Possibly the greatest jazz musician of all time, Louis Armstrong was the first to emerge in jazz and one of the most influential performers in the music's history. As a virtuoso of the trumpet, Louis is responsible for innovations that passed down through popular music into rock and roll.

Armstrong even said that without jazz, there would have been no rock and roll and all forms of popular music from blues to rock would have sounded much poorer without Armstrong's innovations. The recordings with his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles created a new future for jazz with highly emotional improvisations. For this feat, he is revered by jazz fans.

As a singer, Armstrong was the originators of scat singing and his warm vocal style has had a high impact on the way later songs were sung. As an entertainer, his charismatic presence allowed him to break down color borders to become one of the first African-American superstars and a figure that would become America's Jazz Ambassador.

Since his pasting in 1971, Louis' tenor and prowess on the trumpet has influenced countless jazz singers like Louis Prima and Miles Davis.

Posted by Andrew on Friday, 05/10/2013 @ 11:58am