Given the doom and gloom press with which we are constantly bombarded, we often struggle to grasp positive news.  For the next few minutes, you can forget what’s burning on your browser’s home page and the screaming headlines in the newspapers.   Instead, settle in to read something uplifting: the story of a beloved Big Easy musician who, like many of us, tussled with life’s adversities before he triumphed above them.  That musician was Louis (pronounced “Louie”) Daniel Armstrong, whom the world knew by his nickname, “Satchmo.”

On August 4, 1901 in New Orleans’ red light district known as Storyville, Louis was born to William Armstrong and Mary Albert, better known as Maryanne.  As the grandson of slaves and the child of an impoverished couple, the boy’s life seemed destined to play out in want and obscurity.  His father abandoned the family while Louis was an infant.  Trying to make ends meet, Maryanne juggled cleaning houses, which didn’t pay very well, with walking the streets at night, which paid a bit better but left her children alone at night.

Unable to care for little Louis and his sister, Beatrice Armstrong Collins, Maryanne sent the little ones to live with Louis’ paternal grandmother, Josephine Armstrong.  Without a father figure, the boy spent his youth in a rough, New Orleans neighborhood known as the “Back of Town.”  At the age of five, Louis moved back with his mother and her relatives.   For years, the only time he saw his father was when the man marched in local parades.

Louis’ first introduction to Creole music came by way of the Fisk School for Boys, where he was a student — but only briefly.   Constrained to help support his family, the boy delivered newspapers and did whatever else he could.  Well intended as these efforts were, they were not enough to keep his mother from a life of prostitution.  With no parental supervision, Louis hung out in neighborhood dance halls, listening to bands at Pete LaLa’s club.  The performers included Joe “King” Oliver, who would come to figure prominently in his life, as well as other famous Big Easy musicians.

Whether by fate or providence, at the age of seven, young Louis landed a job with a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant family, the Karnofskys, who owned a junk hauling business.  Moved by the plight of the fatherless boy, the Karnofskys took him in and nurtured him as if he were their blood.  This generosity would become the turning point in Louis’ life.

Living with his new family, he witnessed the anti-Semitism that they suffered at the hands of their neighbors.  Later, this experience would inspire Louis to author, Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family in New Orleans: The Year 1907.  That book told of his learning “how to live — real life and determination.”  Because of his loving relationship with the Karnofskys, the future Satchmo wore the Star of David for the rest of his life.  He also learned to speak fluent Yiddish, a skill that would serve him well when he made his way, in later years, to Hollywood.

It was the Karnofskys who gave a real kick-start Louis’ career.  While making deliveries one day, Louis remarked to Mr. Karnofsky’s son that he longed to have a cornet he saw in a store window, an instrument that he could not possibly afford.   Mr. Karnofsky overheard this, and overheard it every time he and the boys passed that store.  One day, the man purchased the cornet for young Louis, who was thrilled and who promised to pay the man back with hard work.  Today, The Karnofsky Project, a non-profit organization (http://www.karnofsky.org/), donates used musical instruments to children who cannot otherwise afford a musical education.

Before the Karnofskys’ intervention, Louis was still hanging out on the streets with the wrong crowd.   Inevitably, he quit school.  Eager for pocket money, he joined a quartet of boys that busked for coins of New Orleans.  A cornet player named Bunk Johnson saw something in the kid, and taught him to play the instrument by ear.  Johnson then got him his first gig, playing at Dago Tony’s Tonk in New Orleans.  Looking back upon his youth, Louis said of his worst times, “Every time I closed my eyes, blowing that instrument, it has given me something to live for.”

Living on the streets, he had a few run-ins with the law.  The worst and the best of them came when he was 11.  On New Year’s Eve, Louis, who had never used a gun before, borrowed one from a friend.  At midnight, he shot it into the air, as was customary in the Big Easy to usher in a new year.  Despite custom, the boy had ticked off the authorities one time too many.  He was arrested and placed in the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs.

