Satchmo's Centennial

Though he often said he was born on the 4th of July, Louis Armstrong was actually born on August 4th, one hundred years ago today in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Also known as "Satchmo" (short for his nickname "Satchelmouth"), Armstrong's musical legacy forms a cornerstone of the American jazz tradition.

In this whirlgig, artist James Leonard depicted Armstrong playing a heavenly duet with another legendary trumpet player, the angel Gabriel. Leonard created this particular wind machine in honor of the one hundredth birthday of Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962). The former First Lady "is sitting down because it is her birthday … and the other two guys are playing for her." The other two guys, the Archangel Gabriel and Louis Armstrong (1900–71), play their horns in Roosevelt's honor while she waves her arms between them.

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured: James Leonard, born 1949, Wind Machine with Gabriel, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Louis Armstrong, 1984, cut, soldered and patinated copper on wood base, cut and soldered copper wire and sheet with localized liver of sulphur (potassium sulfide) patination, 28 x 18 1/2 x 10 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.