Did Louis Armstrong have a great life as he sang in the song? Biography of Louis Armstrong Personal life of Louis Armstrong.

30.06.2019

Louis Armstrong, full name Louis Daniel "Satchmo" Armstrong(Louis Daniel "Satchmo" Armstrong) - the great American musician of the twentieth century, trumpeter, vocalist and leader of the jazz ensemble.

Armstrong became one of the most influential people in the world of jazz music.

The musician was born in a disadvantaged area of ​​New Orleans.

He did not even know the exact date of his birth, since it was not customary to officially record such events in documents. It was considered especially prestigious to be born on July 4, the Independence Day of the United States of America, and until now, two birth dates can be found in various sources. Louis Armstrong- July 4 and August 4, 1901.

Mother Armstrong, Mayann, earned a living as a prostitute, and her father left the family when the children were still very young. Childhood Louis spent together with younger sister Beatrice by Grandma Josephine who told her grandchildren stories about the times when people with black skin were slaves.

Louis grew up in the Storyville area, known for its brothels and free morals. From childhood, the future jazz music star unloaded wagons, sold newspapers and sang in a street vocal ensemble, thereby earning his living.

Once he stole a gun from one of his mother's clients, and made a real shooting on New Year's Eve, 1913, for which he was immediately handed over to the Waif's Home correctional boarding camp. Exactly there Louis Armstrong mastered playing the tambourine, alto horn and cornet, performing in a brass band.

Back in the city Armstrong decided to become a musician. His teachers were King Oliver and renowned trombonist Kid Ori. Louis performed in an ensemble "Tuxedo Brass Band" by Oscar "Papa" Celestine in 1918 in Chicago. And in his native New Orleans he played in a band "Jazz-E-Sazz Band" door Fats Marable. While touring on cruise ships during the summer season, Armstrong learned musical notation and got his nickname Sachmo, short for English Satchel Mouth("purse mouth").

In 1922 Louis Armstrong was invited as a second cornetist in Creole Jazz Band, the most vibrant jazz ensemble in Chicago.

The musician's first wife was a prostitute Daisy Parker from New Orleans. In 1924 he married a second time to a pianist "Creole Jazz Band" Lil Hardin. It is the second wife Armstrong insisted on the need to develop his solo career.

Your own unique style Louis Armstrong found in New York, in the orchestra Fletcher Henderson. Jazz lovers started talking about the new star and advised their friends to listen to his solo performances.

In 1925 Armstrong returned to Chicago and recorded an album "Hot Five" by inviting a trombonist Kida Ori, clarinetist Johnny Dodds, banjo player Johnny St. Cyr and pianist Lil Hardin. These recordings have become jazz classics. A year later he led his own orchestra "Louis Armstrong And His Stompers", and to the quintet "Hot Five" have joined Pete Briggs And Baby Dodds, forming a new composition "Hot Seven".

In 1927 Armstrong switched to the trumpet, giving up playing the cornet.

In the 1930s, the musician toured extensively with famous big bands. The European tour brought him worldwide fame. Between tours Armstrong performed with orchestras Charlie Gaines, Chick Webb, Kid Ory, with vocal quartet "Mills Brothers". At the same time, he participated in theatrical productions and radio programs, starred in films.

In 1936 he published his autobiography "Swing That Music", and had several surgeries on his upper lip. Due to the excessive pressure of the mouthpiece and the wrong ear cushion, he suffered deformation and tissue rupture. Armstrong also performed surgery on the vocal cords, with the help of which he tried to get rid of the hoarse timbre of his voice.

In 1938, the musician married for the fourth time to a dancer Lucille Wilson with whom he lived in love and harmony until the end of his days.

Joe Glazer, the musician's manager, decided to form an ensemble All Stars, which included famous masters of jazz. Except Louis Armstrong(trumpet, vocals), it was played Earl Hines(piano) Jack Teegarden(trombone), Barney Bigard(clarinet), Bud Freeman(tenor saxophone), Sid Catlett(drums).

