What do you think?
Rate this book
Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans
"In all my whole career the Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in. It was the honky-tonk where levee workers would congregate every Saturday night and trade with the gals who'd stroll up and down the floor and the bar. Those guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy, and there was lots of just plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all, I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn." So says Louis Armstrong, a tough kid who just happened to be a musical genius, about one of the places where he performed and grew up. This raucous, rich tale of his early days in New Orleans concludes with his departure to Chicago at twenty-one to play with his boyhood idol King Oliver, and tells the story of a life that began, mythically, on July 4, 1900, in the city that sowed the seeds of jazz.
248 pages, Paperback
First published August 22, 1954
About the author
Louis Armstrong
112 books32 followersAmerican musician Louis Armstrong, known as Satchmo, a virtuoso trumpeter and popular, gravelly voiced singer, greatly influenced the development of jazz.
Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Pops, a charismatic, innovative performer, improvised soloing, the main fundamental change, shifted focus from the collective to the player. Of the 20th century, he most famously first played cornet player and then reached best toward the end of his career.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_A...
Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Pops, a charismatic, innovative performer, improvised soloing, the main fundamental change, shifted focus from the collective to the player. Of the 20th century, he most famously first played cornet player and then reached best toward the end of his career.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_A...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
December 31, 2021
“Any learned musician can read music, but they can’t all swing.” -Louis Armstrong
At the risk of plagiarizing the great Louis Armstrong, I’d like to add an addendum to the quote written above. Any learned writer can write an autobiography, but they can’t all swing.
Because that’s what this book does. It swings like hell.
On paper, Armstrong’s childhood in New Orleans isn’t that different from most who grew up at the turn of the 20th century.
Poverty, endemic racism and violence are all around him and yet, I can’t remember the last time I had such fun reading about someone’s life. This is solely due to Armstrong’s incredible ability to see the positive in everything and write in a voice I can only describe as I would describe his horn playing, effervescent joy.
Armstrong takes us on a tour of childhood where as a teenager he’s playing the trumpet in brothels, gambling with men with names like Black Benny, Cocaine Buddy, Slippers, Red Cornelius, and Aaron Harris (ok that last name isn’t that interesting).
It’s a place where he’s not always sure how his mother is able to put food on the table (sometimes she can’t) and cuttings and beatings are commonplace.
Yet it never breaks down a young Armstrong. He shrugs them off as almost part of the charm of where he lives and can laugh at the absurdity of people throwing bricks at each other one moment yet still always having each other’s backs when need be.
And then there’s the music.
If it were possible to hear music on a page, I think this book comes as close as you’ll ever get. From smoky back room clubs, brothels, and dance halls, to the joyous sound of New Orleans funerals, music is everywhere here. It is perhaps no surprise considering that Armstrong says at one point that no matter how much he may love a woman, he’ll always love his trumpet more. Only a man who loves music this much could paint the pictures of it on a page as he does.
In a way, I’m quite happy that this was the last book I read in 2021. It hasn’t always been an easy year for a variety of reasons, I won’t bore you with the details, but Armstrong’s infectious joy and positivity has me hopeful for better things in 2022 not only for myself but for the world.
On a side note, as the year comes to a close here in Japan, I want to wish everyone a happy new year. Keep those wonderful reviews coming, cherish the people you love and who love you, and find joy when and wherever you can. Books and music (Armstrong’s album ‘Hot Fives and Sevens’ is, as Woody Allen once said, ‘one of the things that makes life worth living’) are a great place to start :).
At the risk of plagiarizing the great Louis Armstrong, I’d like to add an addendum to the quote written above. Any learned writer can write an autobiography, but they can’t all swing.
Because that’s what this book does. It swings like hell.
On paper, Armstrong’s childhood in New Orleans isn’t that different from most who grew up at the turn of the 20th century.
Poverty, endemic racism and violence are all around him and yet, I can’t remember the last time I had such fun reading about someone’s life. This is solely due to Armstrong’s incredible ability to see the positive in everything and write in a voice I can only describe as I would describe his horn playing, effervescent joy.
Armstrong takes us on a tour of childhood where as a teenager he’s playing the trumpet in brothels, gambling with men with names like Black Benny, Cocaine Buddy, Slippers, Red Cornelius, and Aaron Harris (ok that last name isn’t that interesting).
