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Louis Armstrong Essay

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Louis Armstrong's Influential Career

Louis Armstrong’s Influential Career Louis Armstrong was the most successful and talented jazz musician in history. His influence and expansive career continues to make waves in the jazz world. That is what made him become what he is to many today – a legend. Born on August 4, 1901, in the poorest section of New Orleans, Armstrong grew up with his grandparents due to his parents’ separation. On January 1, 1913 he made a mistake which turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. At a New Year’s celebration in downtown New Orleans, Louis Armstrong, also known as “Satchmo” and “Satch”, fired a pistol into the air and was placed in the Colored Waifs’ Home. It was there that he was …show more content…

When Armstrong reached the City and began playing everyone went wild. No where had they ever heard anything like him. Before this time, he had only played instruments but he was soon encouraged to begin singing. It was then discovered that Armstrong had a natural extension of his trumpet abilities, which was singing. His gravelly voice was something new that had never been heard (Sadie 600). Armstrong formed a studio band in 1925 called the Hot Five. The band included Johnny Dodds, Kid Ory, John St. Cyr, Lil Armstrong, and himself. These recordings were some of the most famous made by Armstrong, including “Mandy Make Up Your Mind” and “Money Blues” (Bergreen 96). A year later the Hot Five made their only public appearance at the Chicago Coliseum. The Chicago Defender spoke of “Louis Armstrong, the miracle with steel lips,” (Boujut 27). For the next few years Armstrong recorded with the Hot Five and played with other musicians in New York and Chicago. He then traveled to California, in July of 1930, where he starred in his first film, Flame. Only after he had been in California for a few weeks he was arrested at a nightclub for the possession of marijuana. The incident obviously caused a lot of controversy across the world. The sentence, six months in prison, was suspended after only three days. Mainly due to Armstrong’s addiction to marijuana, Lil separated from him and they no longer

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