By the mid 1950s Armstrong became one of the most famous musicians in the world. The US State Department gave him the unofficial title of "Ambassador of Jazz" and began sponsoring his world tours. From a trip to Russia Armstrong refused:

People would ask me there what is happening in my country. What could I say to them? I have a wonderful life in music, but I feel like any other Negro ...

In 1954 his second autobiography was published. Satchmo.My Life in New Orleans.

Louis Armstrong continued to take part in jazz festivals, touring Europe. With his assistance, a number of philharmonic jazz concerts were created in Town Hall and on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1959 Louis Armstrong suffered a heart attack, but even this did not stop him from continuing his performances. Your ingenious compositions Hello, Dolly! And "What a Wonderful World" Armstrong recorded during these years.

When another heart attack forced him to go to the hospital, the musician asked to collect his orchestra for a rehearsal, but on July 6, 1971, the great jazzman passed away due to heart failure and kidney failure.

July 8 body Louis Armstrong was exhibited for a solemn farewell in the training arena of the National Guard. President of the United States Nixon made a statement:

Mrs. Nixon and I share the grief of millions of Americans over the death of Louis Armstrong. He was one of the creators of American art. A man of bright personality Armstrong gained worldwide fame. His brilliant talent and nobility have enriched our spiritual life and made it richer.

Discography

  1. What A Wonderful World (1970)
  2. Disney Songs The Satchmo Way (1968)
  3. I Will Wait For You (1967)
  4. Louis (1964)
  5. Satchmo (1964)
  6. Hello, Dolly (1963)
  7. Together For The First Time (1961)
  8. Armstrong/Ellington: Together For The First (1961)
  9. Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington (1961)
  10. Paris Blues (1960)
  11. Happy Birthday Louis! (live) (1960)
  12. Louis & the Dukes Of Dixieland (1960)
  13. Satchmo In Style (1959)
  14. Louis and the Angels (1957)
  15. Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson (1957)
  16. Porgy and Bess (1957)
  17. Louis Under The Stars (1957)
  18. At Pasadena Civic Auditorium, vol.1 (live) (1956)
  19. Ella and Louis (1956)
  20. American Jazz Festival At Newport (live) (1956)
  21. Great Chicago Concert 1956 (live) (1956)
  22. Louis Armstrong Plays W.C.Handy (1956)
  23. Ambassador Satch (1955)
  24. Satchmo The Great (live) (1955)
  25. Satch Plays Fats: The Music Of Fats Waller (1955)
  26. Louis Armstrong Sings The Blues (1954)
  27. Latter Day Louis (1954)
  28. Satchmo At Pasadena (live) (1951)
  29. New Orleans To New York (1950)
  30. Satchmo Serenades (1950)
  31. Satchmo On Stage (live) (1950)
  32. New Orleans Nights (1950)
  33. Jazz Concert (live) (1950)
  34. New Orleans Days (1950)
  35. Satchmo At Symphony Hall, vol.2 (live) (1947)
  36. Satchmo At Symphony Hall (live) (1947)
  37. Satchmo Sings (1947)
  38. New Orleans Jazz (1940)
  39. Louis Armstrong In The Thirties, vol.1 (1939)
  40. On The Sunny Side Of The Street (1938)
  41. New Discoveries (1937)
  42. Jazz Heritage: Satchmo's Discoveries (1936)
  43. Rhythm Saved The World (1935)
  44. Paris Session (1934)
  45. More Greatest Hits (1933)
  46. The Fabulous Louis Armstrong (1932)
  47. Stardust (1931)
  48. Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra (1930)
  49. Hot Fives & Sevens, vol.4 (1929)
  50. Louis Armstrong And His Orchestra (1928)
  51. Hot Fives & Sevens, vol.3 (1927)
  52. Hot Fives & Sevens, vol.2 (1926)
  53. Hot Fives & Sevens, vol.1 (1925)
  54. Louis Armstrong And The Blues Singers (1924)
  55. The Young Louis Armstrong (1923)

Louis Armstrong is an American jazz performer and vocalist who has had a huge impact in the world of jazz.

