Timeline Sunday 4 August 1901

Events on Sunday 4 August 1901 2

• 1901 – 1971 Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (4 August 1901 -- 6 July 1971) was an American jazz trumpeter, vocalist and bandleader who is widely considered the most important individual in the history of jazz. Born into poverty in New Orleans, Armstrong transformed the trumpet from a section instrument into a solo voice, invented the jazz cadenza, established the primacy of the improvising soloist, and popularised scat singing. His recordings of the 1920s with the Hot Five and Hot Seven are the foundation documents of jazz. He subsequently became the most beloved entertainer in America -- a global ambassador for jazz and for a particular vision of American optimism that transcended the racism he navigated throughout his life.
• 1901 Louis Armstrong born in New Orleans Louis Armstrong is born on 4 August 1901 in a neighborhood so rough it is nicknamed the Battlefield, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, Willie Armstrong, abandons the family shortly after Louis's birth. His mother, Mary Ann (Mayann) Albert, works as a domestic and occasional prostitute to support Louis and his sister. Louis is raised partly by his paternal grandmother, Josephine. New Orleans in 1901 is the most musically diverse city in America -- a crossroads of African, Caribbean, French, Spanish and Anglo-American cultures from which jazz is in the process of being born.