It’s a place where he’s not always sure how his mother is able to put food on the table (sometimes she can’t) and cuttings and beatings are commonplace.
Yet it never breaks down a young Armstrong. He shrugs them off as almost part of the charm of where he lives and can laugh at the absurdity of people throwing bricks at each other one moment yet still always having each other’s backs when need be.
And then there’s the music.
If it were possible to hear music on a page, I think this book comes as close as you’ll ever get. From smoky back room clubs, brothels, and dance halls, to the joyous sound of New Orleans funerals, music is everywhere here. It is perhaps no surprise considering that Armstrong says at one point that no matter how much he may love a woman, he’ll always love his trumpet more. Only a man who loves music this much could paint the pictures of it on a page as he does.
In a way, I’m quite happy that this was the last book I read in 2021. It hasn’t always been an easy year for a variety of reasons, I won’t bore you with the details, but Armstrong’s infectious joy and positivity has me hopeful for better things in 2022 not only for myself but for the world.
On a side note, as the year comes to a close here in Japan, I want to wish everyone a happy new year. Keep those wonderful reviews coming, cherish the people you love and who love you, and find joy when and wherever you can. Books and music (Armstrong’s album ‘Hot Fives and Sevens’ is, as Woody Allen once said, ‘one of the things that makes life worth living’) are a great place to start :).
April 16, 2021
It's hard to be a saint in the city
Scritta di pugno, almeno questo è quanto si sa, l'autobiografia di Louis Armstrong è (per citare la recensione dell'epoca del New York Times) più una jam session che una storia ordinata e consequenziale. Pazienza.
Nato nel 1900 o nel 1901 (non si sa esattamente), il piccolo Armstrong viene su in uno dei quartieri più poveri e malfamati di New Orleans, non il mitico Storyville (che peraltro pare avesse come unica caratteristica distintiva il prezzo più caro dei bordelli), ma il "Back 'o Town", casupole, strade sgangherate piene di sfaccendati, criminali, papponi e prostitute.
E musicisti, a bizzeffe. Gente che suonava ovunque, per gli spiccioli dei passanti, per intrattenere i clienti delle ragazze (e le ragazze stesse, che davano le mance migliori se la band suonava il loro blues preferito), per i leggendari funerali nei quali ai parenti e amici del defunto si univa la "second line", il gruppo di persone che seguiva il corteo per ascoltare la musica.
Intermezzo
Si potrebbe aprire un sapido dibattito sulla leggenda per cui la tradizione delle marching bands sarebbe in realtà stata importata dagli emigrati italiani, derivata dalla antica tradizione nostrana delle bande di paese e delle processioni del santo. D'altra parte, il fondatore della prima jazz band propriamente detta era il trapanese Domenico "Nick" La Rocca e la Original Dixieland Jass Band è citata da Armstrong come una di quelle di cui sentiva i dischi da giovane (in realtà, la tradizione nasce dalle bande militari europee, peccato).
Altra leggenda racconta che il termine Jazz divenne popolare quando La Rocca cambiò nome alla band dopo una serie di concerti newyorkesi, durante i quali i musicisti locali, invidiosi del successo dei forestieri, ne storpiavano i manifesti pubblicitari togliendo la "j" a "Jass"...
[Nota: il traduttore toglie "Original" dal nome e scrive "Dixieland Jazz Band originaria"]
Fine Intermezzo
Il libro è stato scritto nel 1954 da un uomo all'apice del successo.
Questi due fattori, uniti probabilmente alla proverbiale bonomia di Armstrong, spiegano il tono leggero e "matter of fact" del racconto di un'infanzia da cui non era detto sarebbe uscito vivo, marcata da povertà, emarginazione e violenza.
Il tutto descritto con affetto e quasi con rimpianto, specialmente per la bizzarra famiglia, unita nonostante tutto intorno alla madre Mayann, figura leggendaria e archetipica della madre nera (chiunque segua gli sport USA conosce mille storie di campioni afroamericani allevati da madri o nonne sole), per quanto per noi oggi la sua descrizione dell'ambiente sociale e familiare possa risultare incomprensibile, omissiva o "giustificazionista".
(La madre e i suoi tanti patrigni, il cuginetto "adottato" frutto dello stupro di un bianco sulla zia ragazzina, i duri di strada come figure rispettabili e esempi di coerenza e "dirittura morale", la normalità di prendere soldi da una prostituta con la quale si ha una storia, le botte reciproche tra uomini e donne, quando non le coltellate).
