Louis Armstrong (1902-1971)
Louis Armstrong was born in 1902 in the poorest part of New Orleans. His early life embraced poverty and music. Armstrong's parents did not help to raise him in a healthy home for his father left him soon after his birth and his mother was a domestic and some say a prostitute. The Karnoffskys, a Jewish immigrant family, took Armstrong under their wing and provided him with food and his first instrument, a tin horn. In 1922, Armstrong moved to Chicago with King Oliver to play second trumpet with his band. People would say that his playing style was revolutionary. In 1924, he married Lil Harding, another woman of the Harlem Renaissance who played piano for the band Armstrong was in. Throughout his career he created the 4/4 swing tempo and the scat vocal. Heebie Jeebies was Armstrong's first recorded hit, which sold over 40,000 hits within its first few months. Armstrong had a very successful career and was a large hit during the Harlem Renaissance. He died in 1971 at the age of 69 due to heart failure. To hear his first hit Heebie Jeebies click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksmGt2U-xTE