WICN Artist of the Month, February 2026: Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong was an American trumpeter and vocalist, and one of the most influential figures in the history of jazz. His remarkable career spanned five decades and crossed multiple genres, producing hit songs that remain staples in films, television, and radio to this day.

Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901 and grew up in a neighborhood so dangerous it was called “The Battlefield.” He had to drop out of school after the fifth grade to go to work, and purchased a cornet with the money he made. After being arrested, he was sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys, where he learned how to properly play the cornet and became the leader of the Home’s Brass Band.

Upon being released from the Waif’s Home, Armstrong accepted mentorship from the city’s top cornetist, Joe “King” Oliver and soon after became one of the most popular cornetists in town. Armstrong joined King Oliver’s Chicago-based band in 1922 and started making records with them in 1923. In 1924, he married the band’s pianist, Lillian “Lil” Hardin, who convinced Louis to leave the band and become a solo artist. He didn’t have much success, though, so he moved to New York City to play with Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra—a position that he found to be unsatisfying.

In 1925, Louis Armstrong returned to Chicago and teamed up with several acclaimed musicians to form Louis Armstrong and The Hot Five. Over the course of just 12 months, the group recorded 24 tracks that skyrocketed the band’s popularity. As the ensemble later expanded into The Hot Seven, Armstrong’s stylistic improvisation and expressive vocals helped propel their recordings to critical acclaim, making them some of the most influential records in jazz history.

Jazz is, at its core, an improvised music, where the soloists create new melodic lines or figures based on the structure or melody of the song they are playing.

By the end of the 1920s, many of Armstrong’s contributions to the development of jazz and improvisation were already in evidence. They are almost too numerous to list, but just a few of them include innovating or popularizing the following:

• Moving jazz from a collective improvisation, with many instruments playing improvised passages at once, to a soloist’s music, with individual solos that were structurally coherent, dramatic, and the main event.
• Basing solos on the harmonic structure – chords and chord patterns – as well as soloing based primarily on the melody.
• Mixing complex rhythmic figures into a coherent solo. Armstrong’s solo introduction on “West End Blues” from 1928, is so innovative, and so compelling, that it is still studied by improvisers and listened to with awe these days, almost 100 years after it was recorded. It is still so relevant that a recreation of the solo serves as part of the introduction to Tony Baglio’s “New Orleans Grooves” radio show on WICN.
• Popularizing, if not inventing, the use of rhythmic “nonsense” syllables, known as “scat singing” on jazz vocals, as Armstrong did on his recording of “Heebie Jeebies” in the 1920s.
• Adding a swinging, driving feel to the music, in part by playing with the timing of phrases, beginning them just a bit before the beat of the song or just a bit after the beat.

By the end of the 1920s, Louis Armstrong had also become a household name, especially after he appeared in the Broadway revue “Hot Chocolates.” Throughout the 1930s, Armstrong achieved popularity on the radio, in films, and at live performances around the world. In 1935, he hired Joe Glaser as his manager and experimented with various small groups, big bands, ensembles, and orchestras, showcasing his wisdom and talent all around the country.

As big bands were becoming less popular, Armstrong fronted a small group, called Louis Armstrong and His All Stars, which focused on traditional jazz, in 1947. Both with his group and as a solo artist, Armstrong performed an average of 300 concerts each year, with his frequent tours to all parts of the world earning him the nickname “Ambassador Satch.”

However, the many years of constant touring eventually wore down Armstrong, who suffered multiple heart attacks and kidney disease. In 1968, doctors advised him not to play, but Armstrong continued to practice every day in his Corona, Queens home. He returned to performing in 1970 but it was too much for him, and he passed away in his sleep on July 6, 1971.

Some of his accolades include a posthumous win for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972 and Grammy awards in 1965 for Song of the Year and Best Male Vocal Performance for “Hello, Dolly.” That record also became noted for knocking the Beatles off the top of the pop charts during the peak of Beatlemania. Armstrong has been inducted into nine Halls of Fame, including the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. In 1995, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Louis Armstrong 32-cent commemorative postage stamp.

Beyond his musical talent, Louis Armstrong was a trailblazer in the fight for civil rights. Despite facing criticism in the 1950s for his stage persona, which included comic facial expressions and jokey asides, he boldly condemned the federal government’s response to the Little Rock Nine crisis in 1957. Decades earlier, during the Harlem Renaissance, Armstrong emerged as a cultural icon whose innovative jazz style deeply influenced figures like writer Langston Hughes. Hughes, inspired by Armstrong’s sound and cultural impact, often reflected the rhythm and spirit of jazz in his writing. Celebrated as “The World’s Greatest Trumpet Player,” Armstrong helped bridge racial divides through his widespread popularity, uniting Black and white audiences and reshaping the course of American music and culture.