Nel racconto c'è anche il razzismo, la segregazione, l'impotenza di fronte alla società bianca che detta regole a proprio uso e consumo. Matter of fact, come detto, del resto nel 1954 questa era ancora la quotidanità per i neri americani e sarebbe stato difficile per un uomo del suo tempo, nato all'inizio del secolo, avere una posizione più "politica" sul tema.
Mi sarei aspettato un clima più sereno nella meticcia Big Easy, ma evidentemente mi ero fatto un'idea sbagliata. Forse non c'erano i linciaggi dell'Alabama o del Mississippi, ma neri e creoli se la passavano piuttosto male. Qui e là trapela, persino nell'inguaribile ottimista Satchmo, il disagio e l'avvilimento per la situazione, subito in qualche modo riscattata da una nota positiva.
Era più forte di lui.
"L’orchestra di Fate Marable merita un plauso per aver rotto una serie di barriere lungo le rive del Mississippi, barriere imposte dalla segregazione razziale. Nella maggior parte delle città in cui facemmo tappa, specialmente nelle più piccole, eravamo la prima orchestra di colore che avesse mai suonato. I bianchi non erano abituati a vedere gente di colore che suonasse la tromba per farli ballare. All’inizio dovevamo subire umiliazioni e anche ingoiare commenti offensivi mentre eravamo sul palco a suonare. Molti di noi venivano dal Sud e ciò significa che eravamo abituati a quel genere di trattamento, per cui continuavamo a suonare come se niente fosse. Ma prima che la serata fosse finita, ci adoravano e ci riempivano di complimenti, chiedendoci di tornare presto a suonare per loro" .
Ovviamente c'è tanta musica, ovunque, suonata da musicisti che hanno fatto la storia del jazz delle origini partendo da così in basso che più basso non si può, magari scaricando il carbone nelle ferrovie per pochi centesimi quando la tromba o il pianoforte non danno di che vivere.
Armstrong tributa elogi a tutti, agli sconosciuti come alle leggende, critica Buddy Bolden ma santifica Kid Ory, Bunk Johnson e soprattutto King Oliver, il suo mentore.
Come ci ricorda Enrico Rava nella prefazione, l'Armstrong più "mainstream" che conosciamo noi, pur grandissimo, è solo lontano parente del geniale innovatore che purtroppo è imprigionato in relativamente poche e scadenti registrazioni d'epoca (con i suoi Hot Five e Hot Seven).
Ma è certo che il suo stile ha influenzato praticamente tutti i trombettisti e cornettisti successivi, inclusi i boppers che non amavano molto la generazione che li aveva preceduti, soprattutto per la loro presunta acquiescenza al sistema segregazionista.
Per puro caso, mentre scrivo il commento sto ascoltando "Jazz at Massey Hall", "The greatest jazz concert ever" come fu chiamato: Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Max Roach.
E Dizzy Gillespie, uno dei figliocci di Satchmo, i più grandi entertainers delle loro generazioni.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJ1i...
Bonus Track
Un ottimo articolo del New Yorker su Armstrong, che credo ne restituisca un ritratto molto bello.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
Scritta di pugno, almeno questo è quanto si sa, l'autobiografia di Louis Armstrong è (per citare la recensione dell'epoca del New York Times) più una jam session che una storia ordinata e consequenziale. Pazienza.
Nato nel 1900 o nel 1901 (non si sa esattamente), il piccolo Armstrong viene su in uno dei quartieri più poveri e malfamati di New Orleans, non il mitico Storyville (che peraltro pare avesse come unica caratteristica distintiva il prezzo più caro dei bordelli), ma il "Back 'o Town", casupole, strade sgangherate piene di sfaccendati, criminali, papponi e prostitute.
E musicisti, a bizzeffe. Gente che suonava ovunque, per gli spiccioli dei passanti, per intrattenere i clienti delle ragazze (e le ragazze stesse, che davano le mance migliori se la band suonava il loro blues preferito), per i leggendari funerali nei quali ai parenti e amici del defunto si univa la "second line", il gruppo di persone che seguiva il corteo per ascoltare la musica.
