played a role in his receiving a lighter sentence even though marijuana-related crimes were harshly punished across the board during this time. Some also speculate that higher-ups in the music industry had something to do with securing Armstrong a suspended sentence, though none of this is documented. Despite his arrest, he stayed afloat during the Depression, touring the U.S. and Europe from 1931 to 1935.

Armstrong continued to tour throughout the 1930s and 1940s and appeared in a few more movies. He became well-known not only in the U.S. but in much of Europe as well, even playing a command performance for King George V of England in 1932.

John Springer Collection / Getty Images

In the late 1930s, band leaders such as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman helped to propel jazz into the mainstream, ushering in the swing music era. The swing bands were large, consisting of about 15 musicians. Although Armstrong preferred working with smaller, more intimate ensembles, he formed a large band in order to capitalize on the swing movement.

In 1938, Armstrong married longtime girlfriend Alpha Smith, but soon after the wedding he began seeing Lucille Wilson, a dancer from the Cotton Club. Marriage No. 3 ended in divorce in 1942 and Armstrong married Lucille, his fourth (and final) wife, the same year.

While Armstrong toured, often playing at military bases and army hospitals during World War II , Lucille found them a house in her hometown of Queens, New York. After years of traveling and staying in hotel rooms, Armstrong finally had a permanent home.

John Kisch Archive / Getty Images

In the late 1940s, large bands were falling out of favor, deemed too expensive to maintain. Armstrong formed a six-piece group called Louis Armstrong and the All-Stars. The group debuted at New York's Town Hall in 1947, playing New Orleans-style jazz to rave reviews.

Not everyone enjoyed Armstrong's somewhat "hammy" brand of entertainment. Many from the younger generation considered him a relic of the Old South and found his mugging and eye-rolling racially offensive because it was too similar to the performance of a minstrel in blackface.

Some experts see his performance style as a declaration and celebration of Black culture. Others, however, wonder whether he was just giving White people the entertainment he knew they wanted by presenting himself, a Black man, as clownish. Whatever the case, these characteristics became a lasting part of his persona and he was not taken seriously by young up-and-coming jazz musicians. Armstrong, however, saw his role as more than that of a musician: he was an entertainer.

Armstrong made 11 more movies in the 1950s. He toured Japan and Africa with the All-Stars and recorded his first singles. Soon he attracted even more attention, but this time not for his music.

Armstrong faced criticism in 1957 for speaking out against racial discrimination during the event in Little Rock, Arkansas , in which Black students were threatened and attacked by hateful White people while attempting to enter what should have been a newly integrated school. Upon hearing of this, Armstrong, then performing internationally for the State Department, canceled the Soviet Union leg of his tour.

During this time, the State Department was sending famous musicians, Black and White, overseas to perform together. This was supposed to give the illusion of the U.S. as a superior, peaceful nation built on democracy, freedom, and equality. This "cultural diplomacy" effort was organized in order to win favor in communist countries and areas during the Cold War, and the U.S. was strategically using jazz and jazz musicians for good press and as a symbol of American democracy.

Armstrong's refusal to play in the USSR was done in protest of the U.S. government; specifically, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who refused to do anything to help the Black students safely attend the school, and Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus, who continued to support keeping the Black students out. Armstrong, outraged and tired of being cooperative when Black people were suffering, was no longer willing to pretend that conditions in the U.S. were anything close to favorable for Black Americans, as the U.S. government would have other countries believe.

After he canceled his tour in the Soviet Union and went back to playing U.S. shows with the All-Stars, Armstrong did an interview with Larry Lubenow of the Grand Forks Herald, during which he unexpectedly shared many instances of racial discrimination he'd experienced when performing in the South.

Bettmann / Getty Images

In reference to the situation in Little Rock, he was recorded saying, "The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell." He also sang an expletive-ridden version of "The Star-Spangled Banner," though this never made it on the air, and made his distaste of the government even more clear when he called the president "two-faced" and Faubus an "ignorant plowboy." This type of action was rare for Armstrong, who often said, "I don't get involved in politics. I just blow my horn."

