HUSL Today Salutes

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong

Image source: http://cyberextazy.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/louis-armstrong.jpg


Daniel Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. At the age of 12, he was sentenced to a boys home for waifs because he fired a gun into the air. It was there that he learned to play his first instrument, the cornet, & under the tutelage of Peter Davis Armstrong began to play the cornet at picnics and parades.  Armstrong was the first vital jazz soloist to attain world wide influence as trumpeter, entertainer, and show business personality. He was a strong force in spreading the influence of jazz throughout his life. Through his trumpet solos and vocal interpretations alike, jazz fans immortalize him. His “Hot Five” and “Hot Seven” recordings done in the mid 1920’s had no parallel in jazz. He is also a well-recognized Pop music figure by his personable and throaty, charming and guttural jazz vocals. His first record under his own name was “My Heart” cut November 12th 1925.

Random fact: He was known as Satchel Mouth as a young boy because he had a very wide mouth, and when he smiled, it was all the way across. So it was like a satchel. And that's where it came from Satchel Mouth turned into Satchmo.

In the late 1920s, while serving both as a band leader and actor in the broadway revue  “Hot Chocolates,” a team up with  Fats Waller would give Armstrong his first popular hit called “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”


As his career progressed, Armstrong's music was characterized by more of a "pop" sound . He spent most of the 1930s and 40s on tour so he didnt record as much as he had in the previous decades. 


More after the jump. 







When the Saints Go Marching In.



Listen to "St. Louis Blues" by clicking here.

Check out footage from the movie "New Orleans" featuring Armstrong & the beautiful Billie Holliday.



In the 1950’s and 1960’s, following his Decca affiliation, Armstrong was recorded in a variety of settings; from small groups with Oscar Peterson on piano, to two albums with Ella Fitzgerald, to big band and orchestral accompaniment. "Hello Dolly" & "Blueberry Hill" were huge hits for this time period. 


Satchmos trumpet solos are among the most recognizable in the world. He is the greatest trumpet player to have ever lived. Click here to listen to proof. 

"He was born poor, died rich and never hurt anybody along the way" -Duke Ellington

What a wonderful world...


As an extra hoo-rah, click here to listen to Armstrong's rendition of "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." 

HUSL Today Salutes Louis Armstrong!!!