A 1928 unaccompanied trumpet cadenza opening a Chicago recording, often called the moment the jazz solo became an art (1928)
'West End Blues' — the King Oliver tune whose opening flourish is the most analysed twelve seconds in jazz.
Popular music · Jazz & blues
Louis Armstrong
1901–1971 · American
New Orleans and Chicago jazz; the first great jazz soloist
Louis Armstrong, the trumpeter and singer from New Orleans known as Satchmo and Pops, turned jazz from a collective ensemble music into an art of the individual soloist. His Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings of 1925–28 rewrote what a jazz solo could be, and his gravel voice and scat singing made him one of the most recognisable entertainers of the twentieth century.
How to spot them
- ▸Nicknames Satchmo (from 'Satchel Mouth') and Pops; the white handkerchief and the grin
- ▸Trumpet, and before that cornet; the gravel singing voice and scat
- ▸New Orleans birth; King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in Chicago; the Hot Five and Hot Seven; later the All Stars
- ▸Claimed he was born on the Fourth of July 1900; the baptismal record gives 4 August 1901
Songs & albums
A 1926 side on which a dropped lyric sheet supposedly launched wordless vocal improvisation on record (1926)
'Heebie Jeebies' — the scat-singing origin story, told by Armstrong himself and doubted by some scholars.
A 1964 title song from a Broadway musical that ended a fourteen-week run at the top of the American chart by a Liverpool group (1964)
'Hello, Dolly!' — at 62 he became the oldest artist to top the Billboard Hot 100, ending the Beatles' fourteen-week run.
A 1967 ballad of green trees, red roses and blue skies that flopped in America but topped the UK singles chart (1967)
'What a Wonderful World' — a UK number one in 1968, revived in America by the film Good Morning, Vietnam in 1988.
A 1955 recording of a Brecht and Weill ballad about a shark with pearly teeth (1955)
'Mack the Knife' — from The Threepenny Opera; his version preceded Bobby Darin's by four years.
A 1929 Fats Waller song in which the singer insists he is saving all his love for one person (1929)
'Ain't Misbehavin'' — from the revue Hot Chocolates, the hit that took him from jazz bands to popular song.
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in New Orleans on 4 August 1901; he spent his teens in the Colored Waif's Home, where he learned the cornet
- •Joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in Chicago in 1922, then Fletcher Henderson's orchestra in New York in 1924
- •The Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions (1925–28) include 'West End Blues', 'Potato Head Blues' and 'Struttin' with Some Barbecue'
- •Pianist Lil Hardin, his second wife, played on the Hot Five sides and pushed him to leave Oliver's band
- •Toured for the US State Department as a goodwill 'Ambassador Satch', but cancelled a 1957 Soviet tour over the Little Rock school crisis, calling the government's conduct indefensible
- •'Hello, Dolly!' reached number one in May 1964; 'What a Wonderful World' was recorded in 1967 and reached UK number one in 1968
- •He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 as an Early Influence
- •His Queens home in Corona, New York, is now the Louis Armstrong House Museum
- •He died in his sleep on 6 July 1971, a month before his 70th birthday
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Sources
- Louis Armstrong — Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
- Terry Teachout — Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong