One of the hardest parts of writing a biography is finding a fit subject, but sometimes theyre in plain sight. Despite his incalculable contributions to American culture, there has never been a fully adequate narrative biography of Louis Armstrong. Terry Teachout now fills that void with Pops. He begins by suggesting how this omission came to be, then persisted for so long.
No one disputes that Armstrong revolutionized music, helped popularize jazz throughout the world and created countless imitators. Even his sometimes disparaging successors readily acknowledged their debt. You cant play nothing on trumpet that doesnt come from him, Miles Davis once said. Satchmos influence spilled over into the rest of American culture, particularly regarding race. Through recordings, concerts, movies, magazine interviews, and radio and television appearances, he was the first black man whom millions of white Americans allowed into their homes, and hearts.
Why, then, the scholarly neglect? Teachout maintains that Armstrongs detractors were so critical or uncomfortable over his public persona the sweaty brow, the megawatt smile, the crowd-pleasing, ingratiating manner that they ignored his enormous, continuing contributions to music and to civilization. To them, he was simply too entertaining, too popular or too pandering to be taken seriously.
No one disputes that Armstrong revolutionized music, helped popularize jazz throughout the world and created countless imitators. Even his sometimes disparaging successors readily acknowledged their debt. You cant play nothing on trumpet that doesnt come from him, Miles Davis once said. Satchmos influence spilled over into the rest of American culture, particularly regarding race. Through recordings, concerts, movies, magazine interviews, and radio and television appearances, he was the first black man whom millions of white Americans allowed into their homes, and hearts.
Why, then, the scholarly neglect? Teachout maintains that Armstrongs detractors were so critical or uncomfortable over his public persona the sweaty brow, the megawatt smile, the crowd-pleasing, ingratiating manner that they ignored his enormous, continuing contributions to music and to civilization. To them, he was simply too entertaining, too popular or too pandering to be taken seriously.