There, under the under the direction of the home’s administrator, Captain Joseph Jones, Louis gained self-discipline as well as some musical training.  Under the tutelage of Professor Peter Davis, he became the leader of the Home Band that played around New Orleans.  By the time he’d turned thirteen, he had begun to attract attention as a cornet player. A year later, he was released from the home to live with his father and new stepmother, but that did not last long; he was then bounced back to his mother.  Finally, he returned to the streets.

Eventually, Louis landed a steady gig.  In the evenings, he played coronet at Henry Ponce’s dancehall; by day, he hauled coal.  But his heart was always in the music.  He continued to march and play in the parades that have marked New Orleans’ rich history.  Whenever he found a spare moment, Louis enjoyed the live music of Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, Kid Ory, and Joe King Oliver, all of whom had a hand in helping him become a polished musician.

The skills he learned would later earn him entrance into the Fate Marable band, a group that toured on steamboats up and down the Mississippi River.  Of this experience, Louis had said, he said, “It’s like going to the university,” because for the first time, he learned to work with written arrangements.

While not quite seventeen, in the year 1918, Louis married Daisy Parker.  The couple adopted a mentally disabled boy, Clarence, who was actually Louis’ second cousin; the boy’s mother had died in childbirth.  Although the marriage was short lived, Louis would spend the rest of his life caring for Clarence.

In 1919, Louis joined Kid Ory’s band, the hottest jazz ensemble in New Orleans.  Louis replaced horn player Joe Oliver, who’d decided to move to Chicago.

When Louis was twenty, his musical prowess was becoming evident. In addition to reading music, he was good enough to solo on the trumpet.  He was the first jazzman to inject his own personality into the instrument, creating and interspersing skatzing with his playing and singing.  Skatzing or scat singing is a style in which Louis spliced non-sequitor into the lyrics and used his voice to imitate instruments.  His later recording of Heebie Jeebies, featuring scatzing, revolutionized jazz and brought this hot-cool new sound to the world.  It influenced musicians, songwriters, and singers for decades to follow.  A handful of these were Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Van Morrison, Bono, and Taylor Hicks.

In 1922, Louis’ old mentor, Joe Oliver, extended his hand, asking Satchmo to come to Chicago to play with his Creole Jazz Band.  The Windy City had become the jazz capital of the world, a particularly auspicious occurrence as the booming economy enabled people to spend money freely on entertainment.  With the Creole Jazz Band the most popular in Chicago, Louis Armstrong’s pay was good.  For the first time in his life, he had his own apartment with a private bath and did not have to supplement his income with another job.

The following year, as the second cornet player in Oliver’s band, he was recognized as a phenomenon in his field.  He won challengers that included blowing two hundred High C’s in a row!  A good friend, Bix Beiderbecke, whose musical career mirrored that of Armstrong, introduced him to Hoagy Carmichael.  In the years to follow, this introduction would lead to collaborations with Carmichael.  If you are interested in learning more about Bix, the film, Young Man with a Horn, starring Kirk Douglas, will enlighten you.

About the time that Louis met Carmichael, he “jumped the broom” again and married pianist Lil Hardin, who played in the Creole Jazz Band.  Hardin would become a driving force in his life.  Although he was content to remain in Oliver’s band, Lil urged him to seek better billings and higher pay for his talent.  Louis obliged his wife.  In 1924, accepting an invitation to play with the top African American orchestra in New York City, he parted company with Oliver.

Under the direction of Fletcher Henderson, Louis switched his cornet for a trumpet in order to blend in with tenor sax soloist, Coleman Hawkins. The Henderson Orchestra played in the best venues, such as the Roseland Ballroom.  On occasion, Duke Ellington and his band would come to see Louis perform.  During this time, Armstrong cut many records with Clarence Williams, a pianist and an old friend from New Orleans.  The Williams Blues Five band included singers Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter.

