i only have my time is expired. bla : their lives were changed and by listening, and hearing louis armstrong. and that s a running theme the book is just marvelous in expressing what louis was able to do in a radical way. and hoe how his career was just sufused with this love that was palpable, that comes jumping out at you when you hear his music. every jazz fan comes into jazz via song or an artist or an album. it s all different. but sooner or later, you do get back to louis. i came through miles, don cherry, lester bowie, but eventually, distribution centers get to louis. i was staying in france for a little while and i heard a show, for an hour they played the same song, different versions, in chronological order, and you really got to see what jazz musicians did with a song. they always went in chronological order and the first song you heard was always the stiffest, original cast recording from broadway play that was probably in the french archives, nowhere else.