Louis Armstrong was born on this day in 1901. When he was 26, he recorded King Oliver’s “West End Blues†with an opening cadenza that put the world on notice that this new music was an art form to be taken seriously. How big was Armstrong’s impact on the development of jazz in the late 1920s? No one has described it more succinctly than one of his greatest admirers, the cornetist Ruby Braff. Braff said that Armstrong “changed everything.â€
Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Ballroom Five: Earl Hines piano; Jimmy Strong clarinet; Fred Robinson, trombone; Mancy Carr, banjo; Zutty Singleton, drums; Armstrong trumpet and vocal. June 28, 1928.