At his Lil’s urgings, Louis once more pulled up roots.  He left Fletcher Henderson and moved back to Chicago to play in his wife’s group, the Lil Hardin Armstrong Band. Billed as “The World’s Greatest Trumpet Player,” Louis began cutting platters under his own name for Okeh Records with his famous Hot Five and then, Hot Seven groups.  They produced hits such as Potato Head Blues, Muggles, and West End Blues: tunes that set jazz standards for many years.

Hot Five and Hot Seven included his old friend from The Big Easy, Kid Ory, on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Johnny St. Cyr, who strummed the banjo, and Lil, who tickled the ivories.  Later, Earl “Fatha” Hines replaced Lil.  Of Louis’ band-leading skills, St. Cyr said, “One felt so relaxed working with him.  He made it a point to feature each individual musician in his arrangements.”  What St. Cyr meant was that Louis encouraged every musician to solo within a song, something that had not been done before in ensemble playing, and something that has since been copied by many a jazz man and woman.

Throughout the 1920’s, the records that Louis and his combos cut provided him with a broader audience for his evolving craft.  Heebie Jeebies was a smash, as was Weatherbird Duet with Earl “Fatha” Hines.  During the recording of Heebie Jeebies, the sheet music flew off its stand.  Instead of stopping the recording (renting a studio was costly), Louis improvised and thus gave birth to scatzing!

After separating from his wife Lil, Louis played with the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra at the Sunset Café.  Joe Glaser, an associate of the infamous Al Capone, managed this club. Eventually, the band, which featured Earl Hines, was renamed Louis Armstrong and His Stompers.  Hines and Armstrong would become fast friends.

After divorcing Lil, Louis took a third wife, Alpha Smith, who was rumored to have married him for his fame and all that went with it.  After a few years, that marriage also ended.

Louis returned to New York, where he played in a pit orchestra for the all-black revue, Hot Chocolate, written by Andy Razaf and Fats Waller.  He also made a cameo appearance in which he sang Ain’t Misbehaving’.  Louis stole the show, and the song became a hit.

The following year was climatic and devastating. 1930 marked the end of the Roaring Twenties and the collapse of Wall Street. In an economy gasping for breath, the entertainment industry floundered and many bands dissolved.  In spite of it all, Louis continued his vocal career with his interpretation of Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust and Sydney Arozin and Carmichael’s Lazy River.  These two recordings, which feature skatzing, are collector’s items.

With the music industry shrinking, Louis moved to Los Angeles, where he was employed at the New Cotton Club.  The music attracted Bing Crosby and other Hollywood celebrities.  These connections led to Louis’ appearance, in 1931, in the film Ex-Flame.  A short while later, he returned to Chicago, only to be told by the mob to leave town.  He didn’t have to be told twice!  Louis returned to New Orleans to be welcomed by old friends.  He sponsored a local baseball team known as Armstrong’s Secret Nine, and had a cigar named after him.  Soon afterward, he began to tour the country, but was shadowed by the Mob.  He fled to Europe, where he toured to great success, and when things cooled down somewhat, he came back to the States.

Joe Glaser, Louis’ ex-manager, formed the Armstrong Big Band.  Upon Louis’ return to the U.S. however, Joe’s first task was to help the musician-singer straighten out his legal issues, Mob mess, and debts.  Louis had other troubles, however, with his fingers and lips — troubles brought on by his radical style of blowing the horns.  Forced to put down his instrument, he concentrated on his vocal prowess. Hollywood came knocking again in 1936, when he appeared in Pennies from Heaven, which starred Bing Crosby. In 1937, he replaced vaudeville crooner Rudy Vallee to become the first black person to host a national broadcast for CBS.

In 1942, after what seemed a lifetime on the road, he settled down in Queens, New York, where took a new bride, Lucille. It was during this period that he recorded Hoagy Carmichael’s Rockin’ Chair for Okeh Records.

