SATCHMO My Life in New Orleans

by Louis Armstrong ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Louis Armstrong's story of his boyhood and youth beats the rapid tattoo of fast-pulsed New Orleans life as he grew up in the honky-tonks on James Street and Storyville in a community that spilled into the streets in its turbulent life. Son of separated parents, shifted around in a circle of fond relatives and successive step-fathers, Satchmo became a performer when he spent time at the Colored Waif's Home for Boys. Along with the coal business, he played and listened -- at Lulu White's Mahogany House on North Basin Street and other spots where jazz was king. In the heart of a community that moved over to make room for such toughs as Black Benny, where pimps and prostitutes, husbands and wives fanned fury to ferocity and big hearts warmed the underdogs, Satchmo played his role as musician, son, husband. He followed Fate Marable on to St. Louis and finally took off for Chicago to play with his beloved mentor and idol, King Joe Oliver... His first night he was in! As much a story of the fertile fields that yielded the rich jazz fruit as of a youth who grew to blow his way to glory, this has an easily-sorted audience.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Prentice-Hall

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1954

Categories: NONFICTION