Louis The Louis Armstrong Story, 1900-1971

As trumpet player and singer, Louis Armstrong is the single most important figure in jazz history, and one of the most influential musicians--in any category--in this century. He was also, as this book relates, a wonderful character: actor, clown, raconteur, a tough kid when he came to Chicago from New Orleans who mellowed into one of the music's true statesmen. This biography includes not only a gripping narrative written by two of the most reliable jazz historians, but also a chronology, film list, and selection of photos. He was the most beloved of jazz musicians, a hero to everyone from Eddie Condon and Bobby Hackett to Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman. His basically happy life is here memorably told, with a new preface by Dan Morgenstern who describes Armstrong's central place in world music.

Max Jones (1920–1993) wrote and broadcast about jazz from 1942 to his death. In the 1940s he co-founded Jazz Music, and he was the principal jazz contributor to the British magazine Melody Maker for forty years. A professional trumpeter and jazz writer, John Chilton is the author of Billie's Blues, Who's Who of Jazz, and with Max Jones, Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story.