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| On August 4, 1901 one of the greatest Jazz musicians was born. His name was Louis Armstrong and he was the famous trumpet player of the 1920?s. Louis Armstrong was a wonderful person along with being a great musician. Louis was the son of a poor couple named Mayanne and William Armstrong. He was born in the Jazz city of New Orleans, Louisiana. During Louis?s infancy, his father William abandoned the family. Louis had to live the first years of his life with his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong. When Louis turned five he moved into a house with two rooms. His mother and sister lived with him. His sister was Beatrice, but was nicknamed Mama Lucy by the family. When Louis was old enough, he and three other boys formed a vocal quartet. They performed on street corners for tips. In 1907 a family of Russian Jewish immigrants hired him to work on their junk wagon. With the money the family gave him, he purchased his first cornet. December 31, 1912 Louis got hold of a pistol during a New Years Eve celebration and fired it. Unfortunately, even though it was just an innocent action, he was arrested and confined the a home for boys called, The Colored Waifs Home for Boys. When he was sentenced to be sent to the reform school Louis sad. He said that he thought his world was coming to an end with that sentence, later realized that the two years he spent in probably saved his life. It certainly gave him a helping hand getting started with his musical career. During his time at the home, he received musical instruction from Peter Davis, the band director. Eventually Louis became the leader of the Waif?s band. When Louis was released from the home on June 16, 1914, he lived briefly with his father. Louis then returned to live with his grandmother in New Orleans. It was there he met Joe Oliver. Joe then became Louis?s teacher and mentor. Louis got a job delivering coal and started selling newspapers to feed himself, his sister, and his mother while he practiced his music and tried to make it into the music world. In 1918 Louis Armstrong married Daisy Parker. Joe Oliver moved to Chicago that year. Louis was asked if he?d take Joe?s place in the ?Kid Ory? band, a leading group in New Orleans. He played with this group for awhile and then got a job performing on riverboats that traveled on the Mississippi River. Four years later, Joe Oliver, who was now known as ?King Oliver? in music circles called Louis and asked im if he?d play with his band that worked out of Chicago. Louis agreed but at the same time made the sad decision to separate from his wife, Daisy. The move to Chicago was a big one in terms of getting more fame. Louis became well known through the recordings that he made with the ?King Oliver Creole Jazz Band?. This group recorded at the Gennett Studios in Richmond, Indiana and was well known at the time. While he was with this group Louis met and married his second wife, Lil Hardin. Lil recognized Louis talent and tried to encourage him to start his own band. Louis wasn?t ready for that though. Instead he moved to New York City and joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra at the Roseland Ballroom. There he made a lot of recordings including some with Sidney Bechet and a number of blues singers like Bessie Smith. Louis got to be well known in the jazz field which was more and more becoming popular not only with African Americans but also with white people in America. Jazz was getting more and more popular and Louis Armstrong was considered the one of the main Jazz musicians. He had his own sound that people came to consider as Jazz. It is said that one night when he was singing along with a band, he forgot the words of the song. He started to make trumpet sounds with his voice like, ?Do Dat Dat De Dat?. That way of singing came to be known as scatting and is considered a big part of jazz. At the end of songs, Louis always sang, ?Oh, yeaaaaaah!? It got to be known as his trademark and the people in his audience started to join him in singing, ?Oh yeaaaaah!? By 1925 Louis was ready to start his own band which he called ?Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five?. For the next few years Louis was busy playing his trumpet. He played with people like Erskine Tate and with bands like Carroll Dickerson Orchestra. He played at places like the Vendome Theatre and the Sunset Cafe. He met his future manager, Joe Glaser during this time and on June 28, 1928 recorded ?West End Blues? which was one of his most famous jazz records. In the early 1930?s Louis traveled through the United States and Europe performing concerts. He divorced Lil Hardin in 1931 and made his first movie, Ex-Flame? that same year. His touring brought him world wide fame and he was even chosen to host a radio show, the first ever hosted by an African American. Louis always said that a horn didnt have any prejudice. A notes a note in any language, he said. Some other African Americans thought that Louis forgot his roots and tried to become a part of white America, but Louis said that he played for all people and he tried to show the equality of men by pointing to his audience that would include people of all races and backgrounds. Louis Armstrong?s health began to fail in the 1960?s. He was hospitalized several times for the last three years of his life. On July 6, 1971, one of the world?s greatest jazz musicians and trumpet players died in his sleep at his home in corona, Queens, New York City. His friends had called him ?Satchel Mouth? because his smile was so big. That name became so well known that eventually everyone knew Louis Armstrong, the man with the huge smile as ?Satchmo?. I chose to write about Louis Armstrong because I believe that he was truly one of the greatest musicians who changed the music in America with his jazz sound. He was also a good person who tried to use his talent to show that all men are equal. Many people were prejudiced when Louis Armstrong just started getting into music, but both black and white people liked his music and he saw that as a way to bring them together. For his funeral there was a crowd of about 25,000 people who waited to pay their last respects. Among these people there were a lot of well known celebrities but there were also poor people who had found something special in the music Louis played. |
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