Louis Armstrong
1901-1971 · American (New Orleans/New York) · Jazz
Known for: The most influential jazz musician ever whose trumpet and gravelly voice invented modern improvisation
Armstrong was born in desperate poverty in New Orleans, learned trumpet at a juvenile home, and transformed popular music. His Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings invented jazz improvisation as a soloist's art. What a Wonderful World became a universal anthem of joy.
He was ebullient, generous, and relentlessly cheerful - genuine warmth but also a survival strategy in Jim Crow America. He publicly confronted Eisenhower over Little Rock, risking his career.
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