Sul sito della rivista The American Spectator c'è una brillantissima recensione dello straordinaria biografia di Louis Armostrong, intitolata Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong di Terry Teachout. Il libro racconta non solo la vita di un grandissimo musicista, ma anche aiuta a narrare la storia di gran parte del 20° secolo, grazie al quale lo scrittore si candida autorevolmente per la nomination al Premio Pulitzer nella categoria delle biografie.
Readers should browse the index, featuring names as diverse as Al Capone, Jimmie Rodgers, Bing Crosby, Philip Larkin, Darius Milhaud, Jean Renoir, and Pope Pius XII, and check out the 60-page bibliography. In a bow to the tech generation, Teachout lists 30 key Armstrong recordings covering 40 years, all downloadable from iTunes. I made a point of playing them on my iPod as I read the book, which enhanced the experience.
Teachout traces Armstrong's life from his birth in 1901 (not on July 4 as he claimed) in the infamous Storyville section of New Orleans to his death in Queens, New York in 1971. Armstrong's prototypical rags-to-riches story has the added subtext of racial prejudice and segregation.
Teachout sets the stage in his prologue: "It goes without saying -- or should -- that Louis Armstrong's music was the most important thing about him. Yet his personal story, in addition to shedding light on the wellsprings of his art, is important in its own right, and no less in need of a historically aware interpretation. He was a child of his time, not ours, and some of the things he said or did are barely intelligible to those who know little of his youth. Even in his own time, he was widely misunderstood, often by people who, like Dizzy Gillespie, should have known better."
Teachout first traces the Armstrong itinerary from New Orleans to Chicago, where his genius was first recognized by Joe "King" Oliver, a legendary father of early jazz. There young Louis Armstrong joined the Creole Jazz Band of the early 1920s and began to outshine his mentor. Armstrong next moved to New York, where he encountered a new level of sophistication with the educated bandleader Fletcher Henderson. In 1925, back in Chicago, Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five recorded "what was to become the Old Testament of classic jazz." That made them the most significant band in the history of jazz. Armstrong had arrived.....
Per leggere l'intera recensione si può visitare questo link.
Readers should browse the index, featuring names as diverse as Al Capone, Jimmie Rodgers, Bing Crosby, Philip Larkin, Darius Milhaud, Jean Renoir, and Pope Pius XII, and check out the 60-page bibliography. In a bow to the tech generation, Teachout lists 30 key Armstrong recordings covering 40 years, all downloadable from iTunes. I made a point of playing them on my iPod as I read the book, which enhanced the experience.
Teachout traces Armstrong's life from his birth in 1901 (not on July 4 as he claimed) in the infamous Storyville section of New Orleans to his death in Queens, New York in 1971. Armstrong's prototypical rags-to-riches story has the added subtext of racial prejudice and segregation.
Teachout sets the stage in his prologue: "It goes without saying -- or should -- that Louis Armstrong's music was the most important thing about him. Yet his personal story, in addition to shedding light on the wellsprings of his art, is important in its own right, and no less in need of a historically aware interpretation. He was a child of his time, not ours, and some of the things he said or did are barely intelligible to those who know little of his youth. Even in his own time, he was widely misunderstood, often by people who, like Dizzy Gillespie, should have known better."
Teachout first traces the Armstrong itinerary from New Orleans to Chicago, where his genius was first recognized by Joe "King" Oliver, a legendary father of early jazz. There young Louis Armstrong joined the Creole Jazz Band of the early 1920s and began to outshine his mentor. Armstrong next moved to New York, where he encountered a new level of sophistication with the educated bandleader Fletcher Henderson. In 1925, back in Chicago, Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five recorded "what was to become the Old Testament of classic jazz." That made them the most significant band in the history of jazz. Armstrong had arrived.....
Per leggere l'intera recensione si può visitare questo link.
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