Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong, "Satchmo" to the world, was born in New Orleans in 1901 and grew up there, and in the 1920s he blew the doors off jazz. His trumpet and cornet playing turned the music from an ensemble affair, everyone improvising at once, into a showcase for the soloist. Around 1922 he followed his mentor, Joe "King" Oliver, to Chicago to join Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, then made the move to New York, where he became a star soloist and recording artist.

He also sang, in a rich, gravelly voice that nobody could mistake for anyone else's, scatting like the voice was just another horn. By the '50s he was a global star, all over radio, television and the movies, from High Society to Hello, Dolly!, and a born entertainer who loved to joke with the crowd. He made 3 records with Ella Fitzgerald, Ella and Louis, Ella and Louis Again and Porgy and Bess, and won a Grammy for "Hello, Dolly!" in 1965.

He was one of the first black entertainers to win over white and international audiences on a huge scale, and while he seldom talked about race in public, he spoke out against segregation during the Little Rock Crisis, and loudly. He died in 1971, the Grammys gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame took him in in 1990. "What a Wonderful World" is the one that won't let go.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.