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Chargement... Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernismpar Thomas Brothers
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Nearly 100 years after bursting onto Chicago's music scene under the tutelage of Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. A trumpet virtuoso, seductive crooner, and consummate entertainer, Armstrong laid the foundation for the future of jazz with his stylistic innovations, but his story would be incomplete without examining how he struggled in a society seething with brutally racist ideologies, laws, and practices.Thomas Brothers picks up where he left off with the acclaimed Louis Armstrong's New Orleans, following the story of the great jazz musician into his most creatively fertile years in the 1920s and early 1930s, when Armstrong created not one but two modern musical styles. Brothers wields his own tremendous skill in making the connections between history and music accessible to everyone as Armstrong shucks and jives across the page. Through Brothers's expert ears and eyes we meet an Armstrong whose quickness and sureness, so evident in his performances, served him well in his encounters with racism while his music soared across the airwaves into homes all over America.Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism blends cultural history, musical scholarship, and personal accounts from Armstrong's contemporaries to reveal his enduring contributions to jazz and popular music at a time when he and his bandmates couldn't count on food or even a friendly face on their travels across the country. Thomas Brothers combines an intimate knowledge of Armstrong's life with the boldness to examine his place in such a racially charged landscape. In vivid prose and with vibrant photographs, Brothers illuminates the life and work of the man many consider to be the greatest American musician of the twentieth century. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)781.65092The arts Music General principles and musical forms Traditions of music Jazz {equally instrumental and vocal}Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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This book's a biographical study of Louis Armstrong's development as a musician in the 1920s and early 1930s, discussing his influences and musical vocabulary more than the details of his everyday life--though those everyday events are necessarily a part of Brothers' story. The best parts, though, are the author's analysis of how Armstrong constructed his recorded work, how the recordings related to live performance, and how those things changed over time. He presents a vision of Armstrong as musically literate, consciously developing as a musician to meet the needs of his career, and perhaps a different sort of genius than he's often been presented. Brothers explicitly rejects the notion that Armstrong "sold out" when he began singing popular songs, and argues that musicians, analysts, and critics who've presented that thesis have pretty much missed the point.
This is not a general biography--it's a musicologist's biography, and best read as such. Those looking for a general biography of the artist would probably be better served by reading Terry Teachout's fine Armstrong biography, Pops.
All that said, this is a great book, and highly recommended.
This review has also been published on a dabbler's journal. ( )