On August 4, 1901, American trumpeter Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Armstrong famously claimed throughout his life that he was born on the Fourth of July, 1900, a poetic myth designed to bind his identity directly to the birth of the nation. It wasn’t until long after his death that a baptismal registry revealed his true birthdate of August 4, 1901, in a rough New Orleans neighborhood known as “The Battlefield.” His revolutionary approach to extended solo improvisation shifted jazz from a collaborative ensemble style into a soloist’s art form, fundamentally rewriting the rules of modern music.
Image c. 1930 via Alamy
