Louis Armstrong: An American Genius

by James Lincoln Collier

A biography of the great jazz trumpeter traces his growth as an artist, his success as an entertainer, and his relationships with fellow musicians

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, The United States Of America

400 pages, Hardcover

First published October 27, 1983

About the author

James Lincoln Collier (born June 27, 1928) is a journalist, author, and professional musician.

Collier's notable literary works include My Brother Sam Is Dead (1974), a Newbery Honor book that was also named a Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association and nominated for a National Book Award in 1975. He also wrote a children's book titled The Empty Mirror (2004), The Teddy Bear Habit (1967), about an insecure boy whose beatnik guitar teacher turns out to be a crook, and Rich and Famous (1975), sequel to The Teddy Bear Habit. His list of children's books also includes Chipper (2001), about a young boy in a gang. His writings for adults include numerous books on jazz, including biographies of Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. He has also contributed entries on jazz-related subjects to the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

In addition to his writing, Collier is an accomplished jazz musician who plays the trombone professionally.

Reviews

[Toren Spencer-Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louis Armstrong: An American Genius
By James Lincoln Collier

Collier notes that music was an integral part of life in New Orleans and that jazz begins in New Orleans.
Although most people called him Louie, Armstrong preferred Louis.
That the history of jazz goes back to Africa, where there was a basic concern for rhythm.
"Jazz is as New Orleans as red beans and rice."
For example, when three beats in one scheme existed, they should have done so in harmony not in conflict.
The tapping of one foot of the listener of the blues is deliberate, keeps a beat -- too fast would be a different style altogether.
Forms where the beat is abstracted from the melody.
Slower forms vs music that seems livelier, more exciting, which comes from experimenting with the rhythm.
Jelly Roll Morton did such and claimed that he invented jazz in 1902 (when he began beating his foot on the hard wooden floor at double the ostensible beat of ragtime.)
Different blacks which settled different areas became known for their music -- perhaps one can draw the analogy to the Charleston dance.
There was never a moment, really, when jazz lacked an audience in America.
Jazz would sweep the United States and soon would move out to the larger world.
Evolved from marching bands.
The Creoles played a role in Armstrong’s development.
Virtually all the New Orleans musicians played in street bands at times, which were, as a consequence, seedbeds where ideas flowered and cross-pollinated.
It is very frustrating for the jazz historian that none of these early bands ever recorded; in fact, some of the early musicians never recorded.
Discusses that Armstrong and fellow cornetist Buddie Petit played a lot of funerals together.
Mentions that the tonks which influenced Armstrong during his apprenticeship were usually housed in one- or two-story buildings, mostly wooden. They were likely to have outside balconies at least on the street sides to provide shade to the lower floor.
Armstrong began by playing the blues. He was gifted with a marvelous ear and the other musicians quickly realized his promise and encouraged him to keep at it.
"Kid Ory remembers a time when Black Benny, a drummer and notorious tough of the neighborhood, brought Louis, recently released from the home, to Lincoln Park, where Ory was playing. "Louis came up and played 'Ole Miss' and the blues, and everyone in the park went wild over this boy in knee trousers who could play so great."
Collier writes that you can discover the effect of excessive syncopation in ragtime for yourself. First tap out with your left foot a beat at a reasonable march tempo; then tap your right foot between the left-foot taps. If you tap the right foot only occasionally, it will not destroy your sense of the original left-foot tempo. But if you tap your right foot between all of the beats, so your two feet are alternating, you will quickly begin to wonder whether you are not tapping out a beat twice as fast as the original one. In ragtime, the “right foot,” so to speak, is tapped more than occasionally but not all the time; thus the ambiguity.
”This effect is not confined to ragtime,” he writes, “many types of music contain implied secondary and tertiary pulses… a number of New Orleans jazz pioneers have made it absolutely clear that the switch from 2/4 to 4/4 was the critical change that led ragtime into jazz."
According to Curtis Jerde, in the nineteenth century bands were customarily not paid at all but lived on tips given them for playing requests.
Joe Oliver sponsored, influenced and attracted attention to Armstrong. Oliver was a dominating personality, a natural leader.
New Orleans musicians realize that there is a market for their music across America, in the cities of the North, where the white man intruded less than he did in the South. So they moved North. This creates an enormous and growing market in the cities of the North for black music. A boom in black entertainment was beginning.
Jazz was at first badly misunderstood. There was no sense that this was a black music or that it came specifically from New Orleans. But some young people set out to discover how this new music was made. The jazz boom was on.
During this time (1920), Armstrong could now count himself a professional musician.
Although New Orleans was home for Armstrong, Collier mentions that he was astonished by the tall buildings of St. Louis.
Lucille Armstrong, his widow said that Armstrong was at his best when he was around people that he knew very well and very closely. And poor people. He had something in common with them.
Revived interest in the New Orleans style of jazz in the 1940's.
Armstrong's genius would have come forth anywhere in America.
Armstrong, like many of the jazz musicians couldn't read music- never mind an arrangement. But when they started improvising, the foundation was still there.
The improvising musician can go easy on himself, substituting something simpler for a difficult, risky passage; he is never forced by the music itself to upgrade his skills. The reading player, on the other hand, must play whatever comes along, and if he has a weakness… he is pressed to deal with the problems by the score in front of him.
Armstrong added reading music to his repertoire on the riverboats he played after being helped by two more senior musicians.
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Thank you,
🌹🌹Toren Spencer-Gray