In the years to follow, after playing more than three hundred gigs a year, changes in the industry made it difficult to maintain a sixteen-piece touring band.  Joe Glaser dissolved the Armstrong Big Band on August 13, 1947 and returned to the smaller format with the establishment of a six-piece group.  Called Louis Armstrong and his All Stars, the band headlined at Billy Berg’s Supper Club and featured Earl Hines, Jack Teagarden, and other top Swing and Dixieland musicians.  With the formation of this band, Louis made many records and appeared in more than thirty films.  On February 21, 1949, he became the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

At the age of 63, in 1964, Louis recorded Hello Dolly, a chart-buster that dislodged the Beatles from their #1 Billboard spot.  Sponsored by the U.S. State Department, he also successfully toured Africa, Europe, and Asia, thus earning the nickname “Ambassador Satch”.

He came by his nicknames of Satchel Mouth and Satch because of his large jaw and mouth, which resembled, you guessed it, a satchel.  In 1932, in London, Percy Brooks, editor of Melody magazine, greeted him with, “Hello Satchmo”, and the new nickname stuck.  Louis was also known as “Dipper Mouth” and in later years, was called “Pops” by close friends and fellow musicians.

During the Civil Rights movement, Louis was unjustly labeled an Uncle Tom by segregationists as well as some younger musicians, including Miles Davis, because he sometimes played for segregated audiences.  The fact was, Louis was the first black jazz musician to play for white audiences, and the first to be embraced by international fans.  When the incident in Little Rock, Arkansas occurred in 1957, in which a black child was denied admission to a white school, Louis spoke up publicly against it, calling for the abolition of such practices.

He hated prejudice, but he loved food. While trying to maintain his weight, Louis produced songs such as Cheesecake, Cornet Chop Suey, and Struttin’ with Some Barbecue.  Of all the cuisines, he preferred that of New Orleans.  Regularly, he signed his letters, “Red beans and ricely yours.”

Amongst many of his best-loved hits were Stardust, Ain’t Misbehaving’, Dream a Little Dream of Me, You Rascal You, Stompin at the Savoy, When The Saints Go Marching In, and What a Wonderful World.  That last song was featured in the 1982 film, Good Morning Vietnam.  It starred Robin Williams as real-life DJ and U.S. Army Sergeant Adrian Cronauer, who injected some joy into servicemen’s lives with good music.  Widely diverse artists, including country music legend Roy Clark, iconic Hawaiian singer “Iz”, and punk-rock god Joey Ramone have covered What a Wonderful World.

When asked about his religion, Satchmo would say, “I was raised a Baptist, always wore the Star of David, and was friends with the Pope.”  Records indicate that he was baptized Catholic at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in New Orleans and wore the Star of David to honor the Karnofsky family.  Although he did not consider himself Catholic, he managed a coup that many Catholics ever have: he gained audiences with two Popes, Pius XII and Paul VI.

In addition to being an innovative musician, Louis was an extremely generous man who put everyone in his presence at ease with his infectious smile.

On July 6, 1971, God called Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong home.  His passing left a void in the world of music.  Amongst the celebrities who attended his funeral were Governor Rockefeller and Mayor Lindsay of New York, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Guy Lombardo, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Harry James, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Earl Wilson, Alan King, Johnny Carson, David Frost, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett, and Buddy Hackett — all of whom served as honorary pallbearers.

At the service, Peggy Lee sang The Lord’s Prayer, Al Hibbler sang Nobody Knows the Troubles I’ve Seen, and long time friend Fred Robbins gave the eulogy.  Satchmo was interred in Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York.

The Biblical quote, “Spread your bread upon the waters and it will return one thousand fold,” tells the story of the life of this amazing man.  Satchmo touched millions of fans worldwide and influenced generations of musicians.  Although he was childless, his legacy lives on through his gifts that keep on giving.  I hope that when Satchmo arrived at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter and a band of angels greeted him with a rousing rendition of When The Saints Go Marching In.