Louis Armstrong years of life. Louis Daniel Armstrong: short biography
Louis Armstrong biography briefly will tell you about the life of an American trumpeter, vocalist and creator of his own ensemble, the founder of jazz. They will help you compose a message about Louis Armstrong.
Louis Armstrong biography and creativity
Louis Armstrong's life began on August 4, 1901 in the poorest area of New Orleans in the family of a mine worker.
The boy's childhood could not be called happy; he grew up in an area where only black families lived. His father left the family and left the city, his mother was forced to become a woman of easy virtue in order to feed Louis and his older sister Beatrice. The children's grandmother, having learned what their mother is doing, takes the children to her place.
At the age of 7, Louis' childhood ended. To help his grandmother, he decides to find a job. He earned his first income by delivering newspapers. Then he got a job as a coal delivery driver.
One day, having got a job with a family of rich Jews, the Karnovskys liked him so much that they began to consider the hardworking guy their adopted son. For Louis's birthday, they gave him a cornet, the first musical instrument in his life.
Being in seventh heaven, the guy gets a job in the drinking establishments of Storyville, playing instruments. In parallel with this, he begins to take part in ensembles.
For a misdemeanor in 1913, Louis Armstrong was sent to a correctional boarding camp. Here the young man received a musical education and gained experience. In a couple of years, he masterfully learned to play the tambourine and alto horn, improving his playing of the cornet. Louis got a job in the ensemble. He earned his living by performing marches and polkas.
One day, while performing at a club, King Oliver noticed him and offered Armstrong cooperation. It was short but fruitful.
In 1918, King advised Louis to another respected person in the world of music - Kid Ory. He made the guy a member of the Tuxedo Brass Band.
Later, Louis met an expert in the field of art and music, Marable. Thanks to this man, Armstrong received a decent musical education and is making attempts to independently compose music on the cornet.
In 1922, former musical partner King Oliver invited Armstrong to join the Creole ensemble, the Creole Jazz Band. The cornetist and his ensemble travel around the country and gain their first fans.
After some time, he moved to New York and got a job in the orchestra of Fletcher Henderson, a master of jazz. Louis adopted knowledge from Fletcher and developed as a musician with his own unique and vibrant style of playing the cornet. It was for this that fans from all over the world fell in love with Louis Armstrong.
Since 1925, the musician has been recording his famous compositions: “Go Down Moses”, “Heebie Jeebies”, “What a Wonderful World”, “A Rhapsody in Black and Blue”, “Hello Dolly”. He begins to record with famous composers and performers.
Armstrong appeared on stage for the last time on February 10, 1971. A heart attack confined him to bed. In March, Louis got back on his feet and, together with his All Stars ensemble, gave concerts in New York. A repeated heart attack again confined him to a hospital bed. 2 months later, on July 6, 1971, after the last rehearsal, the founder of jazz music died from heart failure and kidney failure.
Louis Armstrong personal life
Armstrong was married four times, but had no children.
He first married very early on to prostitute Daisy Parker. But those around the gifted and talented musician kept telling him that tomorrow he would wake up famous. And such a person should not be together with a woman who did depraved things. This forced Armstrong to divorce her in 1923.
In 1924 he met pianist Lil Hardin. After some time, he marries her. It was at the insistence of his wife that he embarked on a solo career. But at the end of the 1920s they divorced.
His third marriage was to Alpha Smith, which lasted only four years.
In 1938, Louis Armstrong married for the fourth (and last) time to dancer Lucille Wilson, with whom he lived until the end of his days.
The grandson of the legendary American vocalist and trumpeter Louis Armstrong, Charlie was born in September 1968 in the Caribbean. His father is from Barbados and his mother is from Suriname.
Charlie Armstrong near a portrait of Louis Armstrong | Guide
Charlie himself says so. True, biographers of the legendary Mister Jazz unanimously claim that Louis did not have children with any of his four wives. Most likely he was infertile. Perhaps the singer, who calls himself the grandson of Armstrong himself, is actually the grandson of one of the legendary jazzman's sisters - Beatrice or Vanessa.
Creative career
According to Charlie Armstrong, it is known that he began singing at the age of 5. His first performance took place in a church choir and turned out to be quite successful. The boy did not have the opportunity to study music professionally, so he succeeded in self-education. Charlie was invited to sing in churches in South America and Holland, where he performed gospel songs.
The young singer gave his debut concert at the age of 12. It was then that the creative biography of Charlie Armstrong entered a new stage. His career is moving upward.
