Louis Armstrong | Jazz Great Trumpeter, Vocalist, and Composer

Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. Louis was one of two children. His father, Willie Armstrong was a turpentine worker. His mother Mary Ann Armstrong, was the grandchild to two slave workers in the south. Louis's parents separated when he was five years old, and he lived with his sister, mother, and grandmother in a rundown area of New Orleans. This area was known as the "Battlefield" because of the fighting, gambling, shooting, and drunkenness, that seemed to be the norm at that time in the area.

Louis always loved music, and as a young man, he sang on the streets with friends. In 1913 Louis got into some trouble, and was arrested for firing a gun into the air on New Year's Eve. As punishment, he was sent to the Waif's Home reform school, where he took up the cornet. You can guess what happened from there. After he was released from the reform school, he worked many different jobs and began performing with some local groups. He was soon befriended by Joe "King" Oliver. Joe gave Louis trumpet lessons, and Armstrong joined Oliver in Chicago, Illinois, in 1922. In 1924, he moved to New York City to play with Fletcher Henderson's band. In the fall of 1925, he finally organized his own band and began to recording. The result is one of the greatest series in the history of jazz, the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings.

As Louis gained fame, he was involved in many areas of innovation. He basically invented scat singing. It's said that this use of vocal syllables to create music originated from Louis dropping his sheet music while recording a song, and could not remember the lyrics. Scat singing was born. In a way, Louis also invented "rapping" as he refined the scat style.

During the 1930s Armstrong had achieved international fame. He toured Europe as a soloist and singer in 1932. He soon began travelling all over the world to perform, including Africa, Japan, Australia, and South America. He also appeared in numerous films. One of the favorites is a 1957 documentary titled Satchmo the Great. For almost forty more years, Louis continued to dazzle audiences and lighten spirits wherever he went. He is considered by many as the father of jazz, and teacher of all the greats that followed him.

Louis died in New York City on July 6, 1971.