Louis Armstrong Biography Essay

Little Louie

Louis Armstrong once said, “If you have to ask what jazz is, you 'll never know”. Louis Armstrong stated that jazz is how musicians make it, and it does not have a real definition. Louis Armstrong was born in 1901 in a poor, black section of New Orleans called Storyville. It was so dangerous that its nickname was the Battlefield. Louis’s grandmother was very strict. She made Louis go to school, to church, and to Sunday school. When he was bad, she swatted his behind with a branch. When Louis was seven he was interested in music, there was plenty of it, especially jazz, to hear in New Orleans. Louis had his favorite musicians, Joe Oliver, who played cornet. Louis wondered what it would be like to play a real horn. A used cornet, which was dirty and a little beat-up, which he bought

He taught himself the basic notes and practiced all the time. When he was about 10, Louis and three other boys formed a street singers group. Walking through Storyville, they sang all different kinds of songs. In 1913 on New Year 's eve, Louis Armstrong was arrested at the age of twelve for shooting a gun into the air. Professor Davis taught Louis how to play the cornet correctly and set him on the path of being a pro. Louis wrote years later, “My whole musical success goes back to the time I was arrested…. because then I had to quit running around and began to learn something. Most of all, I began to learn music.” (McDonough, 26-27) Louis Armstrong was the most influential person of the 1920’s because he was the most important figure in jazz during the 1920’s, he influenced civil rights through his jazz, and he helped transform jazz in 1920’s giving it a