Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism

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Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393065824
Publisher:	W W Norton & Co Inc
Publication date:	02/03/2014
Pages:	594
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.10(d)

Preface ix

Introduction 1

1 "Welcome to Chicago" 13

2 Oliver's Band and the "Blues Age" 40

3 Opposites Attract: Louis and Miss Lil 70

4 The Call from Broadway 116

5 "This Is What Really Relates to Us": The Dreamland Café, the Vendome Theater, and the First Hot Five Records 165

6 Melody Man at the Sunset Café 222

7 "Some Kind of a God" 276

8 The White Turn 326

9 The Rosetta Stone 377

10 Sleepy Time Down South 417

Discography 463

Bibliography 465

Endnotes 489

Source Notes 521

Index 571

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Editorial Reviews

11/25/2013
In this sprawling, somewhat bloated study, music historian Brothers picks up where his Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans leaves off, following Armstrong through his most formative decade, from 1922–1932. On Aug. 8, 1922, Armstrong boarded a train in New Orleans bound for Chicago to join King Oliver’s band and start over. Combining his love of blues with jazz, Armstrong developed both as a vocalist who understood harmony and as a strong trumpeter whose “command of tone, quick fingers, and high-note playing created a new melodic idiom” that set him apart from other musicians. Brothers conducts us on a journey with Armstrong as he builds a following in Chicago; marries his first wife, the pianist Lillian Harden; and moves away from Oliver’s band, creating his own distinct sound in the clubs of Harlem in New York City, making five “hot records,” including “Muskrat Ramble,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and “Heebie Jeebies.” Although Terry Teachout’s Pops remains the definitive biography of Armstrong, Brothers’s book shows how Armstrong achieved a sort of godlike status among black audiences while bridging the racial gap to attract white audiences with his singing. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Brothers proves his thesis and then some…an encyclopedic authority.

C.W. Mahoney - American Spectator

Thomas Brothers remains Armstrong's finest interpreter and chronicler.

Gerald Early

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

★ 2013-10-28
The author of Louis Armstrong's New Orleans (2006) continues his stellar account of the great trumpeter's life (1901–1971), focusing on the 1920s and '30s. Brothers (Music/Duke Univ.), who has also edited a collection of Armstrong's prose (Louis Armstrong, in His Own Words, 1999), composes a multilayered work comprising biography, cultural and racial history, and musicology. The author begins in 1931 (Armstrong was on tour), showing us two principal themes that will reappear throughout the work: Armstrong's artistry and American racism. Brothers then takes us back to 1922 (Armstrong was on his way to Chicago and a new musical life) and marches steadily forward, more or less, to the 1930s, when Armstrong, a major musical star, participated in some degrading roles in motion pictures--performances that sullied his reputation. The author also examines Armstrong's complicated love life (he'd been married three times by book's end) and his fondness for marijuana (he smoked it throughout his adult life--spent some time in jail in 1931), his relationships with fellow musicians and managers and even the Chicago mob (Capone liked him). Brothers introduces us to Armstrong's musical mentors (King Oliver was a major one), takes us along on Armstrong's tours, into the OKeh recording studios (he eventually moved to RCA Victor), and describes the neighborhoods he lived in and the clubs he played. We learn about the advent of the microphone, the primitive recording conditions, the celebrity Armstrong earned from records--but even more from his radio appearances. We see Armstrong, the singer, the cornetist (and, later, trumpeter), the dancer, the comedian and the artist nonpareil (Brothers rhapsodizes about his technique, his upper range). The text becomes dense for general readers only when Brothers waxes analytical about particular songs, recordings and techniques. A masterful performance that displays the author's vast archival research, musical knowledge, familiarity with cultural history and profound sensitivity to America's vile racial history.

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