Armstrong often claimed that he was born in July 1900, which is the date given in many biographies. And only in the 1980s did the true date of birth of the musician become clear - 08/04/1901.

Louis was born into a poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana. The grandson of African slaves spent his childhood and youth in an area where prostitution was legal and poverty and drugs were the main problem.

The boy's father, William Armstrong (1881-1933), left for another woman when Louis was less than a year old. The future artist's mother, Mary "Myann" Albert (1886-1927), later left her young son and his sister Beatrice Armstrong Collins in the care of her grandmother Josephine Armstrong and uncle Isaac. At the age of five, the boy returned to his mother, who subsequently managed to change several "stepfathers".


Schoolboy Armstrong had to start working early: the boy sold newspapers, delivered coal, sang on the streets at night, but there was not enough money in the family, and Louis' mother began to engage in prostitution.

Music came into Armstrong's life early: he often hung out near dance halls close to home, he often brought coal to brothels and concert halls where Joe "King" Oliver and other famous musicians performed.


At the age of 11, the boy left school and, together with his three friends, began to perform on the streets of the city. This period of his life Armstrong never called the worst - in fact, Louis drew inspiration from the years in "good old New Orleans", when he clearly realized the purpose of his life.

As a teenager, Louis worked part-time for a family of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, Karnofsky, who were in the garbage business. Knowing that the boy was growing up without a father, the Karnofskys took care of Louis like their own son. It was these "parents" who gave the "impatient child" his first cornet.

Music

At age 13, Armstrong began performing with the band at the Home for Colored Waifs reform school, where he was sent for firing his stepfather's gun during New Year's Eve. Armstrong's group appeared in various institutions of the city, and Louis first attracted the attention of the public.

During these years, Louis learned a lot from senior musicians, including Bank Johnson, Kid Ory and King Oliver, who acted as a mentor to the young musician. Louis also had the opportunity to perform on river cruises - a fruitful work on a ship with the famous band "Fate Marable" Armstrong described as "studying at the university."


In 1919, Oliver left town, leaving his job to Armstrong. By the age of 20, Louis became one of the first jazz performers who dared to show his individuality in solo parts. Louis began to use the "scat" technique, a type of singing when a set of words was added to the melody as a kind of additional accompaniment.

In 1922, Oliver in Chicago needed a second cornetist in his Creole Jazz Band, and he invited Louis. Oliver's group was incredibly popular in the 20s in Chicago, which in turn was the center of the jazz world.


Soon, from a poor boy, Armstrong turned into a rich and famous young man who lived in his own apartment with his own bathroom (for the first time in his life). However, Louis did not embrace the "star disease" - he continued to keep in touch with childhood friends from his hometown.

As part of the group, Louis recorded the first disc, which included his solo parts. In 1924, Armstrong's second wife, pianist Lil Hardin, persuaded Louis to move on to the next stage of his career. The couple moved to New York, where Louis began performing with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. Jazz fans often came to listen to the "hot solos" of the young artist - that's how fame came to Armstrong.

Upon returning to Chicago, Louis, along with well-known bands "Hot Five" and "Hot Seven", recorded such works as "Muggles" (slang term for marijuana cigarettes) and "West End Blues", which clearly showed his artist's style - bright, improvisational, inventive.


In 1926, Louis became the soloist in the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra, and then for some time led his own group, Louis Armstrong And His Stompers.

In 1929, Louis again moved to New York, where he worked in the musical "Hot Chocolate", all of whose artists were black. The next few years, Louis toured a lot, worked with popular big bands, starred in films, performed on radio and appeared on Broadway. In the pre-war period, Armstrong managed to make a tour of European countries and North Africa, which brought the musician the widest popularity abroad.

Later, Louis had to undergo several operations on his lip, torn due to the pressure of the mouthpiece, and on the vocal cords: the musician wanted to get rid of the hoarseness that had become his hallmark (which he realized much later).

