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...

After arriving in New York, John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was soon playing with the famous Cab Calloway Band, but his clowning around got him fired. Dizzy kept trying out his new music which took over the world of jazz. He had invented "bebop!"