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Overview
"The best book ever produced about Louis Armstrong by anyone other than the man himself."—Terry Teachout, Commentary
In the early twentieth century, New Orleans was a place of colliding identities and histories, and Louis Armstrong was a gifted young man of psychological nimbleness. A dark-skinned, impoverished child, he grew up under low expectations, Jim Crow legislation, and vigilante terrorism. Yet he also grew up at the center of African American vernacular traditions from the Deep South, learning the ecstatic music of the Sanctified Church, blues played by street musicians, and the plantation tradition of ragging a tune.
Louis Armstrong's New Orleans interweaves a searching account of early twentieth-century New Orleans with a narrative of the first twenty-one years of Armstrong's life. Drawing on a stunning body of first-person accounts, this book tells the rags-to-riches tale of Armstrong's early life and the social and musical forces that shaped him. The city and the musician are both extraordinary, their relationship unique, and their impact on American culture incalculable.
Synopsis
"The best book ever produced about Louis Armstrong by anyone other than the man himself."—Terry Teachout, Commentary
The New York Times - Jason Berry
Tensions between caste and color in New Orleans have drawn scrutiny in some jazz histories. Brothers has done the most thorough job yet of exploring the social distance between Armstrong's early years in Back of Town the central city ghetto, once a swamp back of the plantation houses and the world of the downtown Creoles, below Canal Street … this is superb history and a rocking good read.
Editorials
Booklist
“Starred Review. Place this book at the core of jazz and American culture collections, and don't expect it to be displaced—ever.”— Ray OlsonNew York Times Book Review
“Superb history and a rocking good read.”— Jason BerryRay Olson - Booklist
“Starred Review. Place this book at the core of jazz and American culture collections, and don't expect it to be displaced—ever.”Jason Berry - New York Times Book Review
“Superb history and a rocking good read.”Jason Berry
Tensions between caste and color in New Orleans have drawn scrutiny in some jazz histories. Brothers has done the most thorough job yet of exploring the social distance between Armstrong's early years in Back of Town — the central city ghetto, once a swamp back of the plantation houses — and the world of the downtown Creoles, below Canal Street … this is superb history and a rocking good read.— The New York Times