Terry Teachout’s Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong sheds new light on the great Satchmo’s already well-documented life.
Taking a critical look at Armstrong’s dual roles as both artist and entertainer, Teachout, an arts critic for the Wall Street Journal, parses out the variously competing and complementary sides of the music icon’s legacy.
Along the way, he addresses the issues of race and identity that affected Armstrong’s persona, from his early days in New Orleans to his later years in the public eye. The result is a stunning new portrait of one of America’s most familiar yet enigmatic figures.
Read Teachout’s description of the biography, check out The New Yorker‘s review, and buy a copy
of the book.