Louis Armstrong
By Matthew Eaton
The Life of Louis Armstrong
His first musical exposure was at the Colored Waif's home for boys, where he was sent after firing a gun into the air at a New Years Celebration. He fell in love with cornet and music, so when he was released from the home in 1914 he went out to start a carrier as a musician.
Four years later, in 1918, he married Daisy Parker and adopted a three year old named Clarence. Clarence mother died in child birth and was mentally disabled do to a head injury that he had at two. Also he took the place of Joe Oliver in Kid Ory's band. The band took off and he was able to quite his manual labor jobs to focus full time on his music.
In 1922 Louis Armstrong was called up by Joe Oliver and offered a job in Chicago as second cornet in King Oliver's band. Louis took Chicago by storm and on April 5, 1923 he got his first record solo on the "Chimes Blues" album.
Soon after he remarried a women named Lillian Harden who convinced him to go play for Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. This band gave him more creative freedom and he was able to experiment around with the sound of his cornet. Then he finally switched from cornet to trumpet in 1926. In 1928 he teamed up with Earl Hines and together they made some famous songs like Weather Bird and West End Blues. 1932 was a big year because he began appearing in movies and became well known through the US. In 1938 he remarried Alpha Smith and moved into a house where he would live for the rest of his life. Later on he wrote many songs such as "Hello Dolly" and "What a Wonderful World" but they did not have the same 1920's sounds of his other ones.