Intermezzo
Si potrebbe aprire un sapido dibattito sulla leggenda per cui la tradizione delle marching bands sarebbe in realtà stata importata dagli emigrati italiani, derivata dalla antica tradizione nostrana delle bande di paese e delle processioni del santo. D'altra parte, il fondatore della prima jazz band propriamente detta era il trapanese Domenico "Nick" La Rocca e la Original Dixieland Jass Band è citata da Armstrong come una di quelle di cui sentiva i dischi da giovane (in realtà, la tradizione nasce dalle bande militari europee, peccato).
Altra leggenda racconta che il termine Jazz divenne popolare quando La Rocca cambiò nome alla band dopo una serie di concerti newyorkesi, durante i quali i musicisti locali, invidiosi del successo dei forestieri, ne storpiavano i manifesti pubblicitari togliendo la "j" a "Jass"...
[Nota: il traduttore toglie "Original" dal nome e scrive "Dixieland Jazz Band originaria"]
Fine Intermezzo
Il libro è stato scritto nel 1954 da un uomo all'apice del successo.
Questi due fattori, uniti probabilmente alla proverbiale bonomia di Armstrong, spiegano il tono leggero e "matter of fact" del racconto di un'infanzia da cui non era detto sarebbe uscito vivo, marcata da povertà, emarginazione e violenza.
Il tutto descritto con affetto e quasi con rimpianto, specialmente per la bizzarra famiglia, unita nonostante tutto intorno alla madre Mayann, figura leggendaria e archetipica della madre nera (chiunque segua gli sport USA conosce mille storie di campioni afroamericani allevati da madri o nonne sole), per quanto per noi oggi la sua descrizione dell'ambiente sociale e familiare possa risultare incomprensibile, omissiva o "giustificazionista".
(La madre e i suoi tanti patrigni, il cuginetto "adottato" frutto dello stupro di un bianco sulla zia ragazzina, i duri di strada come figure rispettabili e esempi di coerenza e "dirittura morale", la normalità di prendere soldi da una prostituta con la quale si ha una storia, le botte reciproche tra uomini e donne, quando non le coltellate).
Nel racconto c'è anche il razzismo, la segregazione, l'impotenza di fronte alla società bianca che detta regole a proprio uso e consumo. Matter of fact, come detto, del resto nel 1954 questa era ancora la quotidanità per i neri americani e sarebbe stato difficile per un uomo del suo tempo, nato all'inizio del secolo, avere una posizione più "politica" sul tema.
Mi sarei aspettato un clima più sereno nella meticcia Big Easy, ma evidentemente mi ero fatto un'idea sbagliata. Forse non c'erano i linciaggi dell'Alabama o del Mississippi, ma neri e creoli se la passavano piuttosto male. Qui e là trapela, persino nell'inguaribile ottimista Satchmo, il disagio e l'avvilimento per la situazione, subito in qualche modo riscattata da una nota positiva.
Era più forte di lui.
"L’orchestra di Fate Marable merita un plauso per aver rotto una serie di barriere lungo le rive del Mississippi, barriere imposte dalla segregazione razziale. Nella maggior parte delle città in cui facemmo tappa, specialmente nelle più piccole, eravamo la prima orchestra di colore che avesse mai suonato. I bianchi non erano abituati a vedere gente di colore che suonasse la tromba per farli ballare. All’inizio dovevamo subire umiliazioni e anche ingoiare commenti offensivi mentre eravamo sul palco a suonare. Molti di noi venivano dal Sud e ciò significa che eravamo abituati a quel genere di trattamento, per cui continuavamo a suonare come se niente fosse. Ma prima che la serata fosse finita, ci adoravano e ci riempivano di complimenti, chiedendoci di tornare presto a suonare per loro" .
Ovviamente c'è tanta musica, ovunque, suonata da musicisti che hanno fatto la storia del jazz delle origini partendo da così in basso che più basso non si può, magari scaricando il carbone nelle ferrovie per pochi centesimi quando la tromba o il pianoforte non danno di che vivere.
Armstrong tributa elogi a tutti, agli sconosciuti come alle leggende, critica Buddy Bolden ma santifica Kid Ory, Bunk Johnson e soprattutto King Oliver, il suo mentore.
Come ci ricorda Enrico Rava nella prefazione, l'Armstrong più "mainstream" che conosciamo noi, pur grandissimo, è solo lontano parente del geniale innovatore che purtroppo è imprigionato in relativamente poche e scadenti registrazioni d'epoca (con i suoi Hot Five e Hot Seven).
Ma è certo che il suo stile ha influenzato praticamente tutti i trombettisti e cornettisti successivi, inclusi i boppers che non amavano molto la generazione che li aveva preceduti, soprattutto per la loro presunta acquiescenza al sistema segregazionista.
Per puro caso, mentre scrivo il commento sto ascoltando "Jazz at Massey Hall", "The greatest jazz concert ever" come fu chiamato: Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Max Roach.
E Dizzy Gillespie, uno dei figliocci di Satchmo, i più grandi entertainers delle loro generazioni.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJ1i...
Bonus Track
Un ottimo articolo del New Yorker su Armstrong, che credo ne restituisca un ritratto molto bello.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
November 30, 2007
What shines out from each page of this book is the essential optimism and loving-heart of Louis Armstrong. I guess I should have known this from his music, but it's words that affect me more strongly. Told simply and without affect this story of Louis Armstrong's childhood and young manhood is actually Dickensian, but in his words, it's a song of love and hope.
February 5, 2023
Reading Louis Armstrong's life story in his own words has been a real treat!
He starts out at his very beginning. . .
(When I was born in 1900, my father Willie Armstrong, and my mother, May Ann - or Mayann as she was called - were living on a little street called James Alley. . . .[which] lies in the very heart of what is called The Battlefield because the toughest characters in town used to live there, and would shoot and fight so much.)
. . .and it is a romp through to the very end. Growing up in New Orleans in a situation where there weren't a lot of resources, and needing to fighting like hell just to stay in place, he wasn't able to spend much time in school. Although a child, needed to help his scattered family, contributing every penny he could earn. It didn't seem to be a likely start for the celebrity he became.
Simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time got him carted off to the Colored Waifs' Home for Boys where his musical interests were noticed by Mr. Davis, a teacher with whom Louis had had a rough start. But in time Mr. Davis passed him a tambourine. . .
"Taking the tambourine, I started to whip it in rhythm with the band. Mr. Davis was so impressed he immediately changed me to the drums. . . .They were playing At the Animals' Ball, a tune that was very popular in those days and which had a break right in the channel. When the break came I made it a real good one and a fly one at that. All the boys yelled "Hooray for Louis Armstrong." Mr. Davis nodded with approval which was all I needed. His approval was all important for any boy who wanted a musical career.
In time Mr. Davis saw the writing on the wall, and handed him a bugle, and eventually the orchestra leader's baton.
Filled with saucy stories of his short service in the military, and then off to the brothels, bars and carnivals of New Orleans as a young man, razors, guns and lost hats abound. He visits family, fights with husbands and takes time to develop his style and dreams. His memories sit in his senses - smells of honeysuckle swinging across his nostrils, the delicious tastes from his mother's cooking, the feel and pain of a piece of slate landing on his head! Reading the heat and big heart of this young man growing into who we all now know as Jazz Music's Stateman was a wonderful way to spend a cold, gray winter in my part of the world.
He starts out at his very beginning. . .
(When I was born in 1900, my father Willie Armstrong, and my mother, May Ann - or Mayann as she was called - were living on a little street called James Alley. . . .[which] lies in the very heart of what is called The Battlefield because the toughest characters in town used to live there, and would shoot and fight so much.)
. . .and it is a romp through to the very end. Growing up in New Orleans in a situation where there weren't a lot of resources, and needing to fighting like hell just to stay in place, he wasn't able to spend much time in school. Although a child, needed to help his scattered family, contributing every penny he could earn. It didn't seem to be a likely start for the celebrity he became.
Simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time got him carted off to the Colored Waifs' Home for Boys where his musical interests were noticed by Mr. Davis, a teacher with whom Louis had had a rough start. But in time Mr. Davis passed him a tambourine. . .
"Taking the tambourine, I started to whip it in rhythm with the band. Mr. Davis was so impressed he immediately changed me to the drums. . . .They were playing At the Animals' Ball, a tune that was very popular in those days and which had a break right in the channel. When the break came I made it a real good one and a fly one at that. All the boys yelled "Hooray for Louis Armstrong." Mr. Davis nodded with approval which was all I needed. His approval was all important for any boy who wanted a musical career.
In time Mr. Davis saw the writing on the wall, and handed him a bugle, and eventually the orchestra leader's baton.
