The reality is far more complicated . Louis Armstrong. Photograph: Eliot Elisofon/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images
The reality is far more complicated . Louis Armstrong. Photograph: Eliot Elisofon/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images
Casual listeners think of him as a gentle giant of jazz, but critics and African Americans often saw him as a sell out or ‘Uncle Tom’. A new book aims to show how radical ‘Pops’ really was
EdPrideaux
Thu 17 Dec 2020 05.08 EST
Last modified on Fri 18 Dec 2020 06.15 EST
“I cannot think of another American artist who so failed his own talent. What went wrong?” asked one biographer of Louis Armstrong. “The sheer weight of his success and its attendant commercial pressures,” answered another.