biography
Louis brought happiness to everyone who was around him either by his sense of humor or by his music. Louis Armstrong was born on August 4th, 1901. He was born in a poor neighborhood known as “The Battlefield,” which is located in New Orleans, Louisiana. During his childhood, Louis was forced to get a job to help support his family. Louis lived with his grandmother until he was five years old and then the lived with his mother Mayann and his sister Beatrice. To keep food on the table for the three of them, Louis had to deliver coal and would sell newspapers.
In 1912, Louis Armstrong was arrested for shooting a gun on New Year’s Eve and was required to go to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys. While in the home, Peter Davis; the band director at the Home helps Louis learn how to play. Later on, Louis then becomes the leader of the band at the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys. When he is released, Joe Oliver mentored Louis Armstrong. Joe Oliver was known as one of the finest trumpet musician in New Orleans and he helped Louis get his career started. Louis got to play second cornet in Joe Oliver’s band and Louis is now nicknamed “King” Oliver. This had lead him to creating his first recording with the band at Gennett Studios in Richmond, Indiana on April 5th.
Throughout the years Armstrong had been traveling to many different places to perform and record his new songs. Louis showed the world that there was more to music and that there are different styles of music. Louis Armstrong helped introduce the world of jazz and by doing that he recorded “West End Blues” in 1928. Which is one of the best known song of jazz. Later on, “What a Wonderful World” become one of his greatest hits in the 1960s. Even though Louis Armstrong composed music and then performed it he did more than that. He had also starred in broadway showcases and movies. He appeared in Hot Chocolate; the broadway show in 1929. Then in 1931, Louis Armstrong was filmed in his first movie; Ex-Flame. As the years pass by Louis Armstrong takes his career further by hosting shows and radio broadcasts, appearing in television shows, starring in more movies, recording more songs and then performing them. Sooner or later in 1971 Louis Armstrong records his last commercial; “The Night before Christmas” and performs his last shows in New York. On June 6th, 1971, Louis Armstrong passes away in Corona. A funeral was held for him and was buried at Flushing Cemetery in Queens.