Armstrong, Louis
Armstrong, Louis (1900-71), Black US jazz musician and singer nicknamed Satchmo. He first played the cornet at the age of 14 in the Waifs’ Home in New Orleans, where he was sent after firing a gun in the street on New Year’s Eve. He was playing the trumpet professionally by his mid teens, and formed his own band, the Armstrong Hot Five or Hot Seven, in 1924. His style of trumpet-playing in such numbers as `Potato Head Blues’ (1927) and West End Blues’ (1928) became very popular. In later years he turned more to singing, his most famous hit song being ‘What a Wonderful World’.
