A Brief Biography Of Louis Armstrong

Daniel Gatewood

2/24/14

Research Paper

Who ever said a poor kid could not get famous? Louis Armstrong proves this wrong. He was born into a poor family in a poverty striken area, his dad left the family after he was born, dropped out of school in fifth grade, shot a gun in the air, got arrested, was sent to a home for boys, and still married four times and still became the most popular jazz trumpet soloist ever.

Louis was born on August 10, 1901 in a section of New Orleans called Storyville, to Mayann and Willie Armstrong. The area he was born in was so poor and dangerous; it was nicknamed “The Battlefield.”(Source 1) Louis’s dad was a factory worker and left the family after Louis was born. His mother then became a prostitute to support the family. Because of her unique occupation she was forced to leave her two children with their strict grandma, Josephine, who used to be a slave.

Because Louis’s family was poor, he often sang on the street as a young child for nickels and dimes, but had to drop out of fifth grade to get jobs to support the family. While doing these things he often could hear music of popular bands coming out of bars and restaurants. He soon found that his favorite musician was Joe “King” Oliver, the lead in Kid Ory’s band.

As a result of firing a gun into the air, at a New Year’s celebration in 1913, Louis was arrested. He was sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys. There he was instructed on the tambourine, then the drums, next the alto horn, and finally the cornet. Louis played it so well, that the music professor made Louis the leader of the marching band. He played at picnics and parades in his home town of Storyville. Here at the home for boys, Louis first fell in love with mu...

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... and twenty-five thousand people came to pay their last respects to this Jazz hero.

On the whole, Louis Daniel Armstrong was undeniably magnificent. He went through much criticism but still kept doing what made him happy. He recorded for fifty years, performed an average of three hundred concerts a year, appeared in thirty films, and was the greatest trumpet soloist the world will ever know. He wrote two auto-biographies, ten magazine articles, hundreds of pages of memoirs, and thousands of letters without even going to high school.

The effect of his life was even greater, for now his home in Queens, New York is now a national landmark. Many biographies have been written about him. Even many musicians have spoken their opinion on the effect of his life. However, Louis Armstrong would never have done any of this if he had not loved just making people happy.