Filled with saucy stories of his short service in the military, and then off to the brothels, bars and carnivals of New Orleans as a young man, razors, guns and lost hats abound. He visits family, fights with husbands and takes time to develop his style and dreams. His memories sit in his senses - smells of honeysuckle swinging across his nostrils, the delicious tastes from his mother's cooking, the feel and pain of a piece of slate landing on his head! Reading the heat and big heart of this young man growing into who we all now know as Jazz Music's Stateman was a wonderful way to spend a cold, gray winter in my part of the world.
August 4, 2018
Historia fascinante, de principio a fin. La autobiografía del aclamado músico Luois Armstrong, llamado por sus amigos "Satchmo" (boca de bolsa), que cuenta como transcurrió su vida en la New Orleans de principios de siglo, entre drogas, burdeles y pandillas, y como gracias a su madre Mayann , a un maestro de escuela, y a un fortuito encuentro con una trompeta, tuvo la suerte de convertirse en el gran artista que conocemos.
Esta historia me recordó —inevitablemente— el mundo de los Tom Sawyer y Huckleberry Finn de Mark Twain, llena de felicidad y de un sinfín de anécdotas que hacen la lectura fácil y divertida.
Recomendada, de principio a fin.
Esta historia me recordó —inevitablemente— el mundo de los Tom Sawyer y Huckleberry Finn de Mark Twain, llena de felicidad y de un sinfín de anécdotas que hacen la lectura fácil y divertida.
Recomendada, de principio a fin.
October 5, 2017
Armstrong uses the word 'cute' a lot to describe something, so I don't think he'd mind me using the word 'cute' to describe this book. It's written in a conversational style, as if he's talking to his reader; he even goes on tangents before always coming back to his original thought. He also uses some slang (some of which he explains) which adds to its 'period' feel.
He's a generous man, very grateful to his musical forebears and those who gave him his first breaks. And while he doesn't gloss over the poverty and roughness of his neighborhood and its way-of-life, and the prejudice he encounters throughout that life, he never fails to point out and praise those who were gracious, helpful, and his friends -- though perhaps he couldn't have been more descriptive anyway: the book was published in 1954 after all.
This book is most fascinating, I think, as a glimpse into a city and culture that has both changed and stayed the same. It seems that what Armstrong most loved and missed about New Orleans when he was away from it (the food, the people, the music in the streets, the food, the fun, his neighborhood, oh, and the food!), are the same things N.O. exiles miss today.
He's a generous man, very grateful to his musical forebears and those who gave him his first breaks. And while he doesn't gloss over the poverty and roughness of his neighborhood and its way-of-life, and the prejudice he encounters throughout that life, he never fails to point out and praise those who were gracious, helpful, and his friends -- though perhaps he couldn't have been more descriptive anyway: the book was published in 1954 after all.
This book is most fascinating, I think, as a glimpse into a city and culture that has both changed and stayed the same. It seems that what Armstrong most loved and missed about New Orleans when he was away from it (the food, the people, the music in the streets, the food, the fun, his neighborhood, oh, and the food!), are the same things N.O. exiles miss today.
May 24, 2015
Essential. About halfway through, I had to stop and figure out who Louis' authorial voice reminded me of, and it came to me pretty quickly: Huck Finn. That says a lot. The same joy, generosity, ingenuity, humor, and respect you hear in his playing is in his words in great abundance. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to learn to cook cubie yon!
June 26, 2007
Apocryphal? Probably half. Beautiful? Yup. You can hear him typing. In tempo.
January 18, 2010
I didn't want this book to end. High energy writing that's clear and full of sauce (though several times the modesty of the times allowed Armstrong to equivocate when I wanted DETAILS!), this early history brought New Orleans vividly to life for me. Satchmo's focus on the players he loved and the characters he ran with, suffused with warmth and good humor throughout, whet my appetite for some serious listening. Hear that solo on "Basin Street Blues"? Having read the book, I can now recognize the same man in the sound of that horn.
May 14, 2017
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) on epäilemättä eräs maailman merkittävimmistä ja tunnetuimmista jazzmuusikoista. Lyhyehkössä ja nopealukuisessa "Elämäni New Orleansissa" (Otava, 1961) -teoksessa hän muistelee värikästä nuoruuttaan ja uransa varhaisvaiheita kotikaupungissaan, jonka hän jätti lopulta 1920-luvun alussa liittyäkseen Chicagossa maineikkaan Joe "King" Oliverin johtamaan jazzyhtyeeseen.