Following this bold stand, some radio stations refused to play Armstrong's music. Other Black entertainers that used to support Armstrong turned against him for overtly challenging the status quo because they were worried that he was risking undoing the progress Black Americans had made in society. The controversy, however, mostly faded after Eisenhower finally sent the National Guard to Little Rock to facilitate integration and escort the students into the school. Many historians feel that Armstrong was partially responsible for this decision.

But before bravely protesting segregation and the president's inaction in Little Rock, Armstrong was criticized by Black people for not doing enough. Some Black people at the time hated that his quiet and submissive demeanor tended to placate White people and make them feel more comfortable with Black Americans.

White people saw him as a contradictory member of the Black community and liked that he was reserved, respectful, and didn't ask for anything or cause problems for them. Many Black people, though, felt that Armstrong should be more outspoken about the horrors that Black Americans were facing and challenge White Americans rather than put them at ease. He was seen by many as "old-fashioned," and this wasn't a good thing.

Indeed, Armstrong mostly kept his thoughts about racism in America to himself. He was not known to take political stances when performing and he went along with being a "diplomatic ambassador" for the U.S. for a while. Until Little Rock, only those in Armstrong's close circle knew how he felt about politics and discrimination in America.

Shortly after his historic and controversial public outcry against the government, Armstrong's health began to sharply decline. On tour in Italy in 1959, he suffered a massive heart attack. After a week in the hospital, he flew back home. Despite warnings from physicians, Armstrong returned to a busy schedule of live performances.

After playing five decades without a No. 1 song, Armstrong finally made it to the top of the charts in 1964 with "Hello Dolly," the theme song for the Broadway play of the same name. The popular song knocked the Beatles from the top spot they had held for 14 consecutive weeks.

Armstrong was not involved much in civil rights after 1957. However, some experts believe that he might have been making a statement when in 1929 he first recorded "Black and Blue," a hit composed by Fats Waller, for the musical "Hot Chocolates" by Edith Wilson. The lyrics to this song have been said to represent the plight of Black Americans, who were scorned, heavily discriminated against, and beaten (until they were black and blue with bruises) for the color of their skin:

"I'm white—inside—but that don't help my case 'Cause I can't hide what is in my face ... My only sin is in my skin What did I do to be so black and blue?"

By the late 1960s, Armstrong was still able to perform, despite kidney and heart problems. In the spring of 1971, he suffered another heart attack. Unable to recover, Armstrong died July 6, 1971, at age 69.

More than 25,000 mourners visited the body of Louis Armstrong as it lay in state and his funeral was televised nationally.

• Anderson, Gene H. " Louis Armstrong. " Richmond School of Arts & Sciences, 2013.
• “ Bop to the Best of Louis Armstrong | UDiscover Music .”  UDiscoverMusic.
• Buckingham, William D. " Louis Armstrong and the Waifs' Home. " The Jazz Archivist , vol. XXIV, 2011. Tulane University.
• " Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945. " Library of Congress.
•  “ Louis Armstrong - Awards and Honors .”  JazzSkool.org.
• McWhorter, John. " Louis Armstrong's Underrated Legacy. " The Entertainer , 14 Dec. 2009.
• Medic, Marco. " Louis Armstrong and Marijuana - The Famous Trumpeter Loved His Weed. " Greencamp. 7 Nov. 2017.
• Mikell, Dr. Robert S. " The Legacy of Louis Armstrong's Music Teacher Peter Davis. " The Syncopated Times . 27 July 2019.
• " 'Pops': Louis Armstrong, In His Own Words. " National Public Radio, 2 Dec. 2009.
• " Revisiting Louis Armstrong in the Context of Civil Rights. " National Public Radio, 22 Nov. 2006.

“ Demographic Differences in Sentencing .” United States Sentencing Commission, Nov. 2017.

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Louis Armstrong Biography

Born: August 4, 1901 New Orleans, Louisiana Died: July 6, 1971 New York, New York African American jazz musician and singer

L ouis Armstrong was a famous jazz trumpet player and singer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential musicians in the history of jazz music.

Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. He was one of two children born to Willie Armstrong, a turpentine worker, and Mary Ann Armstrong, whose grandparents had been slaves. As a youngster, he sang on the streets with friends. His parents separated when he was five. He lived with his sister, mother, and grandmother in a rundown area of New Orleans known as "the Battlefield" because of the gambling, drunkenness, fighting, and shooting that frequently occurred there.

In 1913 Armstrong was arrested for firing a gun into the air on New Year's Eve. He was sent to the Waif's Home (a reform school), where he took up the cornet (a trumpet-like instrument) and eventually played in a band. After his release he worked odd jobs and began performing with local groups. He was also befriended by Joe "King" Oliver, leader of the first great African American band to make records, who gave him trumpet lessons. Armstrong joined Oliver in Chicago, Illinois, in 1922, remaining there until 1924, when he went to New York City to play with Fletcher Henderson's band.

Jazz pioneer

When Armstrong returned to Chicago in the fall of 1925, he organized a band and began to record one of the greatest series in the history of jazz. These Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings show his skill and experimentation with the trumpet. In 1928 he started recording with drummer Zutty Singleton and pianist Earl Hines, the latter a musician whose skill matched Armstrong's. Many of the resulting records are masterpieces of detailed construction and adventurous rhythms. During these years Armstrong was working with big bands in Chicago clubs and theaters. His vocals, featured on most records after 1925, are an extension of his trumpet playing in their rhythmic liveliness and are delivered in a unique throaty style. He was also the inventor of scat singing (the random use of nonsense syllables), which originated after he dropped his sheet music while recording a song and could not remember the lyrics.

Later years

Armstrong continued to front big bands, often of lesser quality, until 1947, when the big-band era ended. He returned to leading a small group that, though it included first-class musicians at first, became a mere background for his talents over the years. During the 1930s Armstrong had achieved international fame, first touring Europe as a soloist and singer in 1932. After World War II (1939–45) and his 1948 trip to France, he became a constant world traveller. He journeyed through Europe, Africa, Japan, Australia, and South America. He also appeared in numerous films, the best of which was a documentary titled Satchmo the Great (1957).

The public had come to think of Louis Armstrong as a vaudeville entertainer (a light, often comic performer) in his later years—a fact reflected in much of his recorded output. But there were still occasions when he produced well-crafted, brilliant music. He died in New York City on July 6, 1971.

For More Information

Bergreen, Laurence. Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life. New York: Broadway Books, 1997.

Giddins, Gary. Satchmo. New York: Doubleday, 1988.

Jones, Max, and John Chilton. Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story 1900–1971. London: Studio Vista, 1971.

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History of Louis Armstrong for Kids

Have you ever noticed how different music can make you feel different things? Some music makes you feel joyful and energetic, like you need to get up and dance. Some can make you feel sad, even make you cry. Other music might make you feel calm or hopeful. Music can remind you of things that happened a long time ago, or of people you love, and make you feel like they’re right there. But for some people, music doesn’t just change the way they feel. It changes their entire life.

Louis Armstrong didn’t start out with many advantages in life. Born in 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana, his family was extremely poor and their neighborhood was so dangerous, it was nicknamed “the Battlefield.” His father left the family when he was a baby. At different times, Louis lived with his mother and grandmother, and had to support his family by doing odd jobs even as a small child. 

But, Louis did have something special. He had a horn and a voice, and he could make music with both.  He would often hear jazz music coming from the clubs and dance halls of New Orleans. He learned to sing some of the songs that wafted out into the warm night air, and even play some of them on a beat-up old tin horn.

As a child, he organized a quartet with his friends and sang on street corners for coins. Some people think this is how he got the nickname Satchmo, which would stay with him all his life. The story goes that when passersby tossed coins on the sidewalk, Louis would snatch them up and put them in his cheeks so that the older boys couldn’t steal them. He was using his mouth like a satchel or bag, which led his friends to start calling him “Satchel Mouth,” then Satchmo for short. 

