Louis Armstrong
Louis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong
Heroes are needed in the world to give people something to look up to,
someone to be like. Louis Armstrong over came such adversities as poverty, a
lack of good education, and racism to become one of the greatest jazz player
not just of the 1920s but of the 20th century. Armstrong was one of the
creators of Jazz and was one of the most popular entertainers from the 1920s.
Starting out at a young age he never knew that one day he would be such a
popular jazz player and also not knowing that one day he might even be
called a hero.
Armstrong was born on July 4, 1900 in the Storyville section of New
Orleans. At the age of 12 his life changed. When he was parting for New
Years Eve, he shot a gun into the air. He was soon arrested and taken to a
center for juvenile offenders. He hated being there, but loved going to see the
band at the center play everyday. When he got the chance to go play in the
band, he quickly did.
He first started out playing the Alto Horn then moved to the drums and
finally ending up with the trumpet. Two years later at the age of fourteen he
was released from the center. He went out and got jobs to help get him to be
able to afford an instrument. His jobs included, selling papers, unloading
boats, and selling coal from a cart. On his off times he would go around to
clubs like the Funky Butt Hall to listen to bands play.
A jazz musician named King Oliver saw him and was impressed at his
attendance at so many of the local clubs that he inquired of him as to if he
wanted to learn to play the cornet. Armstrong said yes. He picked it up very
quickly and soon was playing in bands for people that were absent. This soon
lead to him starting his own band. This was all at the age of seventeen.
Armstrong played with his band, known as Louis Armstrong Hot 5 or Hot
7, for two years and then King Oliver went to Chicago. Armstrong took a
spot in Kid Ory�s orchestra one of the biggest known bands in the town. He
played on the riverboats on the Mississippi River and got better at playing.
All this without even knowing how to read music. While on the riverboat he
was taught to read music which would help him out greatly later, when he
became a band conductor. In 1922 he was called to Chicago by King Oliver.
After arriving he made a change that made him famous. He switched from the
cornet back to the trumpet.
The next year Oliver and Armstrong made a recording. This made
Armstrong one of the first black men to be recorded. In 1924 Armstrong went
to Harlem in New York to play in Fletcher Henderson�s band. He had the
towns� respect as soon as he arrived. This is when he started...
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