Louis Armstrong was the leader of jazz music in his time and is regarded as the

most influential jazz musician in history. Armstrong got his start with jazz music around

the 1920s and played all the way through to the 1960s. When he was a teenager, he

already had his sights set on being a musician, so he took jobs playing bands, to help him

get a feel at being the father of jazz he became. Louis Armstrong only played the trumpet,

and that was something he excelled in doing. Between 1925 and 1928, Louis Armstrong

created two band groups called the Hot Five and the Hot Seven, which also helped him

advance in his career.

Armstrong joined Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in Chicago in 1922, and although he

faced racism, he played for black and white audiences at the famous Lincoln Gardens

ballroom. They made their first recordings together in 1923 with a combo that include

future members of the Hot Seven. By early 1929, Louis had already gone to pop star

status, and his records were selling like hot cakes everywhere. One man says you had to

be very lucky to get a record of Louis Armstrong.

Bud Freeman also says that Armstrong was the first one to sing scat singing, and

was on a record day and on the sheet of music he was supposed to read the words to the

song and dropped the sheet of music, but didn’t want to ruin the record so he went on to

sing while recording “Heebie Jeebies”. Louis influenced every Jazz musician on the East

coast. They admired his projection and authority, his time, and his profound

understanding of the blues.

 While playing his music, he married his third wife, Alpha Smith. Few musicians

could match him back then, one who came close was Earl Heins, who single note phrases

were dubbed on the piano. In 1929, Louis was beckoned once again to New York, and

this time he would become a major star. Then one day between sets Louis was arrested

for smoking marihuana in his car, but a shady manager was able to get his sentence

reduced to a few weekends in jail. Armstrong called marihuana the insulator to the pain

of racism he felt during his life.

While performing, two gangsters were fighting over Armstrong’s contract, and

they ordered him to go to New York and held him at gunpoint. Armstrong and his band

escaped Chicago and was on the run for 4 years, and didn’t perform in Chicago or New

York because they knew that the run the risk of being caught in either of those cities.

Throughout the years, Armstrong dealt with having a heart attack, and Armstrong died

after another heart attack on July 6, 1971, a month before his 70th birthday. And that was

the end of an era of Satchmo.