Synopses & Reviews
Nearly 100 years after bursting onto Chicago's music scene under the tutelage of Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. A trumpet virtuoso, seductive crooner, and consummate entertainer, Armstrong laid the foundation for the future of jazz with his stylistic innovations, but his story would be incomplete without examining how he struggled in a society seething with brutally racist ideologies, laws, and practices.
Review
"Evokes the quick-fingered, megawatt-smiled music legend's formative years, when he moved from New Orleans to Chicago and on to New York in pursuit of musical fame--and a style all his own." Vogue
Review
"Balances technical language with scene-setting context and colorful descriptive passages. . . . A rounded, rigorous, vivid portrait." Financial Times
Review
"Thomas Brothers has brought together startling new discoveries and insights, a fresh look at hallowed recordings, and an understanding of the multifold influences that helped shape Louis Armstrong. In so doing, he has written by far the most complete and original look at an American icon whose influence continues into its second century." Loren Schoenberg, artistic director, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem
Review
"Honest, uncompromising, and wholly sympathetic to its subject, is the ideal for jazz biography and criticism." Scott DeVeaux, author of The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History
Review
"Astonishingly, this is the first close historical examination of Armstrong's formative years in the 1920s. Where other biographers have surveyed this terrain from 30,000 feet, Thomas Brothers takes his reader on an intimate walking tour, filled with knowledgeable and insightful commentary. A rich and rewarding read." Brian Harker, author of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings
Review
"I was so engaged in Tom Brotherss great storytelling that I did not always notice what a monumental achievement his book is.
Synopsis
Finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. "Profoundly evocative and altogether admirable...The writing and detail are so brilliant that I found the volume revelatory." --Tim Page,
About the Author
Thomas Brothers is the author of Louis Armstrong's New Orleans and Louis Armstrong: In His Own Words. A professor of music at Duke University, he lives with his family in Durham, North Carolina.