Claude Luter, 83, French jazz player

PARIS -- Claude Luter, a horn player who hobnobbed with Louis Armstrong and who was one of France's most celebrated jazz musicians, died Friday at a hospital near Paris. He was 83.

Best known for boosting the trans-Atlantic transferral of New Orleans-style jazz to Paris, Mr. Luter suffered complications after a fall, said his son, Eric.

A trumpeter who also took up the clarinet and saxophone, Mr. Luter met Armstrong at the Nice Jazz Festival in 1948. The following year, he began accompanying Sidney Bechet, like Armstrong one of the fathers of New Orleans jazz.

Mr. Luter's last public appearance was in September.