Featured In
ALBUMLa Vie En RoseLouis Armstrong
Albums by Louis Armstrong
ALBUMEssence of ArmstrongLouis Armstrong
ALBUMVerve Jazz Masters 1Louis Armstrong
ALBUMAn American SongbookLouis Armstrong
ALBUMLouis "Country & Western" ArmstrongLouis Armstrong
ALBUMLouis Armstrong and His FriendsLouis Armstrong
ALBUMI Will Wait For YouLouis Armstrong
ALBUMDisney Songs the Satchmo WayLouis Armstrong
ALBUMWhat a Wonderful WorldLouis Armstrong
ALBUMLouis (Expanded Edition)Louis Armstrong
ALBUMHello, Dolly! (Remastered)Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong's Popular Music Videos
Bill Bailey (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, July 2, 1961)
Louis Armstrong
Duke's Place (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, December 17, 1961)
Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington
Muskrat Ramble (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, October 15, 1961)
Louis Armstrong
Someday
Louis Armstrong
Hello, Dolly! (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, October 4, 1964)
Louis Armstrong
La vie en rose
Louis Armstrong
When It's Sleepy Time Down South (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, October 8, 1961)
Louis Armstrong
Stompin' At The Savoy (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, July 15, 1956)
Louis Armstrong
Back Home In Indiana (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, March 5, 1961)
Louis Armstrong
The Faithful Hussar (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, October 8, 1961)
Louis Armstrong
Artist Playlists
Louis Armstrong Essentials
Meet the man who built jazz brick by brick.
Louis Armstrong: Deep Cuts
Good humor and virtuosic invention from a master of many styles.
Artist Biography
Born in 1901 in New Orleans, the cradle of jazz, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong is the most important figure to emerge from the musically rich city. He first made his mark in the band led by cornetist Joe Oliver, whom he followed to Chicago in 1922, cutting his first records with the group the following year. Armstrong’s growing fame and feverish creativity led him to form his own groups, The Hot Fives and The Hot Sevens, between 1925 and 1928. Early on he embraced the contrapuntal style of early jazz mastered by Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, but he soon pioneered the jazz solo, an extended improvisation gliding through the chord changes of each tune. His devastating technical mastery eclipsed that of his peers, and his brilliantly melodic, inherently bluesy, and rhythmically inventive playing paved the way to the swing quality that so largely defines the music. He used his raspy, avuncular singing to forge a second weapon on par with his horn work in both originality and influence, transforming scat singing into an art form, and rode it to mainstream success. By the ’30s he was a pop star, touring in Europe, appearing in Hollywood movies, and leading a buoyant big band. Adapting to the declining appeal of swing orchestra, in 1947 Armstrong debuted a smaller, more nimble all-star band. He endured on the pop charts despite changing tastes, scoring pop hits in the ’50s (“Mack the Knife”) and the ’60s (“Hello, Dolly!” and “What a Wonderful World”). Given his iconic status and international fame, he was enlisted as a cultural ambassador by the U.S. State Department. He died in 1971, but the magnetism and power of his work remain undiminished, the product of a lifelong elevation of jazz’s bawdy roots into one of America’s finest cultural achievements.
Hometown
Genre
Jazz