Armstrong kertoilee vaiheistaan viihdyttävään ja jutustelevaan tapaan. Nuoruus oli köyhä ja Louis sai nuoresta pitäen tehdä monenlaisia töitä tuodakseen rahaa perheensä pöytään, etenkin kun isä oi jättänyt perheensä jo varhaisessa vaiheessa. Louisin elämä ei ollut aina niillä kuuluisilla ruusuilla tanssimista, mutta toisaalta synkimmälläkin pilvellä saattoi olla kultareunus: esimerkiksi lastenkodissa vietetyllä ajalla oli merkittävä vaikutus musiikilliseen heräämiseen.
Nuoruusvuosien tarinoissa vilahtelevat jazzin varhaisten suurnimien lisäksi pikkugangsterit, prostituoidut, parittajat, poliisit, uhkapelurit, mustasukkaiset aviomiehet ja monet muut värikkäät hahmot. Rakkaus hyvään musiikkiin ja ruokaan tulee tutuksi.
Viihdyttävää luettavaa kaikille musiikkielämäkertojen ystäville!
Armstrong kertoilee vaiheistaan viihdyttävään ja jutustelevaan tapaan. Nuoruus oli köyhä ja Louis sai nuoresta pitäen tehdä monenlaisia töitä tuodakseen rahaa perheensä pöytään, etenkin kun isä oi jättänyt perheensä jo varhaisessa vaiheessa. Louisin elämä ei ollut aina niillä kuuluisilla ruusuilla tanssimista, mutta toisaalta synkimmälläkin pilvellä saattoi olla kultareunus: esimerkiksi lastenkodissa vietetyllä ajalla oli merkittävä vaikutus musiikilliseen heräämiseen.
Nuoruusvuosien tarinoissa vilahtelevat jazzin varhaisten suurnimien lisäksi pikkugangsterit, prostituoidut, parittajat, poliisit, uhkapelurit, mustasukkaiset aviomiehet ja monet muut värikkäät hahmot. Rakkaus hyvään musiikkiin ja ruokaan tulee tutuksi.
Viihdyttävää luettavaa kaikille musiikkielämäkertojen ystäville!
June 24, 2018
A fairly light reminiscence by a man who was apparently unfailingly cheerful. Or perhaps that was the only face he was able to present to the world when this book was written in the 1950s.
September 19, 2022
Fantastic story-telling
June 19, 2024
Louis Armstrong would have KILLED it in the podcast industry, of which this book read like a transcript of. Filled with 10% narrative about his musical upbringing, 15% about his family and childhood/adolescence, and 75% tangents he decided to run off on, the whole book felt like a rollicking improvised solo that was swinging and filled with character, albeit straying from the written form.
June 30, 2013
Armstrong claims he was born in 1900 (although in the 1980s, a researcher discovered that his true birthdate was August 4, 1901). He lived on a little street called James Alley. Armstrong writes: “Only one block long, James Alley is located in the crowded section of New Orleans known as “Back o’ Town.” His family was poor and when his father abandoned the family, his mother Mayann left Louis in care of his grandmother Josephine. At the age of five, he returned to his mother.
A turn of events happens for Armstrong when he is eleven. He writes, “In those days we used to shoot off guns and pistols or anything loud so as to make as much noise as possible (to celebrate New Year’s Eve). Guns, of course, were not allowed officially and we had to keep an eye on the police to see that were not pulled in for toting one.” However, after firing his stepfather’s .38 pistol into the air for the New Year’s Eve celebration, at the age of eleven, Louis Armstrong was arrested and sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys.
At the home, boys were allowed the choice to pick the vocational training that interested them at the Fisk School. Naturally Louis chose music. Six months went by and Louis was asked to join the school’s brass band. Louis stayed at the home until he was fourteen years old. “I was released on the condition that I would live with my father and stepmother,” Louis wrote. He stayed with them for a short while and then finally returned to living with his mother and sister Mama Lucy.
For money he worked a job hauling coal.
He would enjoy hanging out at Storyville, which was the red-light district. He would listen to bands playing in the brothels and dance halls. He saw a lot of fights and it was an exciting time until “the red-light district was closed by the Navy and the law.” He especially liked listening to Joe “King” Oliver another other famous musicians.
