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Pops A Life of Louis Armstrong Terry Teachout 9780151010899 Books

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Pops A Life of Louis Armstrong Terry Teachout 9780151010899 Books

Terry Teachout's biography is brilliant from start to finish. Here's why. Mr. Teachout painstakingly cited much of his material using interviews with those who knew Mr. Armstrong; he cited numerous books that had a mention of "Satchmo" and went through numerous tapes that were made by Mr. Armstrong himself from the late 1940s until his death in 1971. This 382-page book is a very readable biography that details his life from his lowly beginnings in Storyville, a run-down section of New Orelans known for its red-light district, to height of stardom with appearances on television and perforamnces overseas. Mr. Teachout background in music helps him to tell the story about how Mr. Armstrong's music changed through the years and why it was so popular. The only minus from this perspective is that those with little or no knowledge of how the music is played and the terms that are used in music playing might get bogged down a bit in reading portions of the material. Nevertheless, the text is very readable.

Here are the things that I took away from this book. Mr. Armstrong was an adovcate of self-help, believing that men should be able to work hard to get ahead in life. He had a low opinion of those of his own race who would not better themselves citing the jewish Karnofsky family, a family that Armstrong knew who were persecuted in the South during Armstrong's early years, yet bettered themselves by sticking together with fellow Jews. Armstrong was also a critic of Franklin Roosvelt's New Deal which was evidenced by his playing a parody song of the W.P.A. which was quickly censored according to the author. Armstrong had a shaky relationship with his first three wives, divorcing them before marrying his fourth and final wife Lucille which stood by his side for the last 30 years of his life. He was also a frequent user of marijuana (called "gage" in those days) and was arrested in Los Angeles in 1930 for using it. In his later years, he was more discreet about using weed. Needless to say, he was not the most moral person in the world. His music however was first class. He adjusted his musical work several times over the years going from early dixieland jazz, through to the big band years and finally playing a more modern form of jazz with his All Stars whose personnel changed during the 1950s and 1960s. Armstrong was also a proponent of civil rights, but was not as outspoken as other African Americans during that time.

I can conclude this review by saying that for all of the hardship Mr. Armstrong endured (shaky marriages, run-ins with the mob and health difficulties in later life) Armstrong kept up a cheery dispostion that was loved by the world over. Teachout believes that his cheeriness was genuine and not a false front (though he mentions that Armstrong was short-tempered several times in private). Armstrong has now been gone for over 40 years, yet his songs will remain with us for a long time to come. Maybe if you all read this book, play "What a Wonderful World" after finishing this book. You'll get a chill in your spine. Five stars.


Tags : Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong [Terry Teachout] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A great artist who was also a good man. A genius born in poverty who became known in every corner of the world. An entertainer who knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts four decades after he cut his first record. Terry Teachout has drawn on a cache of important new sources unavailable to previous biographers to craft a sweeping new narrative biography of Louis Armstrong,Terry Teachout,Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong,Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,0151010897,Entertainment & Performing Arts - General,Jazz music;Biography.,Jazz musicians;United States;Biography.,Musicians;United States;Biography.,1901-1971,Armstrong, Louis,,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography & Autobiography Composers & Musicians,Biography & Autobiography Entertainment & Performing Arts,Biography Autobiography,Biography And Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Black Musicians And Their Music,Composers & Musicians - General,Cultural Heritage,Genres & Styles - Jazz,Jazz musicians,Music Genres & Styles Jazz,United States