Kp.kg Musicians from different countries became interested in Charlie Armstrong's performing style. Soon the young jazzman was involved as a freestyle MC in clubs in America and Europe. He is willingly invited to parties in elite closed clubs. Charlie sings in blues, jazz and funk styles. His deep voice is mesmerizing, and when accompanied by a saxophone it turns into real magic.
Charlie Armstrong's army of fans is growing. His singles "You Drive Me Crazy", "Respect My Authority" and "Feel The Summer" are popular in the clubs of Saint-Tropez, Cannes and Monaco.
TV show "Voice-5"
Charlie Armstrong appeared in Russia not so long ago, but has already managed to increase his popularity. Having heard about the popular TV show “The Voice,” which is broadcast on the country’s central channels and attracts millions of viewers, Charlie decided to take part in it. He was completely confident in his abilities and determined. Armstrong said with a smile that if the judges did not turn to him themselves, he would help them do it.
The performer presented the song “My First My Last My Everything” to the judgment of mentors and television viewers. The judges looked at each other and speculated who they would see next. Was it Barry White himself who came to them? She was the first and only one to turn to Charlie. Thus, Armstrong's supposed grandson ended up on her team.
Together with the rest of the judges, Charlie sang one of Mr. Jazz's signature songs, "Let My People Go."
Personal life
For a long time, the black performer lived in Holland, Germany and Switzerland. But when he came to Russia, he realized that he was very comfortable in this country. The jazzman admits that he does not tolerate heat well and loves snow and frost.
Charlie Armstrong's personal life is covered in a thick veil of mystery. It is unknown whether he was married or whether he had children. But now the singer and musician’s heart is free, and he claims that he is not averse to marrying a Russian woman.
Charlie Armstrong | Heated discussions on the Internet revolved around the participation of an artist named Charlie Armstrong in Channel One’s most popular project, “The Voice.” The man appeared at the blind auditions, introducing himself as a relative of the world jazz legend and performing Barry White's immortal hit My first my last my everything. Life managed to find out who the man who got into the Russian music show really is by discovering his real documents.
Having heard the first notes of Charlie Armstrong's singing, the mentors began to wonder whether it was Barry White or not. However, only Polina Gagarina turned to the man, thereby selecting the vocalist for her team. Charlie told the audience and mentors his story that he came to the show from the Caribbean, his mother from Suriname, and his father from Barbados. When Grigory Leps finally decided to clarify whether this was Louis Armstrong’s nephew, in response he received a statement that was unexpected for everyone: “No, grandson.” Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the artist was already behaving like a world star. According to the project participants, during the casting the foreigner kept himself apart, demonstrating a contemptuous attitude towards others.
At the same time, members of his support group invited all the contestants to take a photo “with the star,” one of the casting participants told Life. - To be honest, everyone behind the scenes had serious doubts about the authenticity of his relationship with Louis Armstrong.
Doubts were confirmed when Life obtained the passport of a vocal show participant. According to the document, he was not Charlie Armstrong from the Caribbean, but a 46-year-old citizen of the Netherlands, a certain Charlie Parnell. As Life managed to find out, “Armstrong’s grandson” appeared in the capital's crowd long before his visit to the show "The Voice". The singer’s calling card at social events was the performance of Louis Armstrong’s famous compositions in the same manner, with an identical voice timbre. The man skillfully diluted his speech with heart-warming stories about his star relative.The legend about the relationship with the world star was believed not only by ordinary people, but also by representatives of show business. For example, DJ Smash released a joint video with a black artist. Life contacted Charlie Armstrong's former PR manager, who admitted to having a fake birth certificate for the artist.
“I am ashamed of my professionalism and reputation, for this work with a swindler,” the ex-director of Armstrong, who asked not to use his last name, told Life. - When Charlie asked me: “Do you have anything to do with that same Louis?”, the answer was ambiguous: “It’s up to you to decide what you think, so it will be.” This immediately alerted me, and then I learned that the birth certificate that Charlie is so proud of is fake.
According to promoters who worked with “Armstrong’s grandson,” during his four years of work in the capital, he replaced several Russian-speaking PR people and directors: people were fired as soon as they started asking too many questions.
“Charlie made everyone happy,” the director shared his memories of working with “Armstrong,” “He sings really well, always live, his voice really cannot be distinguished from Armstrong. But he only looks like a parodist akin to Galkin or Penkin. Charlie is a very inadequate person. He allowed himself to constantly yell at everyone, swear and throw tantrums over trifles.
