Louis Armstrong was one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th Century thanks to the way he improvised with his trumpet. Among non-jazz fans, "Satchmo" is best known for singing ballads like "What a Wonderful World".
Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. By the mid-20s he had moved to Chicago and was recording seminal jazz standards such as "Weatherbird", "Muggles" and "West End Blues". His trumpet improvisations on records such as these led to jazz shifting from a musical style that involved many musicians playing a set tune together to a form that concentrated on solo improvisation. He also helped to popularise the vocal style known as scat singing, which in turn had a profound effect on young singers like Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald. Among mainstream audiences he is most famous for hit songs such as "What a Wonderful World", "Hello Dolly" and "We Have All the Time in the World".
Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack on July 6, 1971; he was 69. Exactly 100 years after the day he was born, New Orleans airport was renamed Louis Armstrong International Airport.
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