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Introduction
Louis
Daniel Armstrong
(August 4, 1901 – July 6,1971), nicknamed
Satchmo
or
Pops
, was an American jazz trumpeterand singer.
Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovativecornetandtrumpet virtuoso, Armstrong was a
foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focusfrom collective improvisation to solo performers. With hisdistinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also aninfluential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as animproviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song forexpressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled atscatsinging, or wordless vocalizing.Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and deep,instantly recognizable voice almost as much as for histrumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extended wellbeyond jazz, and by the end of his career in the '60s, hewas widely regarded as a profound influence onpopularmusicin general: critic Steve Leggett describesArmstrong as "perhaps the most important Americanmusician of the 20th century.
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Chapter I
Early life
Armstrong often stated in public interviews that hewas born on July 4, 1900, a date that has been noted inmany biographies. Although he died in 1971, it wasn'tuntil the mid-1980s that his true birth date of August 4,
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