Louis Armstrong

 

Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong
by Gary Giddins
Book Description:
Louis Armstrong has been called the most influential jazz musician of the century. Together this auspicious pairing has resulted in Satchmo, one of the most vivid and fascinating portraits ever drawn of perhaps the greatest figure in the history of American music. Available now at a new price and size, this text-only edition is the authoritative introduction to Armstrong's life and art for the curious newcomer, and offers fresh insight even for the serious student of Pops.
Paperback: 224 pages
Da Capo Press; ISBN: 0306810131 (January 16, )

Louis Armstrong : An Extravagant Life
by Laurence Bergreen
Book Description: 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.
(Paperback)

Louis Armstrong : An American Genius
by James Lincoln Collier
Synopsis
Louis Armstrong. "Satchmo." To millions of fans, he was just a great entertainer. But to jazz aficionados, he was one of the most important musicians of our times--not only a key figure in the history of jazz but a formative influence on all of 20th-century popular music. Set against the backdrop of New Orleans, Chicago, and New York during the "jazz age", Collier re-creates the saga of an old-fashioned black man making it in a white world. He chronicles Armstrong's rise as a musician, his scrapes with the law, his relationships with four wives, and his frequent feuds with fellow musicians Earl Hines and Zutty Singleton. He also sheds new light on Armstrong's endless need for approval, his streak of jealousy, and perhaps most important, what some consider his betrayal of his gift as he opted for commercial success and stardom. A unique biography, knowledgeable, insightful, and packed with information, it ends with Armstrong's death in 1971 as one of the best-known figures in American entertainment. 
Paperback: 416 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.03 x 8.56 x 5.60 
Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr on Demand; Reprint edition (September 1985) 
ISBN: 0195037278

Satchmo : My Life in New Orleans (Da Capo Paperback)
by Louis, Armstrong, Dan Morgenstern (Illustrator)
Book Description:
"In all my whole career the Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in. It was the honky-tonk where levee workers would congregate every Saturday night and trade with the gals who'd stroll up and down the floor and the bar. Those guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy, and there was lost of just plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all, I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn." So says Louis Armstrong about just one of the places he grew up in, a tough kid who also happened to be a musical genius. This story of his early life, concluding with his departure to Chicago to play with his boyhood idol King Oliver, is a fascinating document. Contrary to popular belief, it turns out that life in New Orleans was an amazingly eventful and a basically happy experience for Louis Armstrong-and he ought to know-for in no other city in the world at the time could a boy discover and learn about the music that he loved, for this was New Orleans, and he was Louis Armstrong. 
Paperback: 248 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.75 x 8.25 x 5.25 
Publisher: DaCapo Press; (August 1986) 
ISBN: 0306802767

If I Only Had a Horn : Young Louis Armstrong
by Roxanne Orgill, et al 
(Hardcover)

The Louis Armstrong Companion : Eight Decades of Commentary (The Companion Series)
by Joshua Berrett (Editor)
(Paperback)

Louis Armstrong : King of Jazz (African-American Biographies)
by Wendie C. Old 
(Library Binding)

Louis Armstrong : Jazz Musician (Great African Americans Series)
by Patricia McKissack, et al
(Library Binding - September 1991)

Louis Armstrong : An American Success Story (Great Achievers Series)
by James Lincoln Collier 
(Paperback)

Louis Armstrong, in His Own Words : Selected Writings
by Louis Armstrong, Thomas David Brothers (Editor)
Book Description:
Louis Armstrong has been the subject of countless biographies and music histories. Yet scant attention has been paid to the remarkable array of writings he left behind. Louis Armstrong: In His Own Words introduces readers to a little-known facet of this master trumpeter, band leader, and entertainer. Based on extensive research through the Armstrong archives, this important volume includes some of his earliest letters, personal correspondence with one of his first biographers in 1943-44, autobiographical writings, magazine articles, and essays. Here are Armstrong's own thoughts on his life and career--from poverty in New Orleans to playing in the famous cafes, cabarets, and saloons of Storyville, from his big break in 1922 with the King Oliver band to his storming of New York, from his breaking of color barriers in Hollywood to the infamous King of the Zulus incident in 1949, and finally, to his last days in Queens, New York. Along the way Armstrong recorded touching portraits of his times and offered candid, often controversial, opinions about racism, marijuana, bebop, and other jazz artists such as Jelly Roll Morton and Coleman Hawkins. Indeed, these writings provide a balanced portrait of his life as a musician, entertainer, civil rights activist, and cultural icon. Armstrong's idiosyncratic use of language and punctuation have been preserved to give the reader an unvarnished portrayal of this compelling artist. This volume also includes introductions to the writings, as well as an annotated index of names and places significant to Armstrong's life. 
(Hardcover)
ISBN: 0195119584 
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Louis : the Louis Armstrong story, 1900-1971
by Max Jones
Out of Print - Try Used Books
 

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