Louis Armstrong: An American Genius

Whatever else you might want to know about Louis Armstrong, the chances that you'll find anything else as comprehensive and unbiased as this are slim indeed. This is made the more so because of the many other unreliable texts there are available, many of them drawing uncritically on what Armstrong himself said, much of which has been shown to be unreliable. Collier does a fine job of walking the line between serious music critic and biographer.

Collier did a great job! His historiography is as brilliant as ever. It seems to me that the mainstream of Jazz so-called "scholars" don't like Collier because he's got no race bias and because of his impartiality. Actually, Mr. Collier is the best American writer on the subject, as he knows musical theory and is also a fine researcher.

This excellent, well written ,thoroughly researched book is an interesting and compelling read. My husband bought it for me following one of his regular sojourns to Hay-on-Wye where he searches for fishing books and the likes. I had started to collect books on the Blues to compliment my small collection of Albums,C.Ds even a few 78s. and so considered this biography an aside to the mainstream of my type of music. How wrong some of your assumptions can be! Collier dissects the man his music and the age in which he lived -dispelling many of the myths and giving factual credence to certain claims made by Armstrong and others alike. So,having picked up the book,out of politeness and consideration to my dear husband (!) I starting to flick through reading an odd passage here and there and then found that I had gone back to the very begining and was hooked 'line and sinker 'on the narrative. I am in awe of the depth of research /detective work the author has made on a man whom he obviously enjoyed researching with out any hint of hero worship or sycophancy, but! when it came to the technical abilities of his subject on his cornet playing well- there the author did leave me in ignorance (and boredom)- as not being in the least musically talented I found the discriptive passages on such matters way over my head and, I imgine, that of other readers with similar omissions in their musical education!! The author surmises that some Jazz enthusiasts may denigrate Armstrongs' later performances to that of genial buffoon, all round entertainer and despise this career change for what they take to be a sell out to white entertainment. But Collier can ,having made a thorough study of the man, make assumptions based on fact and not on personal fancy or nebulous notions as some do,that Armstrong fullfilled his ambition of becoming an entertainer which he set out to become but on route became one of the most innovative and influential and skilled exponents of Jazz that the world has ever seen. As Armstrongs' popularity and adulation grew among the general public so it waned on the Jazz circuit as purists disliked the way Armstrong courted popularity. Elitists often think the artist should suffer for his art form and saw Armstrong as a traitor to this. But, when, as you do here, see the history of the man his music, his suffering , etc., all put into the context of the social backdrop that Collier does so expertly you are leftin no doubt of the sincerity of both biographer and subject matter. A great piece of literature!