In the 1940s, public tastes changed, dance halls began to close, big bands had more competition. It was no longer possible to finance a 16-piece touring band. When in May 1947 Louis successfully performed at a jazz concert in New York as part of a small group, it was decided to create a jazz sextet "Louis Armstrong and His All Stars", which, in addition to Louis, included Earl Hines and other famous musicians.

During these years, Armstrong recorded several records and starred in more than 30 Hollywood films, and in February 1949 he became the first jazz performer, whose photo was placed on the cover of the reputable Time magazine.

By the 1950s, Armstrong was a jazz icon with a fan base in the millions. In 1958, the musician recorded the spiritual "Go Down Moses", a song that was previously considered the anthem of the American slaves - and today Armstrong's performance of this song is considered the best.

In 1964, after a two-year hiatus due to a heart attack, Armstrong covered "Hello, Dolly!" singer Carol Channing. Louie's version stayed at number one on the Hot 100 for 22 weeks, longer than any other song that year. 62-year-old Louis became the oldest artist whose song took the lead. Armstrong also managed to displace the Beatles from the first place, which they occupied for 14 weeks in a row.

In the 60s, Armstrong successfully toured Europe, Africa and Asia, and in 1965 visited the countries of the Eastern Bloc. The musician even received the unofficial nickname "Ambassador of Jazz" and inspired the composer Dave Brubeck to write the musical "The Real Ambassadors" ("Real Ambassadors"). In 1967, Louis recorded one of his most famous songs, "What A Wonderful World", which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame nearly 30 years later.

Armstrong recorded his last album in 1968.

Personal life

In March 1918, 16-year-old Louis tied the knot with Daisy Parker, who was a prostitute in Louisiana. The young couple adopted 3-year-old Clarence, whose mother, the artist's cousin Flora, died after giving birth. The child was mentally retarded (due to a head injury received in infancy). Armstrong and Parker divorced in 1923.


On February 4, 1924, Louis married Lil Hardin, with whom he lived until 1931. After a divorce in 1938, the artist married his longtime friend Alfa Smith. The marriage with the third wife lasted 4 years. In October 1942, Louis married the singer of the famous Cotton Club nightclub Lucille Wilson - the musician lived with her until his death.

Armstrong has no children of his own, but in December 2012, Sharon Preston-Folta announced that she was the daughter of Armstrong and Lucille "Sweet" Preston, a dancer from the Cotton Club. The words of the woman were confirmed by a letter in 1955, in which Louis turned to his manager Joe Glazer with a request to pay Preston and her child, whom he considered his own, a monthly allowance of $ 400.


In 2016, someone who introduced himself as the grandson of a great musician performed at the Russian music show "Voice". It quickly became clear that the artist had nothing to do with Louis, but performed at social events with his songs and imitated the singing style of the great musician.

Armstrong has always been concerned about his health, controlling his weight using laxatives, but he also liked to eat delicious food and even reflected this love in several songs.


Louis used marijuana daily almost all his life, and in 1930 spent nine days in prison after being arrested for possession of drugs. Marijuana Armstrong considered "a thousand times better than whiskey."

Armstrong loved to play baseball and founded the Raggedy Nine baseball team in New Orleans, which later became Secret Nine Baseball.

Armstrong liked to write down everything that happened to him every day. In his letters and diaries, he described music, sex, food, childhood memories, the effects of "medicinal" marijuana, and even the work of his intestines. Louis diluted all his records with obscene jokes and limericks.

Armstrong was not a Freemason, as is often claimed in the media. Although he is listed in the New York Montgomery Lodge No. 18, no such lodge has ever existed. However, Armstrong indicated in his autobiography that he was a member of the "Knights of the Pythia" fraternity, but the organization is not a Masonic one.

Louis had several nicknames - Satchmo (short for "satchel mouth" ("mouth-backpack") - the musician was called so because of his large mouth), Dipper (from "Dippermouth Blues", the first recorded song of the Creole Jazz Band) and Pops (the nickname came from Armstrong's tendency to forget people's names and call them simply "pops" - "old man" or "father").