There are many stories about how Louis got his first real horn, many of which he told himself! One of the best known involves a family he worked for. At age 7, Louis went to work for the Karofskys, a Jewish family from Lithuania who ran a junkyard. The Karnofsky family treated Louis like family, sharing meals with him and treating him with kindness. Louis helped them deliver coal and collect junk. Sometimes, he would play his tin horn to attract business. Even though Louis managed to get tunes out of this horn, it was really just a toy.  He longed for a real horn.

Knowing how much Louis loved to play, the Karnofskys lent him money to buy his first real cornet, which is like a smaller version of a trumpet. For the rest of his life, Louis wore a Star of David, a Jewish symbol, on a necklace in honor of the family. 

Unfortunately, getting the cornet wasn’t quite a ticket out of Louis’s hard life. When he was 12, Louis took out his stepfather’s gun on New Year’s Eve, and shot it into the air. This was a common thing to do at celebrations in the past. No one was hurt, but Louis was arrested. He was sentenced to spend two years in the Waif’s Home for Boys. “Waif” is an old-fashioned word for a child who was unhealthy or uncared for. But the home was closer to being a prison than a real home. There were no mattresses to sleep on, meals were usually bread and molasses, and discipline was harsh. 

But, there was one good thing. There was music. There was a band, and a music teacher, Peter Davis, who came every week to teach music and conduct rehearsals. Davis taught Louis to play cornet, and then trumpet. Eventually, he made Louis the band’s leader. 

Louis was released from the Waifs’ Home after two years. He could play very well now, and he started performing in clubs and on riverboats as part of a band. He got to meet other musicians, including Joe Oliver, often called “King” Oliver. King Oliver was the best cornet players in New Orleans, and Louis idolized him. He began to take lessons with Oliver.

In 1922, Oliver asked Louis to join his band, the Creole Jazz. Band. They set off for Chicago, where they performed in clubs and made records. By now, Louis was becoming famous in his own right, and left Oliver’s band in 1924 in search of new opportunities. He moved to New York City. There he worked with many of the most famous jazz musicians of the time, and formed his own band, “The Hot Five” within a few years. 

Along the way, Louis developed his own unique style of playing and singing. At the time, most jazz was played in groups, but Louis would improvise amazing solos in the middle of his songs. Improvising means to make up something as you go along, and it isn’t easy to do it well, but Louis was one of the best. This is part of what made his music so new and exciting to listen to, and it would change jazz forever. 

Louis also continued to sing in addition to playing the horn. He became known for his unusual singing voice, which was deep and gravelly.   He was one of first performers to popularize scat singing, in his 1920s hit “Heebie Jeebies.” This technique involved singing improvised made-up syllables, like dee-dop-a-dee-ya, and would become very common in jazz.

In 1943, Louis moved back to New York and settled in Queens with his wife Lucille. He would live there for the rest of his life. But even though he had settled in one city, Louis’s career was far from winding down. He continued recording, performing, and making movies for nearly three more decades. Sometimes, he would play more than 300 shows per year. He was internationally famous by this time, and popular with both black and white audiences at a time when much of the United States was still segregated by race.  

Actually, some civil rights activists were critical of Louis because they thought he wasn’t a strong enough supporter of civil rights for black Americans. Louis didn’t like to get involved in politics though, and tried to keep a positive, happy outlook on life. But he understood that big changes needed to happen. He did eventually speak out against how the government handled school integration, saying that it hadn’t done enough to protect black students trying to go to schools that had previously been all-white. 

Louis’s career kept him busy throughout the 1950s and ‘60s. His single “Hello Dolly”, recorded in 1964, pushed the Beatles out of the number one spot on the Hot 100 chart, where they’d been for weeks. It was the best selling record of his career. He made more than thirty movies, with people like Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Barbara Streisand, and worked with many famous jazz musicians, such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby. 