Doubts about the existence of Louis Armstrong’s grandson are supported by materials in the foreign press. Thus, authoritative foreign publications Daily Mail and New York Times, including the official website of the Louis Armstrong house-museum, report that the musician and his wives did not have children, pointing to the possible infertility of the jazz legend. What is known for certain is that Armstrong established guardianship over the three-year-old mentally ill son of his cousin’s daughter, who died shortly after giving birth, but the man also had no children. It is also noteworthy that Charlie Armstrong does not tour in his homeland, performing only in Russia and Eastern Europe. At the same time, according to the singer’s ex-directors, Charlie is in great demand among representatives of the business elite who want to enjoy his velvety voice at their corporate events and birthdays.
Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong is believed to have been born on August 4, 1901. At the same time, the musician himself did not know exactly when he was born, and chose US Independence Day - July 4, 1900 - as his birthday.
The family into which Louis Armstrong was born can hardly be called prosperous. Their father abandoned them immediately after the birth of their second child, their younger sister Beatrice, and Mayann’s mother, who did not know any craft, worked as a laundress. The black boy grew up in complete poverty, like many in the disadvantaged area of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Childhood
The mother was constantly busy, so most of the time the abandoned children were with their grandmother Josephine. As soon as Louis entered elementary school, life became especially difficult, because his mother’s craft almost ceased to generate income. Then the boy began to look for all sorts of part-time jobs in order to at least eat tolerably.
Louis Armstrong did not know the exact date of his birth He had to work as a newspaper delivery boy, a salesman, he transported coal to the red light district, which was famous for its bars, cafes and restaurants, where you could always meet many musicians. It was then that Louis became interested in music.
At the age of 7, the boy worked for a Jewish family who treated him like their own son. Until his death, Armstrong remembered their kindness, and in memory of them he wore a Star of David around his neck.
Louis Armstrong in his living room Having reached the age of 11, the boy, in love with music, dropped out of school and together earned his living by performing simple melodies. Louis learned to play the trumpet very quickly. He repeated almost all the compositions he heard, since he was absolutely not trained in musical notation.
According to Louis Armstrong himself, he owed his amazing learning ability to the complete deprivation of life in New Orleans. In order not to find yourself without food, without a roof over your head, or to avoid being caught by local merchants for stealing food, you had to spin around and come up with tricks.
The youth of Louis Armstrong
The teenager was not at all of a gentle disposition, so he often ended up in the police station. One day, because of his recklessness, he ended up in jail right on New Year's Eve 1913. The reason was a fleeting desire to shoot with the pistol he found from his mother. This prank served as the reason for Louis’ placement in a boarding school for troubled teenagers.
Louis Armstrong grew up as a difficult teenager Louis didn’t worry about this for long, because now he had enough free time to devote himself entirely to his favorite pastime. It was then that he began performing in a brass band, playing the cornet, tambourine and altohorn, and firmly decided to become a musician.
Debut on the jazz stage
After returning to the city, the first thing he did was learn to read music, touring on ships in the summer - the musicians willingly agreed to help the novice trumpeter. Since 1918, he actively played in various musical groups in New Orleans and Chicago.
The successful career of the great Satchmo began in the King Oliver Orchestra In 1922, the talented boy was invited to the most popular Chicago jazz band as a second cornetist. Participation in King Oliver's orchestra was a powerful impetus to success for Louis Armstrong.
In 1932, Louis was invited to perform at the Palladium Theater in London. There he had a chance to meet the editor of the English magazine Melody Maker, Mathieson Brooks. Unknowingly, the journalist distorted Armstrong's New Orleans nickname Satchelmouth and called him Sachmo. The jazzman was not upset at all; on the contrary, he liked the new one more than the old one.
Personal life of Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong with his second wife Lil Hardin Louis's personal life was very eventful. First he married a Creole prostitute, Daisy Parker, but this marriage did not last long, until 1924. Having barely reached the age of 23, he threw in his lot with his jazz band colleague Lil Hardin. Later, this strong-willed woman insisted on a solo career as a musician.
In 1938, at the peak of his career, he married dancer Lucille Wilson, with whom he lived until his death.
Solo career
Arriving in New York, Louis achieved a special style of playing the trumpet - precise passages and lively improvisations made him one of the most sought-after musicians. In addition, his raspy voice became the most recognizable in New Orleans. Armstrong is a pioneer of scat - vocal improvisation using the voice as a musical instrument.
