Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong

From Barnes & Noble

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (1901-1971) grew up poor in New Orleans. The grandson of slaves, he dropped out of school and began his professional musical career when he was eleven. By the time he was twenty, he was already known as an innovative trumpet player who was shaping early jazz in New Orleans and Chicago. Wall Street Journal arts columnist Terry Teachout has written what has been hailed as the definitive biography of this legendary musician. In hardcover, Pops was described as "a comprehensive, affectionate biography of arguably the single most important figure in the history of jazz." Editor's recommendation. Now in paperback.

Michiko Kakutani

With Pops, his eloquent and important new biography of Armstrong, the critic and cultural historian Terry Teachout restores this jazzman to his deserved place in the pantheon of American artists…[Teachout] writes with a deep appreciation of Armstrong's artistic achievements, while situating his work and his life in a larger historical context. He draws on Armstrong's wonderfully vivid writings and hours of tapes in which the musician recorded his thoughts and conversations with friends, and in doing so, creates an emotionally detailed portrait of Satchmo as a quick, funny, generous, observant and sometimes surprisingly acerbic man: a charismatic musician who, like a Method actor, channeled his vast life experience into his work, displaying a stunning, almost Shakespearean range that encompassed the jubilant and the melancholy, the playful and the sorrowful.
—The New York Times

David Margolick

…Armstrong could not have a more impassioned advocate. At times, Pops reads like a defense brief, but a very loving and knowledgeable one.
—The New York Times Book Review

Louis Bayard

Maybe we need a half-century's distance to see this gifted man without the filter of politics, to regard his grin not as an accommodation to the white world but as the distillation of his soul. In the end, true goodness may be the hardest quality to pin down, or to accept, in art, but that is what Armstrong's music abounds in, even at its most commercial. He was, in Teachout's lovely phrase, "a major-key artist," whose "lavish generosity of spirit was part and parcel of his prodigal way of making music." That prodigality is our gift, and Louis Armstrong, I am happy to report, is still grinning at us. Upon finishing this definitive life, the reader is instructed to flip to the discography, download every last song, listen and grin the hell back.
—The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Following his biographies of H.L. Mencken and George Balanchine, Teachout turns to another mighty pillar of 20th-century American culture, Louis Armstrong, “a black man born at the turn of the century in the poorest quarter of New Orleans who by the end of his life was known and loved in every corner of the earth.” It may seem odd to speak of someone of Louis Armstrong's stature as needing recuperation, but his popularity has long been held against him by jazz purists and other music critics. Teachout brings a fresh perspective that, while candid about the ways “Pops” could hold himself back artistically, celebrates his ambition and capacity for renewal. The other knock against Armstrong is that if white Americans loved him so much, he must have been an “Uncle Tom,” a notion Teachout neatly demolishes. While Armstrong was keenly aware of the social realities of his time, his relentless work ethic was fueled by an equally intense optimism. (His patience, however, was not infinite; he publicly criticized President Eisenhower as having “no guts” for failing to enforce desegregation—one of the few celebrities who could be so outspoken without suffering substantial backlash.) Teachout's portrait reminds us why we fell in love with Armstrong's music in the first place. B&w photos throughout, many previously unpublished. (Dec. 2)

Library Journal

Teachout (The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken), a former jazz bassist, weaves together scholarly work, primary sources (e.g., newly available recordings of Armstrong's conversations), and his subject's extensive writings to produce a lively biography of the first jazz icon. Starting with Armstrong's deprived childhood in New Orleans, he writes about the trumpeter's stint with Joe Oliver's band, his marriage, and his move to New York. Teachout continues with Pops's seminal work in the late 1920s, charts his rise to international fame, and concludes with his swing-era fall from the spotlight and revived interest in his small combo in 1947 to his death in 1971. Overall, the author successfully shows the complexity of Armstrong, who onstage seemed eternally happy but exploded in moodiness in private, who insisted on a doctrine of self-help but exhibited boundless generosity, and who seemed passive but criticized President Eisenhower for his racist policies. VERDICT Though unearthing no new revelations, Teachout offers a readable, reliable, and evenhanded account of the life of Louis Armstrong that complements biographies that are more groundbreaking (e.g., Thomas Brothers's Louis Armstrong's New Orleans) or controversial (James Lincoln Collier's Louis Armstrong: An American Genius).—Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle

