Who Was Louis Armstrong?

A poor boy from New Orleans who stopped school after fifth grade
A singer, songwriter, composer, cornet player, trumpet player, and actor who wrote books about his life
A jazz musician beloved around the world

If not for a stint in reform school, young Louis Armstrong might never have become a musician. It was a teacher at the Colored Waifs Home who gave him a cornet, promoted him to band leader, and saw talent in the tough kid from the even tougher New Orleans neighborhood called Storyville. But it was Louis Armstrong’s own passion and genius that pushed jazz into new and exciting realms with his amazing, improvisational trumpet playing. His seventy-year life spanned a critical time in American music as well as black history.