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Louis Armstrong

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Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong was one of America’s most profound Jazz musicians and singer, with a career that spanned over five decades, he had a huge significance in the evolution of music. Born in 1901, Louis grew up in New Orleans, a very cultural city itself. When Louis was young, he grew up in extreme poverty and was forced to do odd jobs to help contribute to his family. While he was selling coal, Louis was introduced to spasm bonds, groups that played music out of household instruments. Louis recognized the importance of music to him when he was introduced to it as the early sounds of jazz. The Karnoffsky family was the Jewish family that had taken in Louis, although Jews were discriminated against, this family took him in and even provided meals for him. Louis received an advance on his first instrument by the Karnoffsky family, his first introduction to music.

During Armstrongs teenage years, he bounced around many different homes and lived in almost constant poverty. Louis was forced to live with his grandmother, his biological mother and stepfather, and even his biological mother and stepfather. In 1918, Louis did his first riverboat cruise, which he would do up until the 1920s. Once Louis was 20, he was able to read music and started performing solos. In 1922 Louis moved to Chicago to work with King Oliver's band, where he had the opportunity to make enough money to provide for himself. At the time in Chicago, race relations were poor but the city was booming and flourishing with culture. Oliver's band became one of the most famous and influential in Chicago at the time, providing well for Armstrong. In the 1920s, Armstrong was able to buy his own apartment in Chicago that even had a private bath. The luxuries were new to Armstrong and became important in his rise in the Jazz world.

When Armstrong and Oliver parted in 1924, Louis moved to New York City and began a new career there. Louis was invited to play in the Fletcher Henderson orchestra which was a famous African American orchestra in New York at the time. Armstrong was forced to adapt when he joined the group and began experimenting with the trumpet, which he played with to blend better with the group. In 1925, Armstrong joined the “Hot Five” and began to be

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