A Note From Bob

Tuesday morning, and a milestone worth marking. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans 125 years ago today, August 4, 1901, in a neighborhood so rough the locals called it the Battlefield. He left it with a cornet, a grin, and a sound nobody had ever heard before. Today's featured quiz is the man himself: Louis Armstrong, 15 questions. And when you finish, a Legends of Jazz quiz on the giants who played beside him is waiting further down. Pour the coffee.

Trivia Question of the Day

The answer is at the bottom of this email.

Today's Featured Quiz

He learned the cornet in a home for wayward boys, blew his way out of New Orleans, and rewired the sound of American music with a handful of recordings in the late 1920s. The Hot Five, the white handkerchief, the gravel voice, the nickname that began as Satchelmouth: thirteen questions on the trumpet player who became the most recognizable musician on Earth. How well do you know Satchmo?

The Answer

Armstrong recorded it in December 1963 as a quick favor for a Broadway show he had never seen, then went back on the road and forgot about it. The single climbed all spring while Beatlemania roared, and on May 9, 1964, it took the No. 1 spot, ending the Beatles' 14-week lock on the top of the chart. Armstrong was 62, the oldest artist ever to reach No. 1 at the time, a record he held for nearly six decades. Today's second quiz is just below.

On This Day

On this day in 1901, Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans. He never knew it. For his entire life he gave his birthday as July 4, 1900, and America celebrated it right along with him. Only in the 1980s did researcher Tad Jones find the baptismal record at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church proving the true date: August 4, 1901. The man is today's featured quiz. The world he made possible, Ellington and Basie, Ella and Billie, Miles and Monk, is your second quiz: the Legends of Jazz.