Early years
Louis was working as a professional musician while he was still in high school, playing in Vero Beach, Florida, and throughout Central and South Florida. The region was then home to many veterans of the big-band era who had retired from the road but never stopped playing, and as a teenager he sat in sections alongside alumni of the Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey orchestras and of Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd. Few young players get that kind of schooling, learning section playing, phrasing and time from musicians who had done it at the highest level for decades.
Military career
After high school he joined the U.S. Marine Corps music program, where he served four years before transferring to the U.S. Navy music program. He spent the next sixteen years as a Navy musician, performing for audiences around the world, and retired after twenty years in uniform.
Today
Louis plays tenor trombone and sings, working mainly in jazz, and he holds a Bachelor of Music degree. He performs on a Herb Bruce Custom Trombone, made by the trombonist and builder Herb Bruce.
He founded Trombone World, the publisher of this reference, together with Trombone Jazz Radio and the Trombone Museum, a project to give the instrument its first museum. He also writes and publishes under the same name; his website currently centers on his book.