Armstrong with his Hot Five quintet They started talking about him as a rising star. Already at the age of 24, he recorded his first Hot Five album, inviting talented jazz performers to collaborate - trombonist Kid Ory, clarinetist Johnny Dodds, banjo player Johnny St. Cyr and pianist Lil Hardin. These recordings have become classics of jazz music. A year later, Armstrong already led his own orchestra, which performed repertoire in the style of hot jazz.
At the age of 26, Louis began a life of touring - a series of European tours starting in 1933 made him a world-class star. He was invited to act in films, participate in television programs and speak on the radio. In 1947, the vocalist sang on the same stage with Louis Armstrong in the musical New Orleans: performing with her idol was a long-time dream of the singer.
Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday Health problems and death
In 1936, Louis Armstrong's autobiography, Swing That Music, was published, in which the most famous jazz trumpeter spoke about his difficult life, the hardships he endured and his first success on the jazz stage.
At the same time, he underwent surgery on his upper lip - the musician’s professional activities led to deformation and tissue rupture. In addition, in an attempt to remove the hoarseness from his voice, Louis Armstrong underwent surgery on his vocal cords.
Louis Armstrong and Barbra Streisand Even after suffering a heart attack in 1959, Louis Armstrong did not stop his concert activities, but he still began to perform less often. During this period, he took part in the musical “Hello, Dolly!” (Hello, Dolly) along with . Their composition of the same name reached number one in the American charts.
The greatest jazzman, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, died on June 6, 1971 from heart failure. On this day, a wave of universal condolences swept across the world: many print media, including the Moscow Izvestia, published news about the passing of the jazz trumpeter.
Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby Louis Armstrong's legacy
In the 1950s, the US State Department unofficially awarded Louis Armstrong the title of "Ambassador of Jazz" and offered to sponsor his trip to the USSR, but the king of jazz trumpet's visit to the Soviet Union never took place. When asked why he refused to come, Armstrong replied: “I have a wonderful life in music, but I feel like any other black man.”
In 1954, his second autobiography, Satchmo, was released. My Life in New Orleans. And in 1957, Louis Armstrong and he recorded the album Summertime, which included.
During the performance of the song "What a Wonderful World" The great man’s last hit was the song What a Wonderful World, full of love for life. This hit was written in 1967, and 32 years later, Satchmo's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. We invite you to find out about in Russia and abroad.
Louis Armstrong
If anyone should be called Mister Jazz, it's Louis Armstrong...
Duke Ellington
Mr. Jazz was born from a short marriage between a turpentine factory stoker and a washerwoman, who later became a whore. At birth he received the name Louis Daniel Armstrong, which, according to New Orleans Creole custom, was shortened to Louis.
Louis didn’t know his birthday, so when it was necessary, he simply pointed his calloused black finger at Independence Day - the 4th of July, when he celebrated his birthday - along with his country. Louis was wrong - not even with the day or year of birth, thinking that he was born in the first year of the new, twentieth century. Later, from church books, it was possible to find out that he always added almost a whole year to himself.
When Louis was five years old, his father left their family. Mainen - that was his mother's name - gave him and his sister Beatrice to be raised by their grandmother in order to be able to earn at least something. When her affairs improved a little, she took him to New Orleans again, but did not pay much attention to the boy. Around the age of seven, he moved to live in the house of Lithuanian Jewish emigrants Karnofsky, who took pity on the boy.
His childhood was spent in Storyville, one of the poorest black neighborhoods in New Orleans, next to pubs, brothels and dance halls, from where jazz thundered with might and main.
His interest in music awoke quite early. Already at the age of five, while running behind processions or hanging around in church, he tried to recognize hymns and other works, and to distinguish the instruments accompanying the singing.
There was always a catastrophic shortage of money, and Louis worked as best he could - he sold newspapers on the streets, delivered coal, and when he grew up a little, he worked in the port, unloading ships.
It is impossible to say for sure whether Satchmo (short-mouthed, mouth-like-fur - Armstrong’s nickname, from the English Satchel Mouth) knew how to play when, at the age of 12, at a city New Year’s party, he pointed a police gun pulled out from the trousers of a cop who had slept with one of Mainen’s clients. by his mother.
It is known for certain that by the age when he decided to do this, Louis had already been singing in a small black ensemble for some time. After thinking a little, Sachmo held his breath and pulled the trigger.
