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Happy Birthday Louis Armstrong!

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Portrait of Louis Armstrong, Aquarium, New York, N.Y., ca. July 1946. Photo by William P. Gottlieb

In the Muse does not ordinarily send two missives into the blogosphere in a single day, but we could not let the day pass without honoring the man playing trumpet on the banner that heads every page of this blog.  Jazz legend Louis Armstrong was born on this day in 1901. His influence can be heard not only throughout the history of jazz but of popular music as we know it, in singers as diverse as Carol Channing and Tom Waits. What a wonderful world it would be if the two of them recorded a duet.  Pay homage to Satchmo with the Hot Five recording of “West End Blues,” which opens with one of the most revered solos in the history of jazz,  and remember his legacy today with this photo from the William P. Gottlieb Collection.

The Music Division houses a number of  Louis Armstrong manuscripts deposited for copyright, including the 1926 composition “Gate Mouth.” See more photos of Louis Armstrong in the William P. Gottlieb Collection in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. And remember, you can now view photos from the Gottlieb Collection on Flickr.

Comments (3)

  1. This post makes me happy! Thank you Pat 🙂

  2. Wynton Marsallis had it right when he said, “Pops was bad.”

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