Louis

Armstrong

By Olga Zaplava

Louis Armstrong

(04.08.1901-06.07.1971)

American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.

He is considered the most important improviser in jazz, and he taught the world to swing.

With his infectious, wide grin and instantly recognizable gravelly voice, he won the hearts of people everywhere. He had an exciting and innovative style of playing that musicians imitate to this day.

Throughout his career, Armstrong spread the language of jazz around the world, serving as an international ambassador of swing.

Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin-color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided.

His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man.

Armstrong hardly looked back at his youth as the worst of times but instead drew inspiration from it, “Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine—I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans... It has given me something to live for.”

He was hired to work on riverboats that traveled the Mississippi. This experience enabled him to play with many prominent jazz musicians and to further develop his skills, learning to read music and undertaking the responsibilities of a professional gig.

During a trip to West Africa, Armstrong was greeted by more than one hundred thousand people.

Even in the last year of his life, he traveled to London twice, appeared on more than a dozen television shows, and performed at the Newport Jazz Festival to celebrate his 70th birthday.

Armstrong died of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 69. 

He was interred in Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, in Queens, New York City. 

The Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

THE END!

29.10.2013Saint-

Petersburg