Omni Daily Crush: "Pops" (Part II)

For as long as I've loved music, I've been a Louis Armstrong fan.  The combination of his excitable trumpet and deep gravelly voice never fails to make me grin, and his genius is apparent in nearly every note.  So when I learned this spring that Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout had written an extensive profile of Reverend Satchelmouth, I responded with cautious optimism.  Armstrong himself had already penned Satchmo, his 1955 autobiography, and I privately wondered how anyone could improve upon such an engaging first-person narrative. 

Happily, I underestimated Terry Teachout.  His book, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, is a brilliant look at the life, music, and struggles of a 20th Century icon, and explores the emotions at work behind that infectious smile.  With the help of over 650 reels of Armstrong's own personal tape recordings (comprised of everything from everyday exchanges at home to musical performances), Teachout manages to provide an intimate look at a larger-than-life personality.  Although some artists like Miles Davis dismissed Armstrong's sunny and quick-to-laugh disposition as an example of racial subservience, Pops maintains that the emotions were genuine.  "Faced with the terrible realities of the time and place into which he had been born," Teachout explains, "he didn't repine, but returned love for hatred and sought salvation in work." Louis was hardly impervious to the injustices of his era, but in his mind, nothing was more sacred than the music.

Recommended for fans of Satchmo by Louis Armstrong and Jazz: A History of America's Music by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns

-Dave