Louis then did not become a killer by pure chance - “if someone fired, apparently they didn’t hit.” But no one was going to leave the black boy unpunished, and for eighteen months he ended up in the Wayf’s Home colony - something like a shelter for “colored” street children. The colony had a small brass band, where young Louis entered. There he mastered the game - first on the tambourine, and then on the cornet - helped by his ear for music developed over the years of singing in an ensemble. The orchestra's repertoire consisted of popular pop songs, polkas, some reggae and marches, but Louis was seriously fascinated by the game, and by the end of his imprisonment he firmly decided to become a musician.
No sooner said than done. By the age of sixteen, Louis Daniel was already playing in local clubs and bars, using instruments borrowed from familiar musicians. However, Sachmo does not limit himself to bars, playing wherever he can - in the gyms of local schools, at holidays, in dance halls - in a word, everywhere. By 1917, Louis had put together his own jazz band. His first teacher was Joe King Oliver, the best cornet player in New Orleans in those years. After Oliver's departure, in 1918, on the recommendation of him, he became part of the team of the famous trombonist Kid Ory. At the same time, Sachmo plays in the Jazz-E-Sazz Band with Fats Marable, who works on steamships plying the Mississippi in the summer. Marable teaches him the basics of solfeggio - until the early 20s, Louis played exclusively by ear.
Not too much is known about his personal life during this period. Louis's companion and first wife is the pretty Creole Daisy Parker, a prostitute like his mother. However, they were together for quite a short time.
In 1922, his first teacher, King Oliver, remembered him. Having established himself in Chicago, King invites Armstrong to join him and takes him on as a second cornetist in the Creole Jazz Band, one of the most prominent bands in the city, playing in the large Lincoln Gardens restaurant. It is difficult to overestimate the school that this band gave in the career of Louis Armstrong. Sachmo spent two years in Chicago, and all this time Oliver took care of his ward. In the future, Armstrong would refer to him as “the great master of the early jazz era,” and credit Oliver with more than his musical success.
Along with Joe King, the young musician is influenced by Jazz-E-Sazz Band pianist Lil Hardin, who, by the way, has a classical musical education. They begin an affair. In 1924, Armstrong married her, and after some persuasion on her part, he moved to New York, joining Fletcher Henderson's orchestra.
This move, the change of band, coupled with the change from cornet to trumpet, bore fruit. Armstrong's popularity begins to come. His fiery solos attract the attention of the public, and his own style begins to emerge in the music. At first, in addition to the traditional black richness, Louis amazes with original improvisations. This is new, this is unusual - after all, jazz of that time was only Negro folk music in an orchestral sound, and the fact that the genre was subsequently enriched with free improvisations was largely due to Armstrong.
Since November 1925, Louis has been recording his studio projects - “Hot Five” and “Hot Seven”. The recordings are a great success. In 1927, he led the Hot Five orchestra he created (with the participation of his wife Lil Hardin).
In the late twenties, he also performed as a duet with Earl Hines, toured the country - participated in Hollywood filming, traveled around California with the Leon Elkins Orchestra, and then played in New York with the Duke Ellington and L. Russell Orchestra.
It was during this period that he tried to work with scat - for the first time when recording “Heebie Jeebies”. Scat are onomatopoeias of various kinds that were sung by him instead of words. With Scat, Armstrong takes the Negro style of imitating the sound of instruments to the maximum, wheezing, choking on words, sounds, shouting something, laughing, laughing and saying “oh, yes!” The inseparability of the sound of the trumpet and the onomatopoeia of the singer - this is Armstrong’s unique “handwriting”.
The success of scat improvisations pushed Louis to the next step - vocals. It must be said that Armstrong had no vocal abilities. But when at concerts he began to sing along to something in between trumpet solos, he suddenly discovered the public’s increased attention to precisely these moments. And he began to sing.
From the absence of a voice, Armstrong managed to create a special type of vocal, becoming the creator of that vocal system, which (to varying degrees) was resorted to after him by almost everyone who sang hoarsely - from Utesov to Vysotsky or Morrison.
As Louis delved deeper into the vocal jungle, literally breaking through it with his guttural vibracto, his attitude towards the act of singing also changed. Like a Baptist preacher, he pours out comments, argues, argues with the singing, with the text, and plays up his surprise at some lines. This is – and less – but already disproportionately more than singing.
From a trumpet player, he gradually turns into a singer, playing along with himself on the trumpet.
In 1929, the Armstrongs finally moved to New York. Armstrong's scat is rapidly becoming a fashion statement. Particularly successful is the composition “West End Blues” from 1928, which many critics consider the best thing in all of early jazz.
