Jazz, soul & blues
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), the founding father of jazz, was the first great jazz musician to perform in Montreux. In 1934, aged thirty-three and already world-famous, he gave a concert at the Casino-Kursaal, as part of the “Kursaal Dancing” evenings, during the European tour that established American jazz on the continent. A trumpeter and singer with an unmistakable voice, “Satchmo” thus opened, more than thirty years before the Montreux Jazz Festival was born, the long history of jazz on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Louis Armstrong: jazz in Montreux before the festival
1934: Satchmo at the Casino-Kursaal
In the early 1930s, Louis Armstrong undertook one tour after another, introducing jazz to Europe. It was during one of them, in 1934, that he performed at the Casino-Kursaal in Montreux, as part of the “Kursaal Dancing” evenings.
He was thirty-three and already world-famous. That concert, more than thirty years before the Montreux Jazz Festival was founded in 1967, made “Satchmo” the first great jazz musician to play on the shores of Lake Geneva, and the starting point of a long history.