From the beginning, Louis Armstrong helped cultivate and birth jazz music. His career began in the early 1920s, a period in which jazz music was mainly formed. Louis' career in jazz music spanned over fifty years, it could almost be said that he was the bookend of the rise, growth and decline of jazz music. Without Louis, most jazz forms, styles and improvisation would not exist today. Louis was the great muse of jazz musicians of all styles and periods of jazz history. His contributions are profound, and his ability to perform, entertain, and create music that speaks to the soul will forever be part of American and global history. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay For the circumstances of Louis Armstrong's life and the political period into which he was born in the fact that he lived to adulthood is considered to beat the odds. Louis was born and raised in one of the poorest areas of New Orleans, he was raised by his mother after his father abandoned her at an early age. He was given odd jobs to do while growing up by a kind Jewish family, it was this family who gave Louis his first cornet which he played all the time. After a small gunshot incident Louis Armstrong was sent to the Orphan's home, a place for problem children like an orphanage, it was there that music truly became his life and saved his life. In the Orphan's house the strict discipline helped inspire Louis to become a master of the cornet and by the time he was released from the Waif's house, he was considered a promising musician. He idolized another New Orleans cornetist, Joey Oliver. Oliver became a father figure to Louis and helped him get a spot in Kid Ory's avant-garde band. It was there that Louis truly grew as a musician and learned to read music. He developed a beautiful tone and wide range and truly became a jazz musician, soaring far above Joey Oliver and catching the attention and eye of pianist Lil Hardin. From then on there was no stopping Louis, he later moved to New York and began to revolutionize the way jazz and improvisation was performed. Before Louis, most jazz soloists emphasized staccato phrases, stayed fairly close to the melody, and punctuated their solos with effect-filled, repetitive double phrases. Then Louis came along and changed everything, instead of staccato phrasing he practiced legate, made sure that every didn't count, used the space for drama and built his solos up to the climax and concentrated on telling a story. history in his music. He concentrated on putting a blues touch in every one of his songs. His style was expressive and vocal-like and his tone was so beautiful that it helped define the sound of the trumpet itself. Louis's style of jazz improvisation became the new mold that every other jazz musician after him, until the bebop era, strove to emulate. . Louis Armstrong finally switched from cornet to trumpet in 1926 and from then on became one of the greatest trumpeters who ever lived. During the late 1920s Louis made many recordings with his own bands and it was in those recordings that he also developed a singer very different from any jazz singer ever seen before. His raspy tone was so distinctive and he phrased all his melodies like one of his horn solos. It was during one of these recording sessions with Ella Fitzgerald that she invented scat singing, which is basically nonsense syllables singing the horn line. It worked so well from then on.