SATCHMO FOREVER

Description

Growing up in extremely precarious conditions, only music and the trumpet enabled Louis Daniel “Satchmo” Armstrong to find stability during his childhood and youth. At 26, with Kid Orys, his first hit, Muskrat Ramble, entered the Billboard charts. Until 1966, 78 other hits would follow. Tours around the world, appearances in Hollywood films such as High Society or Hello Dolly, and legendary collaborations with Ella Fitzgerald, among others, made him the emblematic figure of contemporary American culture of his time. That is why, at the height of the Cold War, the American government sent him as a musical ambassador to the countries of Africa and Asia courted by the United States and the USSR. Later, he opposed racial segregation in his own country and refused to cooperate again with the American authorities. Armstrong played a major role in the development of New Orleans jazz and established “star soloing” in jazz. Stylistically, he influenced almost every traditional jazz trumpeter who came after him. His distinctive voice also makes him one of the most famous jazz singers of all time. Moreover, Armstrong’s nickname, “Satchmo,” is short for “Satchel mouth,” a reference to the size of his mouth.