Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #460701 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Synopsis
Louis Armstrong was a character of epic proportions - married four times, with countless romantic involvements in and around his marriages, a life-long advocate of marijuana, who took his music from the streets of New Orleans to Hollywood, Europe, South America and, through his many recordings, the world. Armstrong was born to the sixteen-year-old daughter of a slave, who took to prostitution to support herself and her child. He spent time in reform school (where he first learned to play the bugle) and for a while earned his living as a pimp before starting to play jazz in the red-light district of New Orleans. Armstrong fought against prejudice, the depression and the gangster-run music business of Chicago to become one of the most prominent black men of his generation and one of the most successful jazz musicians of all time. Laurence Bergreen tells his story.

Customer Reviews

Louis Armstrong blows, scats, and sings for us all.
Louis Armstrong, An Extravant Life is superb because it recreates the man and his times--and how the man changed his time. Laurence Bergreen details the poverty of Storyville, New Orleans: its honky tonks and violence, and the surprising sustenance a resilent child found there. We see how Louis Armstrong found his family among the white, Jewish Karnovskys, and in the stern Waif's Home where he became a musician.

Bergreen shows us the shameful racism of the South (and North), and how Louis' exuberant personality and music helped transcend it. The Armstrong we come to know is humble, humorous, brimming with the energy of jazz itself. We learn how Armstrong invented solos and scat singing, and how his jazz went beyond even music. That is, he mesmerized America with a personality that brought rich and poor, black and white, hip and square together.

Armstrong's blowing and singing, his restless amiable spirit, is a bracing ode to being alive. Bergreen's meticulous empathy lets us share the extravagance.

Great reading. A slice of life.
An Extravagant Life is much more than a biography of Louis Armstrong. Having been born at the turn of the century, in New Orleans, this book is a travelogue of that city from a unique perspective (the underside), a history of jazz, a snapshot of race relations and segregation in America for this entire century, AND a rich tapestry of the life of a man who started out with no advantages except his musical gift and a positive attitude. Armstrong was a man of very strong tolerances: alcohol, marijuana, food, women, gansters, laxatives, and music, to name just a few. The essence of Louis is captured in Bergreen's book: We like him, we care for him, we pity him, and we almost understand him. We are definitely fascinated by him.

A Must
This book is quite simply fabulous! packed full of funny stories and written in an entertaining fashion, especially for such a long book. You do not need to be a jazz enthusiast to enjoy this book. Louis's warm charactor shines through and you really feel you know him when you have finished. You can't help but love him.Right from all the humble beginnings which are fascinating, through his musical life to his later years and his constant fight against racism which fills you with boundless admiration. Apart from that it's just a wonderful read.