Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong - Hardcover

Terry Teachout

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151010897 ISBN 13: 9780151010899

Publisher: Harcourt Publishers,U.S., 2010

Synopsis

Louis Armstrong was the greatest jazz musician of the twentieth century and a giant of modern American culture. He knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts, wrote the finest of all jazz autobiographies--without a collaborator--and created collages that have been compared to the art of Romare Bearden. The ranks of his admirers included Johnny Cash, Jackson Pollock and Orson Welles. Offstage he was witty, introspective and unexpectedly complex, a beloved colleague with an explosive temper whose larger-than-life personality was tougher and more sharp-edged than his worshipping fans ever knew. Wall Street Journal arts columnist Terry Teachout has drawn on a cache of important new sources unavailable to previous Armstrong biographers, including hundreds of private recordings of backstage and after-hours conversations that Armstrong made throughout the second half of his life, to craft a sweeping new narrative biography of this towering figure that shares full, accurate versions of such storied events as Armstrong's decision to break up his big band and his quarrel with President Eisenhower for the first time. Certain to be the definitive word on Armstrong for our generation, POPS paints a gripping portrait of the man, his world and his music that will stand alongside Gary Giddins' Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams and Peter Guralnick's Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley as a classic biography of a major American musician.

About this title

Product Description:

Pops Louis Armstrong was the greatest jazz musician of the twentieth century and a giant of modern American culture. He knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts, wrote the finest of all jazz autobiographies and created collages that have been compared to the art of Romare Bearden. This title presents an account of Armstrong's life. Full description

Review:

"POPS is the book we have been waiting for: essential reading for anyone curious about music, American culture, and one man's ability to inspire the world." Michael Cogswell, director Louis Armstrong House Museum" --Michael Cogswell

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt Publishers,U.S.
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0151010897
• ISBN 13: 9780151010899
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 496