Pops A Life of Louis Armstrong Terry Teachout 9780151010899 Books Reviews

Aside from phonograph records, my own and on radio (no television in those days) and brief appearances in film and on such as the Bing Crosby radio show, I had the good fortune to see and hear live, Satchmo in his two vehicles of performance during the forties fronting a big band and, as the big band Swing and Jazz era collapsed, the small group. In the forefront of my memory are his appearance with his band at one of the NYC movie palaces which alternated a stage show with a first run movie in its first showing in the City. As I recall, Ella Fitzgerald was also on the "live" bill with him. Most prominent, is the key event of which Teachout writes, the Town Hall appearance of 1947, not his first in that era but the key test of its possibility, in which he led a small group put together for the appearance, with Jack Teagarden, Bobby Hackett and Bobby Haggard, the only ones I correctly remembered, when I came to that section of the book, although I also was right on target with the announcement that Sidney Bechet, scheduled for the night's session, was said to have been taken ill. The true reason is Teachout's to tell..although his sources seemingly did not give the whole statement as I recall it, that he had suffered a heart attack on the subway coming over. Later I did see Louis at work in a Club with the first of the regular group employed as Armstrong began with the routine that he pursued for the rest of his working life.
Utilizing resources that were not available before his working career, Teachout has done a fine job of portraying a simple yet very complex man who was among those to create the music that was Jazz. He places in social context the New Jazz and gives a balanced portrait of the middle aged and elderly figure who had to confront the inevitable rise of a yet newer Jazz which rejected not only his music but his personal style. For he was always what he wanted to be not only a player of music but an entertainer, a person who made his audience feel good. Difficult as the task is of providing a balanced view of the struggle between the new and the old, Teachout does a reasonable job of handling it within the confines of a book with limited space to penetrate deeply into the complex intellectual and emotional currents stirred up by changing concepts, not only of music, but of appropriate behavior for members of his Race when facing the public.
Teachout writes clearly, never descending into the intellectualism in content and style, which often produces a mind-dulling prolixity whose occasional emptiness is masked by its incomprehensibility. Perhaps because I came into the World early in his career (he was born the same year as my father was) the book was exciting to me, one which led me to marathon reading, a rarity in my life these days. I can wholeheartedly recommend it not only to fans of Jazz in any era, but also to those who want to see how talent, fierce determination, and a commitment to the virtues of hard work and self-improvement, led someone who started from the Lower Depths, to achieve recognition throughout the world.
Terry Teachout's biography is brilliant from start to finish. Here's why. Mr. Teachout painstakingly cited much of his material using interviews with those who knew Mr. Armstrong; he cited numerous books that had a mention of "Satchmo" and went through numerous tapes that were made by Mr. Armstrong himself from the late 1940s until his death in 1971. This 382-page book is a very readable biography that details his life from his lowly beginnings in Storyville, a run-down section of New Orelans known for its red-light district, to height of stardom with appearances on television and perforamnces overseas. Mr. Teachout background in music helps him to tell the story about how Mr. Armstrong's music changed through the years and why it was so popular. The only minus from this perspective is that those with little or no knowledge of how the music is played and the terms that are used in music playing might get bogged down a bit in reading portions of the material. Nevertheless, the text is very readable.

Here are the things that I took away from this book. Mr. Armstrong was an adovcate of self-help, believing that men should be able to work hard to get ahead in life. He had a low opinion of those of his own race who would not better themselves citing the jewish Karnofsky family, a family that Armstrong knew who were persecuted in the South during Armstrong's early years, yet bettered themselves by sticking together with fellow Jews. Armstrong was also a critic of Franklin Roosvelt's New Deal which was evidenced by his playing a parody song of the W.P.A. which was quickly censored according to the author. Armstrong had a shaky relationship with his first three wives, divorcing them before marrying his fourth and final wife Lucille which stood by his side for the last 30 years of his life. He was also a frequent user of marijuana (called "gage" in those days) and was arrested in Los Angeles in 1930 for using it. In his later years, he was more discreet about using weed. Needless to say, he was not the most moral person in the world. His music however was first class. He adjusted his musical work several times over the years going from early dixieland jazz, through to the big band years and finally playing a more modern form of jazz with his All Stars whose personnel changed during the 1950s and 1960s. Armstrong was also a proponent of civil rights, but was not as outspoken as other African Americans during that time.

I can conclude this review by saying that for all of the hardship Mr. Armstrong endured (shaky marriages, run-ins with the mob and health difficulties in later life) Armstrong kept up a cheery dispostion that was loved by the world over. Teachout believes that his cheeriness was genuine and not a false front (though he mentions that Armstrong was short-tempered several times in private). Armstrong has now been gone for over 40 years, yet his songs will remain with us for a long time to come. Maybe if you all read this book, play "What a Wonderful World" after finishing this book. You'll get a chill in your spine. Five stars.