Death

Despite the warnings of his doctor, Armstrong decided to perform in March 1971 in the concert hall of the fashionable Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. At the end of the show, the musician was hospitalized with a heart attack. In May, the artist left the hospital with the intention of resuming concerts, but on July 6, 1971, 69-year-old Louis died of heart failure.


The musician is buried at Flushing Cemetery in New York. The artist's funeral was attended by many famous personalities - (with whom he recorded the imperishable hit "Summertime"), Dizzy Gillespie, Ed Sullivan, Alan King and others.

Discography

  • 1951 - Satchmo at Symphony Hall
  • 1951 - Satchmo at Pasadena
  • 1954 - Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy
  • 1954 - Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers, Volume One
  • 1955 - Satch Plays Fats: A Tribute to the Immortal Fats Waller
  • 1956 - Satchmo the Great
  • 1956 - Ella and Louis
  • 1957 - I "ve Got the World on a String
  • 1957 - Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson
  • 1957 - Louis Under the Stars
  • 1957 - Louis and the Angels
  • 1958 - Porgy & Bess
  • 1958 - Louis and the Good Book
  • 1959 - Satchmo in Style
  • 1959 - The Five Pennies
  • 1960 - Bing & Satchmo
  • 1961 - Recording Together for the First Time
  • 1962 - The Real Ambassadors
  • 1964 - Hello, Dolly!
  • 1968 - Disney Songs the Satchmo Way

Louis Daniel Armstrong ( Louis Daniel"Satchmo" Armstrong ) was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans. He was the son of a laborer William and Mary Ann, the daughter of former slaves. His parents finally separated when he was five years old and he stayed with his sister, a rather windy mother and grandmother in the disadvantaged and poor outskirts of Storyville, known as the "Battlefield" due to the dominance of gambling, unrestrained drinking, showdowns and shooting, often taking place there. Often the boy had to earn extra money by delivering newspapers and delivering coal. After graduating from elementary school at the age of eleven, he often sang songs with his friends in an attempt to earn a living. He received great support in the form of work at that time from a family of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, who accepted him as their own. To commemorate this period, Louis wore a Star of David around his neck.

At age 12, Louis was arrested for shooting in the air and sent to a reform school for troubled teens, where he first began learning to play a musical instrument. After his release, he began performing with local bands. He did not have his own instrument, as well as the money for it, so Louis was forced to borrow from friends. The guy was noticed by King Oliver, the leader of the first large African American group. Armstrong joined Oliver in Chicago and collaborated with the team until 1924. As part of the Creole Jazz Band, he made his debut studio recordings. After getting his first experience, he went to New York to play with Fletcher Henderson's band. The audience came to the concerts in many respects for the original improvisational solos of Louis.

jazz pioneer

In the early Roaring Twenties, Chicago became the home of jazz. Louis Daniel Armstrong returned in the fall of 1925, formed a band and began recording some of the greatest compositions in jazz history with the Hot Five musicians. He developed a unique style and played amazing solos. During these years, Armstrong worked with large groups in Chicago clubs and theaters. The vocals that accompanied recordings after 1925 complemented his playing with a velvety hoarseness. The peak of performing skills occurred at the beginning of the thirties of the last century. The honed unique style of performance, combined with a mature approach, led to a rethinking of early compositions and their re-recording. He achieved international fame and traveled to Europe for the first time as a soloist in 1932. After the end of World War II, starting with a trip to France in 1948, he began to tour the world regularly. Traveled in Europe, Africa, Japan, Australia and South America.

Louis continued to play in large orchestras until 1947, and then returned to a small team of first-class musicians called "All Stars". Louis acted in films and wrote books. One of the most celebrated musicians in jazz history died in New York of a heart attack on July 6, 1971.

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African-American jazz musician, composer, vocalist, bandleader Louis Armstrong was born August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana (USA).

