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Jazz Articles about Louis Armstrong
About Louis Armstrong
Instrument: Trumpet and vocals
Related Articles | Albums | Photos | Similar ToWalter van de Leur: Jazz & Death, Part 2—Dancing With the Devil
by Ian Patterson
Part 1 | Part 2 Most people would probably take a linear, historical view of jazz in an attempt to understand its complex history. Walter van de Leur, Professor of Jazz and Improvised Music at the University of Amsterdam, starts with death. His book, Jazz And Death: Reception, Rituals And Representations (Routledge, 2023) illustrates multiple ways in which jazz's fascination with death feeds into the narratives and mythologies that surround the music and its practitioners.
read moreIt's Christmas Time, Again
by Patrick Burnette
One of the bastards loves holiday music (Mike loves to flex his “knowledge-of-obscure-Xmas-tunes" muscles) and so the holiday episode has become an annual tradition. Luckily, every year at least a few jazz musicians put out a holiday album (if under duress) and archival and historical finds are always there to enjoy as well.Playlist Discussion of Various Artists's album A Jazz Christmas (Windham Hill) 2:52 Discussion of Shorty Rogers' album The Swingin' Nutcracker (RCA) 11:47 Discussion of Louis Armstrong's ...
read moreLouis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington & Lena Horn
by Joe Dimino
In honor of the 2022 book Dangerous Rhythms by New York Times best selling author T.J English, we constructed an hour of jazz celebrating the story of his intersection of the mob and the music. It starts in Chicago with the great King Oliver and ends in New York City with Jimmy Durante. In between, we touch on a story that was the root and force of jazz in the beginning. Featuring artists like Jelly Roll Morton, Bennie Moten, Earl ...
read moreBill Cunliffe, Doc Watkins & Louis Armstrong
by Joe Dimino
We begin our annual Christmas Hour of Neon Jazz with brilliant young composer Richard Williams and a song off his 2022 album Hollywood Christmas. Following that, we hear a live cut recorded by your trusty host at the historic Blue Room off 18 & Vine in Kansas City with pianist Charles Williams doing his best to honor the Peanuts gang. From there, we get into a host recent holiday albums including John Di Martino, Doc Watkins and the master of ...
read moreLouis Armstrong: Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule
by Chris May
Plenty of jazz fans loathe “holiday" albums, defined as many of them are by cheap sentimentality and fake bonhomie. If the eggnog does not make you retch, the tackily jazzed-up Christmas carols will. But Louis Armstrong's Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule is an exception. Armstrong himself was exceptional. As Duke Ellington observed, “He was born poor, died rich, and never hurt anyone along the way." Consider something else... Armstrong smoked weed pretty much every day of ...
read moreDangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld
by Richard J Salvucci
Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld T. J. English 420 Pages ISBN: # 978-0-06-303141-8 William Morrow 2022 The subtitle of this not uninteresting history by T.J. English could well be “Sex, Drugs, Jazz, and the Mob," because, for the most part, that is what you get. It is a flawed book, in part because there are errors of fact, some awfully florid prose, a few egregious typos, and more than a little magical ...
read moreThe Best Musical Almost No One Ever Saw: The Real Ambassadors
by Richard J Salvucci
The Real Ambassadors: Dave and Iola Brubeck and Louis Armstrong Challenge Segregation Keith Hatschek 279 Pages ISBN:978-1-4698-3784-4 University Press of Mississippi 2022 In the late 1950s, Dave Brubeck and Iola Brubeck decided that it might be time for jazz to visit Broadway. Iola, in particular, felt strongly about doing a project that blended jazz as an art form and as a sociopolitical commentary on the absurdity of racial segregation. The Real ...
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