Louis Armstrong

Born in New Orleans in 1901, he grew up in poverty and learned the cornet at the Colored Waifs Home before rising through the brass bands and riverboats of his city. Moving to Chicago in 1922 to join King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, he made his most consequential early recordings with the Hot Five and Hot Seven between 1925 and 1928, establishing himself as the first great jazz soloist. His career spanned five decades and he died at his home in New York in 1971, his influence on twentieth-century music remaining immeasurable.