Louis Armstrong
A man who defined Jazz
Louis Armstrong
• Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz
musicians.
• He was born in a poor section of New
Orleans on August 4 1901.
• By 1917 he was playing in dive
bars all over New Orleans
CSUN
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Accomplishments
• Louis Armstrong developed a way of
playing jazz, as an instrumentalist and a
vocalist
• He recorded hit songs for five decades,
and he is still listened to today
Happy birthday, Louis!
• “On my sixty-ninth birthday, all of the
kids in Corona where I live came in front
of my home and wished me a Happy
Birthday. Saying carry on until you’re a
hundred years old. I have seen three
generations come up in the block that I
live. Many kids grew up, married, and
brought their children to visit my wife
Lucille and I.
• And those kids grew up-Satchmo fans.
Just want to say that music has no age.
Most of your great composersmusicians-are elderly people, way up
there in age-they will live forever.”
Louis Armstrong, Esquire
Magazine, December 1969
Suggested Readings
• My Life in New Orleans by Louis
Armstrong, 1954.
• Swing That Music by Louis
Armstrong,1936.
• Louis Armstrong by Hughes Panassie, 1971.
• Louis by Max Jones and John Clinton,1971
• Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life by Laurence
Bergreen, 1997.
Remarkable
Achievement’s
• Recorded hit songs for five decades, and his music is
still heard today on television and radio and in films
• Wrote two autobiographies, more than ten magazine
articles, hundreds of pages of memoirs, and
thousands of letters
• Appeared in over 30 films as a gifted actor with
superb comic timing and an unabashed joy of life
• Composed dozens of songs that have become jazz
standards
• Performed an average of 300 concerts each year, with his
frequent tours to all parts of the world earning him the nickname
“Ambassador Satch”
• Became one of the first celebrities of the twentieth century.
• Despite his fame and wealth, Satchmo lived a simple life in a
working class neighborhood