Louis "Satchmo/Pops" Armstrong - What a Wonderful World

LOUIS 'SATCHMO' ARMSTRONG

Louis Armstrong was born on the 4th of August in 1901 in the poorest district of New Orleans, not far from Storyville, one of the city's two red light districts. By the time he died on the 6th of July 1971 he was the most famous jazz musician in history. Popularity however takes its toll. In the last ten years of his life Armstrong was already a musical legend and o performance by 'Satchmo consisted almost only of the ostentatiously used trappings: the white handkerchief, the broad toothpaste grin, the rolling eyes and a couple of trumpet notes blown into the stage-vaults. Louis Armstrong was the minstrel man, playing the role in society offered him, preserving its almost uninterrupted continuity in the history of America until today. In the twenties however Louis Armstrong was one of jazz's most vital musicians and improvisers. In particular with his studio bands 'hot fine' and 'hot seven', with whom he recorded in Chicago, he substantially helped to determine theme development of jazz. Although still played in the New Orleans style, recordings of these bands bear the hallmarks of o new ideal: no more blocks of sound and collective improvisations in a harmonic dialogue but clear style and extended solos.