Even though he loved playing music, the trumpet can be hard on a player’s mouth. Louis developed health problems, some of which were related to his playing, when he was in his 60s. He had to quit playing altogether at times. He always went back to his horn though. The last time he went against the advice of his doctors, he said, “My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn.” 

That was in 1971, and Louis’s health was deteriorating. He played his last concert just a few months before he passed away peacefully in his sleep.

Louis recorded his last major hit single, “What a Wonderful World,” in 1967. If you know one Louis Armstrong song it’s probably this one. In it, he sings about all the beautiful things in this world: trees of green, rainbows, blue skies, and friends. He ends by singing:

I hear babies cry

I watch them grow

They’ll learn much more

Than I’ll never know

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world 

I don’t know about you, but this song–and Louis’s story–make me feel hopeful. Louis Armstrong started his life having almost nothing, and lived through a lot of hardship early on. But he found something–music–that he excelled at and that he loved doing. Louis shared his gifts with everyone. He entertained the rich and famous, but also played his horn for neighborhood kids on the stoop of his house in New York.  His contributions to jazz changed music forever. Just as important, his music inspired millions of people around the world to see just what a wonderful world it is. 

https://www.biography.com/musician/louis-armstrong

https://www.commentary.org/articles/terry-teachout/satchmo-and-the-jews/

https://www.larmstrongsoc.org/quotes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong

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Barbara Lowell Children's Book Author

Books for kids: louis armstrong.

Satchmo’s Blues

By alan schroeder, illustrated by floyd cooper, on hot summer nights in new orleans, a boy named louis armstrong would peek under the big swinging doors of economy hall and listen to the jazz band. the best night was friday, when bunk johnson would blow his cornet till the roof trembled. at moments like those, louis could feel his toes tingle. he wanted to be like bunk johnson; aim his horn straight up at the night sky and set the stars spinning., one day louis saw a horn in a pawnshop window — a real brass cornet. the cardboard sign said $5.00. how could he ever come up with that much money every day louis did what he could to earn that five dollars, and every day he practiced blowing his imaginary horn. it was a dream he would never give up. louis armstrong’s dynamic personality and amazing trumpet playing would cast a spell on millions of people around the world, to whom he will always be the one and only satchmo, the ambassador of jazz. 3-7 years.

Just a Lucky So and So

By lesa cline-ransome, illustrated by james e. ransome, louis armstrong has been called the most important improviser in the history of jazz. although his new orleans neighborhood was poor in nearly everything, it was rich in superb music. young louis took it all in, especially the cornet blowing of joe “king” oliver. but after a run-in with the police, eleven-year-old louis was sent away to the colored waif’s home for boys where he became a disciplined musician in the school’s revered marching band.  ultimately, he was to travel the world and transform jazz through his improvised singing (scatting) and masterful trumpet playing. 6-9 years.

Who Was Louis Armstrong?

By yona zeldis mcdonough, illustrated by john o’brien, if not for a stint in reform school, young louis armstrong might never have become a musician. it was a teacher at the colored waifs home for boys who gave him a cornet and saw talent in the kid from the tough new orleans neighborhood called storyville. but it was louis’s own passion and genius that pushed jazz into a new and exciting direction with his amazing, improvisational trumpet playing. 8-12 years.

A Horn for Louis: Louis Armstrong as a Kid

By eric a. kimmel, illustrated by james bernardin, how did famous new orleans jazz trumpet player louis armstrong get his first horn seven-year-old louis was too poor to buy a real instrument. he didn’t even go to school. to help his mother pay the rent, every day he rode a junk wagon through the streets of new orleans, playing a tin horn and collecting stuff people didn’t want. one day, he passed a pawn shop with a gleaming brass trumpet in the window… 7-10 years.

Play, Louis, Play! The Story of a Boy and His Horn

By muriel harris weinstein, illustrated by frank morrision, the childhood of louis armstrong was as fascinating as the great musician himself. this chapter book biography is written from the point of view of louis’s closest companion throughout his youth: his horn in an exuberant voice, this unusual narrator tells louis’s story beginning with the small new orleans hock shop where he bought his first trumpet for five hard-earned dollars. he goes from a street quartet to the marching band of the colored waif’s home to the big sounds of new orleans. 7-10 years.

