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.


路易斯·阿姆斯壯是爵士樂史上永恆的靈魂人物，出身紐奧良貧民區，他在社會最底層長大，還曾經進過少年感化院，所幸他在感化院學會了吹短號，開始接觸音樂，沒幾年的時間，18歲的阿姆斯壯，已經是紐奧良知名的演奏者了，成為當時最紅的娃娃歐瑞Kid Ory樂團的短號手，1922年，加入Joe King Oliver樂團，在前輩奧立佛的指導調教之下，阿姆斯壯進步神速，逐漸建立起他作為一位偉大獨奏者的地位。