Country Project Reflection and Feedback

This project was very good because it informed people about many different countries and their values. I enjoyed the virtual tours because they show me cool place to visit if I ever had the interest to travel to a foreign country. I didn't enjoy that we could only have about 7 words per bullet because I like to put a lot of information in my work. I would change the project by just adding a few more details like what to put specifically on the slides, but other than that I thought it was a good project outline and would keep most of it the same. I thought presenting was relatively easy and a fun part of the project.

Louis Armstrong

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Louis Armstrong was born on August 4th, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Louisiana is the birthplace of Jazz and this strongly influenced him throughout his life. His dad was a factory worker and abandoned the family a little bit after Louis's birth. His mom, who often turned to prostitution, frequently left him with his maternal grandmother. He was often called “Satchmo” because he had a wide grin. He lived in a poor part of New Orleans, nicknamed “The Battlefield.” He had a very difficult childhood. Armstrong was forced to leave school in the fifth grade began working. A Jewish family, the Karnofskys, gave young Armstrong a job collecting junk and delivering coal. They also encouraged him to sing and often invited him into their home for meals. On New Year’s Eve in 1912, Louis was arrested for firing a gun into the air. He was then sent to the Colored Waif's Home for Boys and he received musical instruction on the cornet and fell in love with music. He was released from the home in 1914 and his interest in music increased. Armstrong saved up enough money to buy a used cornet, which he taught himself to play. Armstrong began earning a reputation as a fine blues player. One of the greatest cornet players in town, Joe "King" Oliver, began acting as a mentor to the young Armstrong, showing him pointers on the horn and occasionally using him as a sub. In 1918, he married Daisy Parker, a prostitute, commencing a stormy union marked by many arguments and acts of violence. He adopted a three year old boy named Clarence later. Clarence had become mentally disabled from a head injury he had suffered at an early age and Armstrong took care of him his entire life. Armstrong's reputation as a musician continued to grow. In 1918, he replaced Oliver in Kid Ory's band, then the most popular band in New Orleans. In 1919, Armstrong spent his summers playing on riverboats with a band led by Fate Marable. It was on the riverboat that Armstrong honed his music reading skills and eventually had his first encounters with other jazz legends, including Bix Beiderbecke and Jack Teagarden. Armstrong quit the band in 1921 and returned to New Orleans. He and Daisy divorced that year. King Oliver asked him to come to Chicago and join his Creole Jazz Band. Armstrong played second cornet and was careful not to outshine the band leader Oliver. Through Oliver, Armstrong met the woman who became his second wife, Lil Hardin, who was a classically-trained jazz pianist from Memphis. Lil recognized Armstrong's talent and urged him to break away from Oliver's band. After two years with Oliver, Armstrong quit the band and took a new job with another Chicago band, this time as first trumpet. He only stayed for a few months though. Armstrong moved to New York City in 1924 at the invitation of bandleader Fletcher Henderson. Lil did not come with him because she wanted to stay at her job in Chicago. The band played mostly live gigs, but made recordings as well. They played backup for pioneering blues singers such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. This furthered Armstrong's growth as a performer. Fourteen months later, Armstrong moved back to Chicago because Lil was begging him to. Lil believed that Henderson held back Armstrong's creativity. She and Armstrong formed a studio band, called Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five. The group recorded several popular records, many of which featured Armstrong's raspy singing. Armstrong permanently switched from cornet to trumpet. During the Great Depression he decided to make a new start in Los Angeles, moving there in May 1930. Armstrong found work in clubs and continued to make records. After an arrest for marijuana possession in November 1930, Armstrong received a suspended sentence and returned to Chicago. He stayed afloat during the Depression, touring the U.S. and Europe from 1931 to 1935. He and Lil broke up and in 1938, Armstrong married longtime girlfriend Alpha Smith, but soon after the wedding began seeing Lucille Wilson, a dancer from the Cotton Club. Marriage number three ended in divorce in 1942 and Armstrong took Lucille as his fourth and final wife the same year. On tour in Italy in 1959, Armstrong suffered a massive heart attack. After a week in the hospital, he flew back home. Despite warnings from physicians, Armstrong returned to a busy schedule of live performances. Armstrong finally made it to the top of the charts in 1964 with "Hello Dolly," the theme song for the Broadway play of the same name. The popular song knocked the Beatles from the top spot they had held for 14 consecutive weeks. By the late 1960s, Armstrong was still able to perform, despite kidney and heart problems. In spring 1971, he suffered another heart attack. Unable to recover, Armstrong died July 6, 1971. More than 25,000 mourners visited the body of Louis Armstrong as it lay in state and his funeral was televised nationally. On July 6th 1971 the world's greatest Jazz musician died in his sleep at his home in Queens, New York.

Works Cited

Daniels, Patricia. "Louis Armstrong A Masterful Trumpet Player." About.com. About.com. Web. 6 Feb 2013. <http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/a/Louis-Armstrong.htm>.

. "Louis Armstrong." pbs.org. Jazz at Lincoln Center. Web. 6 Feb 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_armstrong_louis.htm>.

. "Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong." redhotjazz. N.p.. Web. 6 Feb 2013. <http://redhotjazz.com/louie.html>.