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. Armstrong 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. His influence crossed musical genres, with inductions into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, among others.
00:00Louis Armstrong is one of the most important figures in the history of Western popular music,
00:07and he is likely the most important figure in the history of jazz.
00:13He is not only the most famous jazz musician, but he is considered by many to be the most brilliant musician who ever played the music.
00:23It was Armstrong's innate genius as a cornet soloist during the 1920s that helped transform jazz from a disposable dance music to the art form that it became.
00:39Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1901.
00:44His father abandoned the family shortly thereafter, leaving little Louis to live with his mother and sister.
00:51Armstrong and his mother lived in a section of New Orleans which was so violent, it was referred to as the battlefield.
01:00By the time Armstrong was around five years old, he was already performing on New Orleans street corners,
01:08and he later landed a job hauling a junk wagon.
01:12Sometimes Armstrong would fetch coal, which could be used for warmth on cold nights, for local prostitutes.
01:20His employer, the Karnofsky family, provided him with the money to buy his first cornet,
01:28and Armstrong took to the instrument and taught himself to play.
01:32On New Year's Day, 1912, Armstrong was arrested for firing a pistol into the air on New Year's Eve.
01:41Armstrong was known to the local police for his often colorful behavior,
01:48and he was removed from his home and sent to the so-called Colored Waif's Home for Boys in New Orleans.
01:56At the Waif's Home, Armstrong received music lessons on the cornet from musician Peter Davis,
02:04and eventually became the leader of the Waif's Home Band.
02:09He was released in 1914, and during a cold delivery to the Storyville district,
02:17met Joe King Oliver, the best-known cornet player in New Orleans.
02:22Oliver became Armstrong's mentor and helped him to get work with a number of local bands.
02:29By 1918, Armstrong was a member of the Kid Ory Band, with Oliver as its leader.
02:36When Oliver moved to Chicago, Armstrong took over the leadership of the band.
02:42The next year, Armstrong was hired by Fate Marable to play in his band aboard Mississippi River Steamboats.
02:50In 1922, Armstrong was lured to Chicago by King Oliver to join his band, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band,
03:01which featured a stellar lineup of musicians, including Oliver on cornet, Kid Ory on trombone,
03:09Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Baby Dodds on drums, Charlie Jackson on banjo, and Lil Hardin on piano.
03:21Armstrong became the second cornetist, and with Oliver, created a sensation at the city's Lincoln Gardens,
03:28with the brilliance of their cornet duets.
03:32Armstrong made his first recordings with the Creole Jazz Band for the Jeanette label in 1923.
03:38The first recording Armstrong appeared on was Chime's Blues, which featured a brilliant Armstrong solo.
03:46With Armstrong on second cornet, the Creole Jazz Band made some of the best and most influential recordings of early jazz,
03:56including these sides, Mandy Lee Blues, Dipper Mouth Blues, Just Gone, and Canal Street Blues.
04:08Armstrong married the band's pianist, Lil Hardin, in 1924.
04:14Later that year, Armstrong moved to New York City and joined Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra,
04:18and continued to perform and record superb solos for Henderson.
04:25During this period, Armstrong established himself as the premier blues sideman,
04:31on recordings with Bessie Smith, Bertha Chippy Hill, and other blues singers of the day.
04:38Perhaps the most famous of Armstrong's blues collaborations is the session with Bessie Smith that produced St. Louis Blues and Reckless Blues.
04:49Despite achieving much in New York City, Armstrong quit Fletcher Henderson's band and returned to Chicago in 1925
04:58to make his first recordings for O.K. with his recording group, Louis Armstrong, and his Hot Five.
05:07Although it didn't seem possible for Armstrong to outdo his work with Oliver,
05:13he did just that with a set of recordings of unparalleled brilliance.
05:18The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens.
05:21With support from former Creole jazz band members Johnny Dodds, Baby Dodds, Lil Hardin, and Kid Ory,
05:28plus banjo player Johnny St. Cyr,
05:32Armstrong redefined jazz music on colorful recordings with equally colorful titles,
05:39such as Struttin' With Some Barbecue, Skidat-de-dat, Cornet Chop Suey, Big Butter and Eggman,
05:47and Yes, I'm in the Barrel.
05:50Armstrong would be heard singing for the first time on these recordings,
05:54and revealed that in addition to being the best instrumentalist,
05:59he was also a vocalist of exceptional ability.
06:03Armstrong was credited with creating the wordless singing style of Skat
06:08during a Hot Five recording session for the track Heebie-Jeebies,
06:14when he dropped the paper which contained the words for the song.
06:17Instead of stopping, Armstrong improvised some wordless vocalization.
06:25By the late 20s, the Hot Five had expanded to the Hot Seven,
06:29with the addition of the great Earl Hines on piano,
06:32and some shuffling of the original Hot Five lineup.
06:36This new outfit continued to produce sides of jazz genius,
06:40such as Willie the Weeper, Potato Head Blues, Wild Man Blues,
06:45Alligator Crawl, and the recording which has been cited by many jazz critics
06:50as the single most brilliant recording of jazz music, West End Blues.
06:56While recording with the Hot Fives, Armstrong worked with Erskine Tate and Carol Dickerson Orchestra.
07:04Armstrong moved with Dickerson to New York City in 1929,
07:08and appeared the same year in the Broadway musical Hot Chocolate.
07:12In 1931, Armstrong appeared in his first film, X Flame.
07:18Armstrong was gradually becoming a nationally known music star,
07:21and his fame began to spread abroad,
07:25largely due to the success of the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings.
07:31He toured the United States and Europe throughout the 30s.
07:35During the 1940s, his appearances in films and exposure via radio
07:40solidified and magnified his star status.
07:44He would perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1947.
07:48Armstrong continued to be an extremely popular figure in jazz
07:53throughout the evolutions of the music through swing, bebop, and avant-garde.
08:00While many of the musicians who were with him during the creation of the music
08:04had been forgotten, Armstrong never ceased to have a viable career.
08:09He continued to tour the world, including visits to Eastern Europe and Africa.
08:14He also continued to record with his fellow jazz musician.
08:18His health began to deteriorate in 1959, however,
08:22when he was hospitalized following a heart attack in Italy.
08:26In 1964, Armstrong's single Hello Dolly became the number one hit on Billboard's pop charts,
08:34just as the Beatles were first experiencing Beatlemania in America.
08:39Armstrong's hit with Hello Dolly was the last time a jazz recording would top the pop charts
08:46before rock and roll took full control of them.
08:50Armstrong continued making movie and television appearances in addition to performing live.