Kirkus Reviews

A comprehensive, affectionate biography of arguably the single most important figure in the history of jazz. The broad outlines of the story are well known to jazz fans. Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was born into poverty in New Orleans; learned to play at a school for juvenile offenders; went to Chicago in 1922 to join his idol King Oliver's band. He made a series of groundbreaking records in the late '20s and toured with big bands until after World War II, when he returned to his preferred small-group format. With the advent of television, Armstrong became a pop-recording star, with such hits as "Mack the Knife" and "Hello Dolly." Former professional jazz musician and Wall Street Journal drama critic Teachout (All in the Dances: A Brief Life of George Balanchine, 2004, etc.) fills in the details with a sure hand, drawing on numerous published sources as well as voluminous tape recordings and autobiographical writings left by Armstrong, many not available to earlier writers. The author sheds light on the embouchure problems that temporarily derailed Armstrong's career, and dictated a change of style, in the early '30s. He sympathetically re-evaluates Armstrong's later career, which many critics have dismissed as elevating showmanship above art, demonstrating that the trumpeter was much more than the unschooled natural genius some admirers saw in him. Without overloading the reader with technical details, Teachout shows how Armstrong's music evolved over the years, while staying true to lessons learned-above all, attention to melody-from his New Orleans mentors such as Oliver. Quotes from Armstrong's earthy autobiographical writings give the book authentic flavor. Teachout also dealsfrankly with Armstrong's lifelong marijuana use, the role of organized crime in his business affairs, his untidy marital life and his forthright statements on racial issues. The author makes an eloquent case for Armstrong's status as a pioneer, not just in jazz but in the broader context of 20th-century art. A rewarding jazz biography and a revealing look at a broad swath of American cultural history. Author tour to New York, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans

Booklist

"Ultimately, Teachout's fine biography shows how much of Armstrong's love of music—and people—was behind that signature million-watt smile."

From the Publisher

"Ultimately, Teachout's fine biography shows how much of Armstrong's love of music—and people—was behind that signature million-watt smile."—Booklist "Teachout's portrait reminds us why we fell in love with Armstrong's music in the first place."—Publishers Weekly "A comprehensive, affectionate biography of arguably the single most important figure in the history of jazz...A rewarding jazz biography and a revealing look at a broad swath of American cultural history."—Kirkus Reviews "Best of all, it smartly—and simply—finds unity in contradiction."—Atlantic Monthly "Teachout delivers a taut and well-paced work that is astute in its critical judgments and gripping in its chronicle of the trumpeter's life and times."—The Weekly Standard

"...terrific biography..."—The Sunday Times (UK)

"With 'Pops,' his eloquent and important new biography of Armstrong, the critic and cultural historian Terry Teachout restores this jazzman to his deserved place in the pantheon of American artists..."—The New York Times "With prodigious research and a good deal of stylistic grace, the cultural critic has produced a biography as definitive as it is incolclusive about the sources of Armstrong's artistic genius and contradictory personality."—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"...the most comprehensive and pleasurable account yet of the trumpeter's complex life and personality. Teachout's vivid and accessible portrayal of Armstrong is one of the book's great pleasures: He will make a fan of the most skeptical reader."—Kansas City Star

"...compelling..."—The Los Angeles Times "Teachout adopts a sophisticated street-level style that mirrors what he loves best about the man known as Satchmo: Armstrong's ability (and willingness) to synthesize high and low culture for an audience as broad as his grin."—Time Out New York

"...a masterpiece." —Seattle Times

"Teachout excels at conveying the interplay between Armstrong the artist and Armstrong the entertainer, and at examining the particular challenge of his legacy." —The New Yorker