In the late 1920s, Armstrong stopped playing the cornet.
In the emerging era of big bands, Armstrong increasingly focused on sweet music - the popular dance music of the time, introducing into it a bright style, swing and other techniques borrowed from hot jazz.
A new wave of popularity was brought to him by his participation in the revue “Hot Chocolate,” staged on Broadway. Armstrong fashion is literally sweeping Harlem. Due to profuse sweating, Louis holds a handkerchief on stage - and all the youth of Harlem wear handkerchiefs. Armstrong folds his hands on his stomach - well, half of Harlem's youth simply need to relearn how to sit with their leg forward and their hands folded on their stomach with the obligatory handkerchief.
It must be said that in the early thirties, Louis Armstrong was popular mainly in black neighborhoods. This situation changes after his triumphant tours of Europe.
Since 1933 he performed in France, England, Holland and Scandinavia. Louis also visited North Africa. These tours make him a national star in the USA, and the popularity of him and jazz in Europe - even before the tour - quite surprised the musician.
Between his tours, he gives performances with the orchestras of Kid Ory, Chick Webb and Charlie Gaines, plays and sings in theaters, appears on the radio and participates in filming.
In the early thirties, his union with Lillian fails, Armstrong marries again and again unsuccessfully. Only his marriage to dancer Lucille Wilson, with whom he lived until his death, would be crowned with success.
Louis writes and publishes his first autobiography, Swing That Music, in 1936. The period from the mid to late thirties was the peak of Louis's musical career, but on this crest of success the first problems appeared. He undergoes a series of operations on his lip, which was deformed by the mouthpiece of the trumpet, and surgery on his ligaments (trying to eliminate his hoarseness).
In 1935, Armstrong got a new manager - Joe Glaser, who put a lot of effort into his promotion. Until 1947, Louis worked with the then popular big bands, and then Joe organized for him a small band, the All-Stars, with a more jazzy sound. The orchestra initially featured Sid Catlett, Barney Bigard and Jack Teagarden, the stars of that time. Subsequently, little-known musicians became sidemen of the project, who quickly gained popularity under Armstrong’s wing.
Armstrong's records are increasingly going gold. “Record of the Year” “Blueberry Hill” is followed by “Mack the Knife” from “The Threepenny Opera” by Brecht and Kurt Weill.
There are probably no jazz stars that Satchmo hasn’t played with. Among them are Cole, Billy Kyle, Velma Middleton, Bing Crossby, Trummy Young, Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday and, of course, Ella Fitzgerald. He also participated in jazz festivals - in Nice, in 1948, in Newport, in 1956 - 1959. gg. and in large concerts at the Metropolitan Opera and Town Hall.
Mainstream jazz, which grew out of the orchestral performance of ghetto folk music, is Louis's true creation. It is built on swing, improvisation and is incredibly adaptive. This confirms Louis's collaboration with performers of swing, modern jazz, Dixieland, symphonic jazz, gospel songs and spirituals, with blues musicians and school choirs.
By the mid-50s, Louis Armstrong was one of the most famous musicians in the world, and he also starred in more than 50 films. The US State Department awarded him the unofficial title of “Ambassador of Jazz” and repeatedly sponsored his world tours, but when asked to go to the USSR, Louis replied: “People would ask me what was going on in my country. What could I answer them? I have a wonderful life in music, but I feel like any other black man.”
In 1959, Louis suffered his first heart attack, but despite his problems, he did not quit the stage. In the 1960s, he became interested in gospel music, but did not forget jazz. Together with Barbra Streisand, he takes part in the musical “Hello, Dolly!”, the track from which took first place in the charts in May 1964, beating the Beatles. Louis Armstrong's last hit is considered to be "What a Wonderful World".
At the end of the 60s, Louis noticeably gave up, but he did not leave the stage again. In 1971, he sang on TV in a show with Bing Crosby, then played in New York's Waldorf Astoria, but another heart attack put him in the hospital. On July 5, Armstrong asks to assemble his orchestra for rehearsal, and on July 6, his kidneys fail and he dies. His body, by order of Nixon, is displayed in the National Guard arena, and the solemn funeral is broadcast throughout the country.
Many newspapers around the world, even Izvestia, published the news of his death on the front page that day.
The black son of a whore, Satchmo, the “creator of American art” or simply the Master of Jazz, at the end of his life wondered whether the Archangel Gabriel would like his music? I think now he knows the answer.