His baptismal certificate was found only in the mid-1980s, so he did not know his exact date of birth and chose it arbitrarily - July 4, 1900 (US Independence Day).

The future musician was born into a poor family. The father, a day laborer, left the family when the son was about five years old, the mother was a laundress.

Until the age of five, Louis lived with his paternal grandmother, then with his mother and older sister.

From childhood, he sang on the city streets as part of a quartet of his friends. In 1907, he began to help around the house the family of Karnofsky coal merchants - Jewish emigrants from Russia. The Karnofskys gave Armstrong money to buy the first musical instrument, the cornet.

On New Year's Eve 1912, Louis, celebrating the holiday, shot someone else's pistol into the air, after which he was arrested and placed in a home for difficult teenagers. Here he began to study music, mastered the altohorn and cornet, performed as part of a brass band and choir.

After his release, Armstrong returned home, played in bars with amateur bands, continued to study with New Orleans musicians, and periodically worked in jazz orchestras.

In 1918, he joined the band of trombonist Kid Ory.

Armstrong moved to Chicago in 1922, where he played with the Creole Jazz Band for two years.

Mozart of Jazz Louis ArmstrongJazz was born before Louis Armstrong. But they grew up together. Louis gave jazz a new breath, making its sounds warm and bright, like a summer morning, and thick as honey, and laid the foundation for world jazz mania. August 4 marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of jazz Mozart - Louis Armstrong.

In 1924, Armstrong married pianist Lil Hardin, who persuaded Louis to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, and moved to New York. During this period, Armstrong contributed to the recordings of pianist Clarence Williams, and also recorded on records as part of various accompanying ensembles with many blues and jazz vocalists, including Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Clara Smith, Sippy Wallace, Bessie Smith.

In November 1925, Armstrong returned to Chicago and recorded the first hits of the Hot Five group he organized. In May 1927 he formed the Hot Seven. In June 1928, the hit West End Blues was recorded, considered one of the most famous pieces of jazz.

In the late 1920s, he performed in a duet with Earl Hines and toured various cities in the United States - in 1929, the musician visited New York, where he collaborated with the orchestra of Leon Russell and Duke Ellington, then with the orchestra of Leon Elkins and Les Hite played in California. Visited New Orleans in 1931; back in New York, he played in Harlem and on Broadway.

In the 1930s, Armstrong made a number of tours to Europe and North Africa, which brought him wide popularity not only at home, but also abroad. Between tours, he performed with the orchestra of Charlie Gaines, Kid Ory, Leon Russell and others.

In the future, Armstrong's popularity continued to grow due to his tireless and versatile musical activity. Most notable are his performances with Cozy Cole, Trammie Young, Billy Kyle, singer Velma Middleton, Sidney Bechet, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, as well as Oscar Peterson and other jazz stars.

Since 1947, Armstrong has worked with the All Stars sextet ("All Stars").

Armstrong participated in jazz festivals in Nice (1948), Newport (1958), toured many countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. With his assistance, a number of philharmonic jazz concerts were organized in Town Hall and on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1964, his song Hello Dolly, released as a single, became a hit. In 1968, the first place in the charts was occupied by the composition What A Wonderful World performed by him.

Armstrong's popularity was associated not only with his work in the studio, but also with cinema. The musician starred in the films Rhapsody in Black and Blue (1932), Pennies from Heaven (1936), Cabin in the Sky (1943), New Orleans "(New Orleans, 1947), "Glenn Miller Story" (Glenn Miller Story, 1953), "High Society" (High Society, 1956), "Paris Blues" (Paris Blues, 1961), "Hello, Dolly! (Hello , Dolly!, 1969) and many others.

Together with jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, Armstrong recorded the opera Gershwin (1957).

He wrote two autobiographical books, Swing is Music (1936) and Satchmo. My Life in New Orleans (1954).

In 1960, Louis Armstrong's star was inaugurated on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On July 6, 1971, the musician died in New York from heart failure, which led to kidney failure.

