Customer Reviews

The Autobiography of Pops Foster: New Orleans Jazzman

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This book is similar to other transcribed autobiographies of jazz musicians, of which there are many. In fact, it is rare for a musician to write his/her own words. This being the case, the real style and flow of the book are really under the responsibility of the editor--in this case Tom Stoddard. There are two unique features to Stoddard's work: he does not try and edit the conversations so that they are seamless, but rather he leaves breaks in the chunks of conversations that obviously happened on different days. This leaves the connections that Pops was making intact and is much less a construction of how Stoddard should think a particular time period should flow narratively. Also, there is the insertion of small historical contexts by jazz historian Ross Russell. Though this partially serves to undermine Pops' own authority and perhaps ability to tell the 'whole' story as claimed, they are very succinct and well written pieces which add to the context around which Pops' words construct a personal narrative.
Most of all, this autobiography is both insightful for those interested in history and entertaining. Pops was indeed a clever man when it came to the pranks as well as the music, and he doesn't fail to tell about both adequately. This makes the narrative light, as in the case of fellow New Orleans musicians Barney Bigard's and Louis Armstrong's (multiple) texts, which separates these from the somber and literary Sidney Bechet.
The book is shorter than most, but filled with an astonishing amount of details and laugh-out-loud experiences that are well worth reading, no matter what your interest or knowledge of Pops Foster is.

I agree with jf's review but wanted to add my own comments:

For me, this book made some history "come alive" much more than other, more serious histories. Pops is a good story-teller and was around for a period that was pivotal in the development of American music. The book also has a great collection of photographs.

One other note: I had the pleasure of seeing Pops Foster and Zutty Singleton play together at the University of California Jazz Festival in '69 or perhaps '70. (This festival no longer exists, BTW.) They were accompanied by, I seem to recall, Joe Zawinul. They did a 12-bar blues progression. Zawinul started in too fast, clearly thinking "dixieland", but Pops and Zutty wouldn't budge from their nice mid-tempo swing, and Zawinul settled down nicely.

Anyway, 5 stars because this book is so memorable, years after I first read it.