Louis Armstrong Jazz Legend

By terry collins, illustrated by richie pope, louis armstrong, also known as satchmo and pops, became an american jazz legend in the 1920s. his voice and skill with instruments helped him become a popular musician in the racially divided country. watch as this skilled musician learns to play, buys his first instrument, and becomes one of the best music makers ever. 8-14 years.

If I Only Had a Horn: Young Louis Armstrong

By roxanne orgill, illustrated by leonard jenkins, this book tells the story of louis armstrong who grew up to be a giant of jazz. as a poor boy in new orleans, where music was everywhere, he longed to play a horn.  9-12 years.

Louis Armstrong: King of Jazz

By patricia and frederick mckissack, “music has been in my blood from the day i was born,” louis armstrong said. he rose from a troubled childhood and a life of poverty to set the music world on fire. armstrong’s lively trumpet playing, trademark “scat” singing, and natural talent for showmanship dazzled audiences for more than fifty years. 6-9 years, the book descriptions used are primarily from the publishers., if you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. thank you  barbara lowell, children’s author, you may like, books for kids: jazz https://barbaralowell.com/books-for-kids-jazz.

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9 Things You May Not Know About Louis Armstrong

By: Evan Andrews

Updated: June 1, 2023 | Original: August 4, 2016

1. A Jewish immigrant family helped him buy his first horn.

Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, into a poverty-ridden section of New Orleans nicknamed “the Battlefield.” His father abandoned the family when Armstrong was a child, and his teenaged mother was often forced to resort to prostitution to make ends meet. Young Louis spent much of his boyhood in the care of his grandmother, but he also found a second home among the Karnofskys, a local Lithuanian-Jewish family who hired him to do odd jobs for their peddling business. The jazzman would later write that the Karnofskys treated him as though he were their own child, often giving him food and even loaning him money to buy his first instrument, a $5 cornet (he wouldn’t begin playing the trumpet until 1926). As a sign of his gratitude to his Jewish benefactors, Armstrong later took to wearing a Star of David pendant around his neck.

2. Armstrong first received musical training during a stint in juvenile detention.

Armstrong spent his youth singing on the street for spare change, but he didn’t receive any formal musical training until age 11, when he was arrested for firing a pistol in the street during a New Year’s Eve celebration. The crime earned him a stint in a detention facility called the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys, and it was there that Armstrong claimed, “me and music got married.” He spent his 18-month sentence learning how to play bugle and cornet from the Waif’s Home’s music teacher, Peter Davis, and eventually became a star performer in its brass band. Armstrong continued honing his skills in New Orleans’ honkytonks after his release, and in 1919, he landed a breakthrough gig with a riverboat band led by musician Fate Marable. “I do believe that my whole success goes back to that time I was arrested as a wayward boy,” he later wrote, “because then I had to quit running around and began to learn something. Most of all, I began to learn music.”

3. His wife helped jumpstart his solo career.

After leaving New Orleans in 1922, Armstrong spent three years playing in jazz ensembles in Chicago and Harlem. He was largely content to be a journeyman musician, but his second wife, a pianist named Lil Hardin, believed he was too talented not have his own band. In 1925, while Armstrong was performing in New York, Hardin went behind his back and inked a deal with Chicago’s Dreamland Café to make him a featured act. She even demanded that he be billed as “The World’s Greatest Trumpet Player.” Armstrong was hesitant at first, but it turned out to be the best move of his career. Only a few days after he arrived back in Chicago, OKeh Records allowed him to make his first recordings under his own name. Between 1925 and 1928, he and his backup bands, the Hot Five and Hot Seven, went on to cut several dozen records that introduced the world to his improvisational trumpet solos and trademark scat singing. The OKeh recordings would later play a key role in establishing Armstrong as a legendary figure in jazz. His marriage to Hardin, meanwhile, proved less successful—the couple divorced in 1938.

