Louis born into a poor family in

  Louis Armstrong was more than just another black jazz musician trying to make it big. He cared about the people around him and the world he lived in. He fought for what he thought was right, and for his race. Even though it seemed like his own race was against him.

Even with all the sadness going on around him, he still followed his dreams.        was a great Musician.   On August 4, 1901, Louis Armstrong was born.

He was born into a poor family in New Orleans in a part of town that was so run-down and poor was it called “The Battlefield”.  His parents were Mary Albert and William Armstrong. Louis had a very rough childhood.

When he was a boy his dad, who was a factory worker that left Louis and his mother. He showed an early liking in music, A jewish family gave him a job rounding up junk and delivering coal around town while he was a student to help him buy a cornet, which he learned to play himself. He dropped out of school at 11 to join a jazz group, but on December 31, 1912, he shot a gun in the air during a new year’s celebration, He was caught by the police and then was sent to reform school.

 At “Colored Waifs School For Boys”, He learned even more about music there and played cornet and bugle in the band, He even became the leader of the band. He was released on June 16, 1914, and did many labor jobs while trying to make himself as a musician.    After moving to Chicago June 1918 the Famous cornetist Joe Oliver took him in under his wing and stuck him in the “Kid Ory Band where he took the place of Oliver. He moved to the “Fate Marable band” May of 1919, playing on riverboats all through the summer with the Marable Band right up to October of 1921. Though Armstrong wanted to stay in New Orlean in 1922, he got a call from King Oliver to join him in Chicago and be a part of his Creole Jazz Band on second cornet.

Armstrong agreed, and he surprised Chicago with his amazing playing.    He made his very first studio recording with Joe Oliver on April 5, 1923. Armstrong started dating the pianist in the jazz band, Lillian Hardin.

After they got married in 1924, Hardin made it very known that she thought Oliver was stopping Armstrong from reaching his full potential. Lillian pushed Armstrong to quit Oliver, to join Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, the best African American band in New York City at that time. Armstrong joined Henderson fall of 1924, and made his presence felt almost right away with a bunch of amazing solos that introduced swing music to the band.

Armstrong had a great affect Henderson and his arranger, Don Redman, so they both started integrating Armstrong’s swinging into their music pieces, changing Henderson’s jazz band into what is known the first big jazz band.    Nevertheless, Armstrong’s southern look didn’t mix well with the rest of the Northern look of Henderson’s other members, Henderson didn’t like the way that Armstrong dressed or spoke. Henderson did not let Armstrong sing, thinking that the sophisticated audiences at the Roseland Ballroom would not like his rough way of singing.

So, Armstrong wanting to follow his dreams, left the Henderson band  in 1925. He went back to Chicago, where he started playing with his wife’s band at a Café