Customer Reviews
Entertaining Overview of the Jazz Legend 
2007-01-13
This documentary on the life of Louis Armstrong, one of the major proponents of the jazz genre of music, is a quick look at how Louis Armstrong developed into a jazz musician as a vocalist, trumpeter, band leader, and arranger.
'Louis Armstrong - Satchmo' starts with Louis's life growing up in New Orleans and how he spent much of his time in an orphan home playing in a band, which is where his skill had room to take off. The documentary follows his move to Chicago and his involvement in the early jazz recordings.
The DVD contains excerpts of live performances and also tracks Louis Armstrong's gradual but swelling rise to fame and how he attained the nickname "Satchmo". Louis, with his love for performing, became a famous musical figure and eventually had the rare achievement of being featured as a performer in many movies. The docu-biography reveals how Louis never lost his lovable, down-to-earth manner, even with the increased size of his audience. Louis was just Louis, and he would always be loved for his smile, his lovable personality, and of course his music.
Containing interviews with Tony Bennett and Wynton Marsalis, 'Louis Armstrong - Satchmo' is a pleaser about a jazz player's rise to become an enormously famous popular entertainer. And he never lost his charm. We love you, Louie.
good documentary 2006-11-10
Great footage, great information. good for middle school and up. mentiones drug use, but doesn't spend much time on it. mostly the music and how he was adored by all!
The best of Satch on DVD (so far), Swiss Krissly yours! 2006-10-18
I would agree that this is by far the best DVD documentaty of Satch so far (the commendable Ken Burns' Satch segment are spread throughout the series, although quite well done). It handles all the major issues (including the rarely discussed issue of Louis Daniel Armstrong's foray into civil rights) and gives a pretty complete portrait of Louis Armstrong the man and what made him so special.
The film clips are excellent. One reviewer complained that these bits are too brief, but I find them pretty satisfying and enjoyable. Complete performance clips of our man are thankfully available on other Cds. And on that note, I'll say Swiss Krissly yours (hardcore Satch fans will dig).
Disappointed 
2006-08-05
I strongly disagree with the other reviews. While the DVD is a good documentary of Louis Armstrong's life, it only has "imbedded" songs, and the menus (indexes) are not set up to go to the songs, so you have to search for them. Unless you enjoy watching the documentary over and over, this is not the way to enjoy his music. I wish I could view the songs without having to shift though a bunch of commentary. I wanted to watch him perform "What a Wonderful World", but it only had about a thirty second clip of that song, and there were no views of Satchmo performing that song . . . it only had a video of people showing their respect at Satchmo funeral. There really was only a couple songs showing Satchmo singing the entire song. Really disappointing throughtout.
Pops at his best 2001-11-08
This biography is very well produced and is worth the money just for the performance scenes. I find myself watching certain segments over and over. Watching Louis and Jack Teagagarden performing Rockin' Chair or the older clips of a young Louis performing in Denmark are just pure joy. A clip from the movie New Orleans with Louis and Billie Holiday is a show-stopper. I absolutely love this DVD and highly recommend it to anyone who is a Louis Armstrong fan.
SATCHMO - Louis Armstrong; Masters of American Music 2000-11-27
Satchmo is a the second DVD in a series of 9 documentaries dealing with classic jazz artists that had a strong influence on the evolution of jazz. This DVD traces Armstrong's life from his upbringing in New Orleans through his travels on the road as a singer, songwriter, and actor, as well as discussing his impact on the civil rights movement. The documentary very capably showed the breadth of Armstrong's talents with footage of Armstrong's appearances in both early and later movies, footage of concert performances spanning 4 decades and even his cameo appearance in a Betty Boop cartoon!!
I found it especially interesting how Armstrong influenced other artists; commentary was given by jazz critics, contemporary peers such as Dexter Gordon and Tony Bennett, and artists he influenced such as Wynton Marsallis. This articulate documentary brought Louis to life, both as an artist as well as a person. I can't wait to get the documentaries on Monk and 'Trane.
Louis Armstrong - Satchmo DVD 
2000-11-22
If you really like Louis Armstrong, I advise you to watch this title.
This title is not to show Louis' concert but to show Louis' whole life. This is a kind of a documentary.
It was a great joy for me to see Louis Armstrong in his childhood. Besides, I was much happier to hear his clear voice in his childhood.
Although the quality of the pictures and the sound is not good enough, I highly recommend you to watch this title if you really like Louis Armstron.
Louis Armstrong - Satchmo DVD 2000-11-22
If you really like Louis Armstrong, I advise you to watch this title.
This title is not to show Louis' concert but to show Louis' whole life. This is a kind of a documentary.
It was a great joy for me to see Louis Armstrong in his childhood. Besides, I was much happier to hear his voice in his childhood.
Although the quality of the pictures and the sound is not good enough, I highly recommend you to watch this title if you really like Louis Armstron.
Outstanding classroom intructional tool 2000-02-24
It's my first semester teaching a general-student Jazz History course, and I wanted something beyond the textbook to get the students involved. I bought this video as a "best-of-all-options" choice, and was bowled over by it's thoroughness and attention to detail. Everything we'd discussed about Armstrong during class was there on the tape, reinforcing my lectures and giving the kids a nice opportunity to both hear AND see the legendary Louis. For pure entertainment alone it was worthwhile, but for instructional purposes I'd consider it a necessity for any future jazz classes I'd teach. I paid $16 bucks for it, but having seen it I think I'd've paid fifty! (Shh! Don't tell Amazon!)
