[Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong book reviewed

[Ezra Kowadlo]

What a wonderful treasure trove of Jazz history you blokes provide here. I
am relatively new to this group but am absolutely addicted now with the
wonderful stuff coming through.

Thanks for the richness of the information.

Ezra

On 29 June 2011 07:51, Robert Ringwald <rsr at ringwald.com> wrote:

> I don't agree with the last paragraph.
>
> --Bob Ringwald
>
>
> "What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years." Ricky
> Riccardi.
> Pantheon, 400 pp., $28.95.
> by Benjamin Ivry
> Newark Star-Ledger, June 26, 2011
> Toms River resident and pianist Ricky Riccardi launched a blog (
> http://dippermouth.blogspot.com/
>  ) to express his love for Louis Armstrong and works as project archivist
> for the
> Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens.
> Riccardi has drawn from this archival material to explain the mature
> Armstrong, whose
> performances were often criticized by jazz purists. Compared to
> genre-defining 1920s
> and '30s recordings with his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles, Armstrong's
> hits from
> the 1960s (such as "Hello, Dolly!" and the pop song adopted as this book's
> title)
> are Satchmo being Satchmo, not a founding father of jazz. Riccardi stresses
> that
> such late records still offer delights, and Armstrong's jazz ensembles in
> the 1950s
> also produced superb material.
> This may seem obvious to Louis-lovers everywhere, but Riccardi quotes
> contemporary
> journalists dismissing Armstrong as "shoddy jazz" and "vaudeville." Even
> colleague
> Dizzy Gillespie called Armstrong a "plantation character." Yet the serious
> Armstrong
> comes through clearly here, as a ferocious opponent of segregation during
> the 1957
> Little Rock crisis: "When I see on television and read about a crowd in
> Arkansas
> spitting on a little colored girl -- I think I have a right to get sore."
> Riccardi delivers a valuable account, marred only by an introduction full
> of meaningless
> banalities ("one of the most unique human beings to ever grace the planet")
> and sloppy
> English.
>
>
> --Bob Ringwald
> www.ringwald.com
> Fulton Street Jazz Band
> 530/ 642-9551 Office
> 916/ 806-9551 Cell
> Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV
>
> "Politicians and diapers should be changed often and for the same reason."
>
>
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-- 
Ezra