Jazz Articles about Louis Armstrong

About Louis Armstrong

Genius Guide to Jazz

There are several theories concerning the origin of jazz. The most prevalent is that jazz originated primarily in New Orleans, a so-called “gumbo" of influences ranging from African polyrhythms to European classical to American Negro spirituals, and permeated the turn-of-the-century culture to the point that within two decades it had established hotbeds in the two largest cities in the country at that time, New York and Chicago. Another, lesser-accepted theory is that the same aliens who built the pyramids returned ...

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Building a Jazz Library

Jazz Trumpet, Part 1

by AAJ Staff
April 16, 2015

Jazz trumpet is practically an art form unto itself, with a richness in terms of its greatest soloists that is hard to match. Some have even argued for it being the “classiest," most sophisticated solo instrument in jazz. Moreover, it seems that in every period of jazz history, dominant voices on trumpet have leapt to the fore and made critical contributions to developing styles. Consider swing without Roy Eldridge, bebop without Diz, hard-bop without Lee Morgan, post-bop without ...

Jazz Primer

How to Listen to Jazz

by Douglas Groothuis
January 22, 2015

All About Jazz readers are usually very hip to the joys and challenges of listening to this uniquely American and endlessly fascinating art form we call jazz. Aficionados of jazz like to talk about jazz, like to recommend jazz to others, and like to listen to how others listen to jazz. This is why strangers can so easily talk jazz. In that spirit, consider how to grow even bigger ears for the music. Obstacles may stand in ...

Book Review

Jazz. New York in the Roaring Twenties

by AAJ Staff
August 19, 2014

Jazz. New York in the Roaring Twenties Robert Nippoldt & Hans-Jürgen Schaal 144 pagine ISBN: 978-3836545013 Taschen 2014 Poco più che trentacinquenne, l'illustratore tedesco Robert Nippoldt ha la capacità di fare sognare. Con un tratto semplice e incisivo, ma al tempo stesso profumato di nostalgia, si sta dedicando in questi anni a evocare l dell'America della prima metà del Novecento, disegnando i fasti di Hollywood o la storia dei gangster ...

Book Review

Pops – The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout

by C. Michael Bailey
March 26, 2014

Pops--The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong Terry Teachout 508 Pages ISBN: # 1906779562 Aurum Press 2014 Critic Terry Teachout published his biography of Louis Armstrong, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) in 2009, republishing it under the present title of Pops--The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong in Kindle and hardcover format. Qualitatively, the biographies are the same. Teachout as biographer has benefitted from all previous Armstrong reportage plus recently ...

Live Review

Second “Louie” Awards Gala: New York, NY, December 4, 2012

by Daniel Kassell
December 14, 2012

Louis Armstrong House Museum 2012 GalaThe Manhattan PenthouseNew York, NYDecember 4, 2012While waiting their turn to play as the Louis Armstrong Centennial Band, trumpeter/vocalist Bria Skonberg, clarinetist Anat Cohen, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, banjoist James Chirillo, tubaist David Ostwald and drummer Marion Felder enjoyed a great meal before the Second Annual Louis Armstrong House Museum Gala on December 4, 2012 on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. MC Michael Cogswell--21-year Director of the Museum and a former musician--recognized everyone ...

Extended Analysis

Louis Armstrong & The All Stars: Satchmo At Symphony Hall - The Complete Performances

by Skip Heller
November 9, 2012

Louis Armstrong & The All StarsSatchmo At Symphony Hall: 65th Anniversary The Complete PerformancesVerve 2012 Writing about trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong is difficult. In the most literal sense, he is the watershed of jazz. He was neither the first acknowledged genius of the music (soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet was) nor its inventor, but in his wake, jazz was made in his image. The best of it still is, even as the ...