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From Kirkus Reviews
These writings from jazz great Louis Armstrong swing with the same warmth,
rhythms, and inventive phrasing that made his music so popular. Armstrong
toured with a typewriter and used it often for journals, writing letters
to friends or strangers, and supplying reporters with material about
his life. Eavesdropping backstage on Armstrong and his bandmates would
make worthwhile reading for any jazz fan or historian, regardless of
Armstrong's ability as a writer. But Armstrong writes well, in a style
completely his own. Editor Brothers provides context and insight through
short introductions to each piece. But he has a deep respect for Armstrong
and has interfered as little as possible with his idiosyncratic writing.
Armstrong developed a unique usage of quotation marks, commas, dashes,
and underscoring that gives the writing its rhythm. In a letter to his
manager, Joe Glaser, he writes ``IJust, Love, Your, Checks, in, My POCKETSOH
They look so pretty, until, I hate like hell to cash them.'' Armstrong
uses jazz argot, much of it now assimilated into the language, translating
when he thinks it necessary: ``Here's how we were busted (arrested to
you) . . .'' Of some sharp sight-reading musicians he writes, They might
read a Fly Speck, if it get in the way.'' The collection covers Armstrong's
entire life, from his poor beginnings in New Orleans to his heyday in
Chicago to his last years in Corona, New York. But the most compelling
reading comes from Armstrong on his passions for music, gage (marijuana),
and laxatives. He even signed a telegram to President Eisenhower (offering
to take ``those little negro children personally into Central High School'')
``Am Swiss Krissly Yours . . .'' Swiss Kriss was the herbal laxative
to which Armstrong credited his health. This collection transcends jazz
and conventional grammar, revealing the humor and spirit of a legendary
entertainer. (29 halftones)
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