By Terry Teachout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 496pgs
Release Date: December 2, 2009

In this new biography of jazz legend Louis Armstrong, Wall Street Journal columnist Terry Teachout mines a trove of previously unpublished material to show the complexity of Armstrong’s character. The narrative voice of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong reverberates with warmth and soul, echoing the core of Satchmo’s music. Teachout gained access to hundreds of Armstrong’s private recordings of backstage and late-night conversations, made mostly during the last half of the musician’s life. His inner strength and sheer love of music shine through in these personal exchanges, and are the foundation of his ability to overcome the racial tensions of the times. “Faced with the terrible realities of the time and place into which he had been born,” Teachout writes, “he didn’t repine, but returned love for hatred and sought salvation in work.”

Armstrong has been branded as the greatest jazz musician of his time, and an icon of American culture. Not only did he excel as a musician, at one time surpassing the Beatles to take the top spot on the music charts, but showed incredible talent as a writer and fine artist as well. Critics have praised Teachout’s treatment of Satchmo’s witty, intelligent and magnetic character, and have found the author to be insightful and enthusiastic about his subject. David Margolick of the The New York Times Book Review concludes: “…Armstrong could not have a more impassioned advocate. At times, Pops reads like a defense brief, but a very loving and knowledgeable one.”