Louis Armstrong created a kind of pop jazz that flexibly adapts to any stylistic context and to any audience. Armstrong, along with Sidney Betchet, gave jazz its main foundation - improvisation.

"Look how beautiful the world is. I can't give you anything but love..." Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong's unique voice has been imitated by countless performers over the years. He popularized scat singing, which used nonsensical sounds rather than words, and his musical phrasing on the trumpet influenced virtually every singer who appeared on the scene after 1930, such as Bing Crosby, Billy Holliday, and Frank Sinatra. In addition to everything, Louis Armstrong's great sense of humor and radiant stage persona became, perhaps, the main and natural factor in the popularization of jazz. Young performers were inspired by seeing him on stage at least once, and simply, millions of spectators were fascinated by jazz through the magic of Armstrong's music. In his later years, Armstrong's world tours made him famous as the "American Messenger of Peace".



Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901 (his birth certificate was found in the mid-80s, so this date is very approximate) and grew up in a poor area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe city, sometimes performing on the streets for pennies as a singer in a vocal quartet .


On New Year's Eve 1912, Louis picked up a pistol and fired into the air, celebrating the holiday, after which he was arrested and sent to a home for difficult teenagers. This period of his life became the starting point for him as a musician. it was in a home for the retarded that he learned to play the cornet. Coming "to freedom" after two years, Louis begins to play in jazz groups in New Orleans. When King Oliver, who patronized Armstrong, left New Orleans, he recommended Louis Kid to Ory and his popular group at the time. After 4 years, King Oliver invited his protégé to play in Chicago in his Creole Jazz Band as a second cornetist.

In 1922-24, King Oliver played in the best classical jazz orchestras and it soon became clear that Louis began to push the maestro back with his playing.

In 1923, the group recorded forty-one songs for four labels and met pianist Lily Harden, who became the second of Louis Armstrong's four wives. Lily persuades Louis to leave the group and move to the Fletcher's Henderson orchestra in New York, perhaps the most popular orchestra at that time. At that time, the musicians of New York lagged behind the musicians of Chicago in technology. Perhaps this is why Armstrong's playing made it possible for local musicians to feel new direction.Louis began recording as an accompanist for blues artists such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, as well as with other musicians and groups: Sidney Bechet and Clarence Williams Blue Five.In 1925, after he left the Henderson orchestra, Louis moved back to Chicago and begins his famous "Hot Five" and "Hot Seven" series.

In 1925-27, together with clarinetist Johnny Dodds, trombonist Kid Ory, pianist Lilly Armstrong and banjo master Johnny St. Cyr, Armstrong recorded masterpiece after masterpiece - the music that raised and glorified Neworlean jazz. The composition "Cornet Chop Sue" amazed music connoisseurs (in this composition of 1927, Louis changes the cornet for a trumpet), and the composition "Heebies Jeebies" became a hit and finally made scat singing popular. In 1928, Armstrong played in the studio group The Savoy Ballroom Five. "West End Blues", with a charming trumpet intro, was considered by many, including Armstrong himself, to be the most successful recording - along with "Weather Bird", a duet with Earl Hines.


Armstrong performs on various nightly programs in Chicago with large groups of Erskine Tate and Carroll Dickerson, honing his showmanship. Starting in 1929, he began to record as the leader of several jazz bands at once, creating classic masterpieces such as "I Can" t Give You Anything But Love ". In the following decade, the name of Louis Armstrong becomes a kind of hallmark of jazz, in 1932 - 34 he makes two tours to Europe, plays a few memorable bit parts in films and plays in a large swing band.The most memorable of his musical career was a collaboration with Earl Hines in 1928 - the magic of Louis' playing can be felt in all recordings, and his voice is at the peak of emotional expressiveness.

In 1947, Armstrong left the big group and formed the All-Stars sixtet, which included trumpeter Jack Teagarden, clarinetist Barney Bigard and Earl Hines. With him, Armstrong begins a continuous tour that will last until his death.



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