Born in 1961 in San Francisco, California, Louis was adopted by, and grew up with, the Durra family. He is the birth-child of reedman Trevor Koehler, who played with Gil Evans Orchestra, Cornell Dupree, The Insect Trust, and others.

Fascinated with music as a toddler, he largely taught himself to read from the labels of his parent’s LPs. He listened to the Beethoven symphonies over and over as a child. Other favorites were the Borodin Polyvetsian dances and Debussy’s La Mer. "There were rock bands in the parks, Motown and Big Bands on the radio, classical records, , a lot of music in the air."

"When I was eleven my family went to live in Europe for a year. It was there that I asked for music lessons. In England my father went to the Royal Conservatory and found a terrific teacher for me. Melanie Daiken taught theory and harmony at the Conservatory. She gave me books to read and said, 'come back with questions'. Half of the lesson time would be playing and half would be about the questions... I saw a lot of concerts while I was there; it was a great thing; England, France, books, people, new ideas..."

Back in the States, Louis entered the San Francisco Conservatory of Music prep department, studying theory, harmony and piano with John McCarthy and Maria Cisyk.

"I went to San Francisco Conservatory at age 12-13… two years of Saturday classes. This was a great music program. Theory, harmony, counterpoint, composition exercises,ear-training. We took rhythmic and harmonic dictation, we had to write and analyze progressions in class... I took a sight-reading class that was a great help later. I had piano lessons there with very good teachers, Maria Cisyk and John McCarthy. But I got pretty headstrong, I resisted a lot of their teaching. At a certain point my father stopped my lessons because I wasn’t practicing. I had the thing where I just did what I wanted – whatever that was, not what someone told me to do. Even if it was something I wanted to do at the beginning of the week by the end of the week I was bored or frustrated with that…"

"One night when I was 13 I heard McCoy Tyner on the radio. I was really inspired and began listening to that station every night -- KRE. I began learning to improvise and play with a swing feel -- pretty haphazardly at first but I had some good young musicians around me, that helped a lot.

During his teens Louis played jazz festivals and competitions for young musicians. He played in amateur and professional jazz and variety groups, worked as a classical accompanist, and began collaborating with theater director Ed Decker, music-directing eight musicals by the age of eighteen.

"There were seven or eight shows I did with him in all, many at schools in the area. And a couple of other directors – they came pretty quick – all of them in a year and a half. I have great memories of working on those shows with Ed. We wrote a musical and kept it running in a rental theater for four months. I collaborated on the music with Scrumbly Koldwynn from the Cockettes."

Louis attended the Berklee College Of Music in Boston, MA. He studied jazz piano with Jeff Covell and Bob Winter, classical piano with Stephanie Plsek, and arranging and composition with Herb Pomeroy, Greg Hopkins and Ken Pullig. During college, he played jazz in the Boston area and toured with pop and R&B bands.

Moving to Los Angeles after college, Louis worked as a freelance pianist. He met folk artist Moris Tepper, famous for his long association with Captain Beefheart and his work with Tom Waits. Louis toured and recorded with Moris for six years.

Louis composed for experimental theater projects which were staged in Iceland, at the Fringe Festival in Scotland, and at the Mark Taper Forum.

"After college I would run into theater people and do a show every now and then, a little or a lot, getting pretty involved in it at some points. I went to Iceland and Scotland in the eighties with shows. "Play it Cool" was a high point, when I was nominated for all the awards. Theater has influenced my thinking about music. I’m aware of presentation and what music can do for (or against) a moment… to some extent I’m scoring whenever I play. I’m checking out the vibe of the room, listening to people's breathing – giving it space like the dialog in a film."

Louis and Jerry Kalaf were hired together on a long-running club gig and have played and recorded each other's jazz ever since. Jerry became music director of the dance company Jazz Tap Ensemble, and Louis has played with JTE in many venues over the years.

During his 30’s, Louis also began working in film music. He composed for CBS's The Guiding Light, scored documentaries, independent films, had his music used in network MOWs and cable series. While he was a staff composer for Guiding Light, the show was nominated for a daytime Emmy for music.

In the early 90s he took a detour to train as a sound editor with Mark Allen at the Id Group. He edited sound effects for 26 features.

"I worked long hours as a sound editor. All the studio time prepared me for music production later. There was a big difference in my participation in recording before and after this period."

Louis has immersed himself in the jazz repertoire, performing the standards and his own music in jazz trio format.

Louis has a son Ian who is fifteen.

louis durra