Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life
by Laurence Bergreen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Laurence BergreenEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-01-01
ISBN: 0767901568
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Broadway Books
Book Reviews of Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life
Book Review: It's a won'derful book!
Summary: 5 Stars
You get not only a bio of a great musician & person, you get a detailed description how Blacks lived New Orleans through the turn of the century. From it you get a better understanding of how the pre-recording (and therefore unrecorded) sounds of untutored musicians became the roots of the New Orleans musical genre and how the odds were stacked against Louis. You come to understand his workaholism and his deference to his eventual agent, who probably exploited him.
As the book progresses, the historical descriptions are not as detailed but you feel the music and the person developing. Ironically, the two best known pieces "Hello Dolly" & "It's a Wonderful World", were late stage, not representative, but somehow routine work for the prolific Louis.
It's hard to imagine from the impoverished roots, the raw deals and the omnipresent daily racism (even to his death in 1971 segregation both de facto and Jim Crow continued), how Louis kept his optimism and exhuberance. It was not self deceptive, when the chips were down, he supported the Brown v Board of Ed decision, not just in his heart, but words and actions.
He was an unfaithful lover and husband. We don't know if he ever promised otherwise... all his wives but the first (who was common law married) knew he was a married man when they started "dating" him. The world owes Mrs. Armstong the 2nd (Lil) a debt. She gave him confidence and a platform to be the star he became.
In the Acknowledgments the author says this is the first bio he's written where his admiration for his subject grows.
Louis Armstrong blazed a trail. He was a tough cat, much tougher than all the supposedly macho dudes who posture now. He doesn't have to posture because he's dealt with the mob and prostitutes who slash with the knifes in their shoes, and somehow reminds us, that despite all this, it's a wonderful world.
Summary of Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life
Louis Armstrong was the founding father of jazz and one of this century's towering cultural figures, yet the full story of his extravagant life has never been told.Born in 1901 to the sixteen-year-old daughter of a slave, he came of age among the prostitutes, pimps, and rag-and-bone merchants of New Orleans. He married four times and enjoyed countless romantic involvements in and around his marriages. A believer in marijuana for the head and laxatives for the bowels, he was also a prolific diarist and correspondent, a devoted friend to celebrities from Bing Crosby to Ella Fitzgerald, a perceptive social observer, and, in his later years, an international goodwill ambassador.
And, of course, he was a dazzling musician. From the bordellos and honky-tonks of Storyville--New Orleans's red light district--to the upscale nightclubs in Chicago, New York, and Hollywood, Armstrong's stunning playing, gravelly voice, and irrepressible personality captivated audiences and critics alike. Recognized and beloved wherever he went, he nonetheless managed to remain vigorously himself.
Now Laurence Bergreen's remarkable book brings to life the passionate, courageous, and charismatic figure who forever changed the face of American music.
The author of a terrific Irving Berlin biography (As Thousands Cheer), Laurence Bergreen produces a similarly astute character analysis of the renowned trumpet player, too often viewed as a musical genius but an Uncle Tom in race relations. On the contrary, Bergreen shows, Louis Armstrong (1901-71) was that rarest of human beings, someone who could respond to injustice with a determination to overcome that never included bitterness. Slightly stronger on milieu than music, Bergreen conveys such zest for the material and such obvious fondness for Armstrong that his book is a delight to read.
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