Armstrong, Louis, popularly known as Satchmo (from Satchelmouth) or Pops 1901-71
US jazz trumpeter and singer

He was born in New Orleans and brought up by his mother in extreme poverty. While serving a sentence for delinquency in the city's 'home for coloured waifs', he learned to play the cornet, and from that humble start developed into the first major jazz virtuoso. Released from the institution in 1914, he worked as a musician in local bars, getting encouragement from King Oliver, the city's leading cornettist. In 1919, Armstrong replaced Oliver in the band led by Edward 'Kid' Ory, and also played on Mississippi riverboats. In 1922, he joined Oliver's band in Chicago, and recordings by the Creole Jazz Band, featuring the cornet partnership, set new standards of musicianship in early jazz. These standards were surpassed by Armstrong himself a few years later, recording with his 'Hot Five' and 'Hot Seven' studio groups, when his playing moved beyond the constraints of New Orleans-style collective improvisation towards the virtuoso delivery for which he later gained world renown. A 1926 recording of his use of 'Scat singing' (imitating an instrument with the voice using abstract vocables) started a vogue in jazz, of which he became the most celebrated exponent. The group included his then wife, Lilian Armstrong (n�e Hardin, 1898-1971), who went on to a successful career as a jazz pianist after their divorce in 1931, leading her own all-women band, and died on stage during a tribute concert to Louis. From the late 1920s Armstrong, then playing trumpet, began two decades as a star soloist and singer with various big bands, sometimes in commercial settings not worthy of his great talent. In 1947, the formation of his first All Stars group marked a return to small-group jazz. Armstrong made the first of many overseas tours in 1933. He appeared in more than 50 films as a musician and entertainer.

Bibliography: J L Collier, Louis Armstrong (1983)