A ROUGH START

I was born on 4 August 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana, known as the ‘Birthplace of Jazz’. The neighbourhood I grew up in was so poor it was nicknamed ‘The Battlefield’. It was tough – and so was my childhood. My father, a factory worker, abandoned our family soon after I was born. My mother often left me and my little sister with my grandmother.

I took jobs at a young age to help my mother. A local Jewish family gave me a job delivering coal and collecting junk. When they heard that I had no proper home, they invited me to live with them. I never forgot their kindness. As a mark of respect to them, I wore a Star of David pendant throughout my life.

When I was about 11, I started to get interested in music and sang on street corners with a group of boys. I earned some money this way as well.

FINDING MUSIC

About this time, I dropped out of school – and started getting into trouble. On New Year’s Eve in 1912, I shot a gun in the air. I was arrested and sent to the New Orleans Colored Waif’s Home for Boys.

Life at the home was rough, but at least they had a band, and it felt great to be part of the group. I quickly learned to play the cornet and read music.

In June 1914, I was released from the home and was determined to find a way to make a living through music. Over the next few years, I supported my family by selling newspapers, unloading bananas from boats and hauling coal. In my free time, I would listen to local bands and perform when I got the chance.

Before long, I was playing in brass band parades and at nightclubs. I also adopted a three-year-old boy named Clarence. His mother, who was my cousin, had died in childbirth. Clarence was disabled from a head injury, and I took care of him for his entire life.

MUSIC AND A MISSION

I was soon able to stop working the manual labour jobs and concentrate full-time on playing my cornet. Beginning in 1919, I spent my summers playing on riverboats. It was the start of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and Chicago was becoming the home to jazz. I began to make a name for myself as one of the best horn players around.

From 1925 to 1928, I made more than 60 records. I began singing on these recordings, in a style called ‘scat’, and in 1926 I switched from the cornet to the trumpet.

A tour of Europe was arranged by my agent. Audiences really appreciated the jazz and blues, and it was good to see that a Black artist could make it in Europe. And in the USA, radio was booming. I was the first African American person to present a national radio show in 1937.

Over the years, I had been criticised for not speaking up about civil rights. I told people that I didn’t want to get involved in politics - I just wanted to play my horn. But in 1957, I finally spoke out against how President Eisenhower had handled a situation in Little Rock, Arkansas. There was backlash for my speaking out, but I didn’t care. I spoke my mind and that’s what was important.

STILL MAKING MUSIC

The years of long tours and hard playing were beginning to catch up with me. But in December 1963, I recorded the title number for a Broadway show that hadn’t opened yet: Hello, Dolly! The song introduced me and my music to a whole new audience. The record was released in 1964 and quickly climbed the charts, hitting the No. 1 slot in May, knocking the Beatles off the top of the charts.

I was fortunate to meet good people in my life who helped me and the friendships I formed were vital to me. My early brushes with the law resulted in my discovery of music and my success.

In 1967, I recorded the song ‘What a Wonderful World’. It summed up my life. I hoped the song also helped people recognise the positives in the world.

GLOSSARY

Star of David – Jewish symbol composed of two overlaid equilateral triangles that form a six-pointed star.

Cornet – (of music) a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but shorter and wider.

Roaring Twenties – a nickname for the 1920s in the United States. It was a time of hope, prosperity and cultural change.

Scat – improvised jazz singing in which the voice is used to imitate an instrument.

LEGACY AND RECOGNITION

Louis Armstrong is one of the world’s most celebrated musicians and was one of the pioneers of scat singing.
His band, Louis Armstrong and His All Stars, became one of the most well-known jazz groups in history.
He wrote two autobiographies; Swing That Music (1936) and A Musical Autobiography (1954).
His talents extended to acting, earning him a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
New Orleans airport was renamed the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in 2001, and there are statues of him at Algiers Point, and in Armstrong Park, in New Orleans.
He was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972.
Life magazine included him in their list of ‘100 People Who Made the Millennium’.
The nicknames ‘Satchmo’ and ‘Satch” are short for ‘satchel mouth’. It’s said that as a young boy, Armstrong danced for pennies and would scoop them up and put them in his mouth. Because of this someone called him ‘satchel mouth’. Another tale is that because Armstrong’s mouth was so large, he got the nickname “satchel mouth”.

IMAGE CAPTIONS AND CREDITS

Karnofsky Family, jazzmusicarchives.com

Louis Armstrong with his cornet circa 1930, Alamy

Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, 1925, Alamy