4. Armstrong was one of the first celebrities to be arrested for drug possession.

Armstrong made no secret of his fondness for marijuana , which he described as “a thousand times better than whiskey.” In 1930, when the drug was still not widely known, he and drummer Vic Berton were arrested after police caught them smoking a joint outside the Cotton Club in California. Armstrong served nine days in jail for the bust, but despite his brush with law, he continued using marijuana regularly for the rest of his life. “It makes you forget all the bad things that happen to a Negro,” he once said.

5. His playing style took a heavy toll on his lips.

Thanks to a relentless touring schedule and his penchant for hitting high Cs on the trumpet, Armstrong spent much of his career battling severe lip damage. He played with such force that he often split his lip wide open, and he suffered from painful scar tissue that a fellow musician once said made his lips look “as hard as a piece of wood.” Armstrong treated his lip callouses with a special salve or even removed them himself using a razor blade, but as the years passed, he began struggling to hit his signature high notes. The trumpeter was so famously hard on his “chops,” as he called them, that a certain type of lip condition is now commonly known as “Satchmo’s Syndrome.”

6. Armstrong famously criticized President Dwight D. Eisenhower over segregation.

Armstrong’s hesitancy to speak out against racism was a frequent bone of contention with his fellow black entertainers, some of whom branded him an “Uncle Tom.” In 1957, however, he famously let loose over segregation. At the time, a group of black students known as the “Little Rock Nine” were being prevented from attending an all-white high school in Arkansas. When asked about the crisis in an interview, Armstrong replied, “The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell.” He added that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was “two-faced” and had “no guts” for not stepping in, and declared that he would no longer play a U.S. government-sponsored tour of the Soviet Union.

The comments caused a sensation in the media. Some whites even called for boycotts of the trumpeter’s shows, but the controversy soon blew over after Eisenhower sent soldiers to desegregate the schools in Little Rock. “I feel the downtrodden situation the same as any other Negro,” Armstrong later said of his decision to speak out. “I think I have a right to get sore and say something about it.”

7. He served as a “musical ambassador” for the U.S. State Department.

During the height of the Cold War in the late 1950s, the U.S. State Department developed a program to send jazz musicians and other entertainers on goodwill tours to improve America’s image overseas. Armstrong was already known as “Ambassador Satch” for his concerts in far-flung corners of the globe, but in 1960, he became an official cultural diplomat after he took off on a three-month, State Department-sponsored trip across Africa. The trumpeter and his band, the All Stars, proceeded to take the continent by storm. “In Accra, Ghana, 100,000 natives went into a frenzied demonstration when he started to blow his horn,” the New York Times later wrote, “and in Léopoldville, tribesmen painted themselves ochre and violet and carried him into the city stadium on a canvas throne.” One of the most remarkable signs of Armstrong’s popularity came during his stopover in the Congo’s Katanga Province, where the two sides in a secession crisis called a one-day truce so they could watch him play. He would later joke that he had stopped a civil war.

8. At age 62, Armstrong surpassed The Beatles at the top of the pop charts.

In late-1963, Armstrong and his All Stars recorded the title track for an upcoming musical called “Hello, Dolly!” The trumpeter didn’t expect much from the tune, but when the show debuted on Broadway the following year, it became a runaway hit. By May, “Hello Dolly!” had soared to the top of the charts, displacing two songs by The Beatles, who were then at the height of their popularity. At age 62, Armstrong became the oldest musician in American history to have a number one song.

9. The song 'What a Wonderful World' was not a hit during his lifetime.

Armstrong is widely remembered for his rosy ballad “What a Wonderful World,” which he recorded in 1967, just four years before his death. But while the song performed well overseas, it was not well promoted in the United States and flopped upon its initial release. According to Armstrong biographer Terry Teachout, “What a Wonderful World” didn’t make a comeback until 1987, when it was included in the soundtrack of the Robin Williams film “Good Morning, Vietnam.” It was then reissued and shot to number 33 on the Billboard charts, and since then it’s become one of Armstrong’s signature tunes.

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Louis Armstrong

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