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a flawed but compelling book; the author hits the reader over the head with some agressive opinions on jazz. Ok, fine. Well, still, this is the book that brought me back to Armstrong and his genius.

[David Becker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting subject, deadly dry writing style.

[Jon Frum · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've already read a worshiping book on Armstrong, this should be your next stop. Collier isn't afraid to discuss the less appealing aspects of jazz musicians and their music, which has gotten him into trouble with the fanboy crowd. He clearly likes his subject, but speak the less than flattering truth when necessary. He really brings out Louis as a simple man who lived a complex story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, but it does have it's shortcomings. In particular, written descriptions of music just don't work - if you can't hear it, phrase by cited phrase, the analysis just doesn't make much sense. Still, definitely worth a read, along with the author's biography of Duke Ellington.

[lyla55 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for an assignment. I thought learning about Louis was interesting, yet I found it difficult to follow this book. There are better books about Louis you can read.

[Allison]

Louis Armstrong: An American Success Story by James Lincoln Collier is the story of Louis Armstrong’s life. It goes from telling about Armstrong living in the slum as a child to him being the best, “By the beginning of 1929, however, it was clear to blacks that Louis Armstrong was not merely a great jazz musician: He was the best,” (Collier 107). The book tells about his struggles getting to fame, and how hard he worked to get musical experience. It also tells how he overcame poverty, and was still successful. The book really outlines his whole career, start to finish.
I though this book was okay. It gave a lot of good information, but I didn’t really like the way it was written. It was too casual for me. It felt like someone was talking to me rather than giving me good factual information. However, I did like the length because it only told about important information, not making it excessively long. An example of a ‘casual’ sounding sentence is, “But basically he made the switch because he decided he liked the sound of the trumpet better than the cornet,” (Collier 107). To me, that feels like someone just blurted something out to me as if we were having a conversation. The writing style just didn’t give off the right feel for a biography.
I would give this book a 3 out of 5. It is a very informational book, but not the most interesting. The writing style could also use some improvement. However, the information was organized as his life went along, so it made it easier to see his career expand. In all, this is a good book to read if you’re doing a report, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a free read.

[Divalu Lobo · Rating 5 out of 5]

É um livro de biografia do musico que me deixou emocionada. Como ele foi infeliz na infância - explorado pela mãe como cafetão!
Mas desde cedo se ligou à musica e logo perceberam que ele era - e é - o gênio do blue e do sax! O autor conta tudo com muito carinho, respeito e admiração sobre esse fantástico divulgador da música negra americana.