Satchmo (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

by Louis Armstrong (Author) "WHEN I WAS BORN in 1900 my father, Willie Armstrong, and my mother, May Ann - or Mayann as she was called - were living..." (more)
Key Phrases: old hustlers, cornet player, coal cart, New Orleans, Joe Oliver, Black Benny (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"By far the most revealing document yet on Louis Armstrong's early life and his view of music in the world, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans is also a pleasure to read." -- Martin Williams

"Compelling autobiography." -- Chicago Tribune

"It is refreshing indeed to dig this unpretentious, rough-hewn, honest-to-badness memoir." -- New York Times

"With the inimitable style and love for life he brought to everything he did, Armstrong tells the story of how he grew up in circumstances we have been conditioned to perceive as sordid and depraved. Is human character the product of environment? Read Satchmo and find out." -- Dan Morgenstern

Product Description
"In all my whole career the Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in. It was the honky-tonk where levee workers would congregate every Saturday night and trade with the gals who'd stroll up and down the floor and the bar. Those guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy, and there was lost of just plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all, I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn." So says Louis Armstrong about just one of the places he grew up in, a tough kid who also happened to be a musical genius. This story of his early life, concluding with his departure to Chicago to play with his boyhood idol King Oliver, is a fascinating document. Contrary to popular belief, it turns out that life in New Orleans was an amazingly eventful and a basically happy experience for Louis Armstrong-and he ought to know-for in no other city in the world at the time could a boy discover and learn about the music that he loved, for this was New Orleans, and he was Louis Armstrong.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (August 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306802767
• ISBN-13: 978-0306802768
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #299,944 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans, July 7, 2000

By A Customer

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The editors kept Armstrong's voice true to the legend and honest in its depictions of his sometimes harsh life in New Orleans. However, Artmstrong's sense of humor and goodness shine through his story and the reader really learns to like him as a person as well as a great musician. As a native New Orleanian, I really enjoyed his descriptions of the city during that time. I look forward to reading this book again!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like pulling up an armchair and jawin' with Louis, November 4, 2003

By	R. J. Marsella (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

What shines through this recollection of Louis Armstrong's youth in New Orleans is the essential positive outlook this man seems to have been born with despite the hardship of his early years. This "life-force' for lack of a better term is what drove his musicianship to such heights that he is the most revered American musician of the 20th century. While this is no scholalry biography it is written with the feel of an oral history and reading it is much like having Satch relate these tales over a few drinks. Not only does it shed much light on the real person that Louis Armstrong was but it also reflects an era in old New Orleans that is absolutely fascinating to read about in the words of someone who lived there. This is a hugely enjoyable book on numerous levels and for fans of Armstrong it is indispensible.

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for New Orleans and/or Literature Fans, July 3, 2007

By	Kevin Ritter "Kevin In Chicago" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Bought and read it twice in a couple weeks. Terrific imagery into old New Orleans. Get it- you'll love it.