| Louis Armstrong |
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| Louis as a teenager with his mother and his sister, Beatrice. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. |
| The arrow at the top of this photo points to Louis Armstrong at the age of 11, a member of the "Colored Waifs Home" band. It was here that he learned to play the bugle and cornet, after being sent to the home for firing a pistol in the street at a New Year's celebration. |
| Louis Armstrong was seventeen years old when he started playing on Mississippi River steamboats. Above, he's with Fate Marable's Orchestra on the SS Capitol in 1923. From Left to Right: Warren "Baby" Dodds, William Bebe Ridgley, Joe Howard, Armstrong, Marable, David Jones, Johnny Dodds, Johnny St. Cyr, George "Pops" Foster. |
| Chicago - Louis Armstrong at the piano with his band, Johnny St. Cyr, Johnny Dodds, Kid Ory and Louis' wife, Lil Harden. |
| Louis Armstrong and his band on a 1931 visit to the Municipal Boys Home in New Orleans (formerly the Colored Waifs Home); shown with, among others, Peter Davis and the boys home band. |
| Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack on July 6, 1971, in Queens, New York, where he'd lived for many years. He was buried in Flushing Cemetery, NY. Above: a memorial service held for Louis Armstrong in his hometown of New Orleans. He said of the city, "Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. It has given me something to live for." |
| U.S. postage stamp honoring Louis Armstrong. |
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| Louis Armstrong's influence extended beyond jazz, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Critic Steve Leggett described Armstrong as "perhaps the most important American musician of the 20th century." |
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| Helen Arlt and local television personality, Mel Leavitt, welcome Louis Armstrong home to New Orleans on a visit in 1965. |
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