He also liked to listen to music playing at funerals. Louis learned how to play the cornet with assistance from other musicians and also by practice. He writes, “Of course in those early days we did not know very much about trumpets. We all played cornets. Only the big orchestras in the theaters had trumpet players in their brass sections.”
In his autobiography, Armstrong does describe the discrimination he encountered as he was a black man in the south. However, never does he sound angry. However, when he played his music, the white folks just loved his playing and he was happy to entertain them as he enjoyed playing music a great deal. As a young man, he played on the riverboats. Armstrong writes, “Things were hard in New Orleans in those days… in order to carry on at all we had to have the love of music in our bones.”
In 1919, Armstrong replaced Joe Oliver in his band, when Oliver decided to move to Chicago.
Armstrong writes about his first wife, Daisy. They adopted a three year old boy, Clarence, whose mother died. Clarence was mentally disabled and Armstrong claims it may have been because he was dropped on his head. He writes about his love for Daisy, but also her irrational jealousy which caused him a lot of grief and unnecessary drama. Armstrong writes, “Daisy did not have any education. If a person is real ignorant and has no learning at all that person is always going to be jealous, evil and hateful. There are always two sides to every story, but an ignorant person just won’t cope with either side. I have seen Daisy get furious when she saw me whispering to somebody. ‘I know you are talking about me because you are looking at me,’ she would say. Frightening, isn’t it? However, it was because I understood Daisy so well that I was able to take four years of torture and bliss with her.”
By 1922, Armstrong moved to Chicago to join Joe “King” Oliver, who invited Armstrong to join his jazz band. He got his own apartment with his own private bath (his first). Armstrong’s book ends here, stating “I had hit the big time. I was up North with the greats. I was playing with my idol, the King, Joe Oliver. My boyhood dream had come true at last.”
A turn of events happens for Armstrong when he is eleven. He writes, “In those days we used to shoot off guns and pistols or anything loud so as to make as much noise as possible (to celebrate New Year’s Eve). Guns, of course, were not allowed officially and we had to keep an eye on the police to see that were not pulled in for toting one.” However, after firing his stepfather’s .38 pistol into the air for the New Year’s Eve celebration, at the age of eleven, Louis Armstrong was arrested and sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys.
At the home, boys were allowed the choice to pick the vocational training that interested them at the Fisk School. Naturally Louis chose music. Six months went by and Louis was asked to join the school’s brass band. Louis stayed at the home until he was fourteen years old. “I was released on the condition that I would live with my father and stepmother,” Louis wrote. He stayed with them for a short while and then finally returned to living with his mother and sister Mama Lucy.
For money he worked a job hauling coal.
He would enjoy hanging out at Storyville, which was the red-light district. He would listen to bands playing in the brothels and dance halls. He saw a lot of fights and it was an exciting time until “the red-light district was closed by the Navy and the law.” He especially liked listening to Joe “King” Oliver another other famous musicians.
He also liked to listen to music playing at funerals. Louis learned how to play the cornet with assistance from other musicians and also by practice. He writes, “Of course in those early days we did not know very much about trumpets. We all played cornets. Only the big orchestras in the theaters had trumpet players in their brass sections.”
In his autobiography, Armstrong does describe the discrimination he encountered as he was a black man in the south. However, never does he sound angry. However, when he played his music, the white folks just loved his playing and he was happy to entertain them as he enjoyed playing music a great deal. As a young man, he played on the riverboats. Armstrong writes, “Things were hard in New Orleans in those days… in order to carry on at all we had to have the love of music in our bones.”
In 1919, Armstrong replaced Joe Oliver in his band, when Oliver decided to move to Chicago.
Armstrong writes about his first wife, Daisy. They adopted a three year old boy, Clarence, whose mother died. Clarence was mentally disabled and Armstrong claims it may have been because he was dropped on his head. He writes about his love for Daisy, but also her irrational jealousy which caused him a lot of grief and unnecessary drama. Armstrong writes, “Daisy did not have any education. If a person is real ignorant and has no learning at all that person is always going to be jealous, evil and hateful. There are always two sides to every story, but an ignorant person just won’t cope with either side. I have seen Daisy get furious when she saw me whispering to somebody. ‘I know you are talking about me because you are looking at me,’ she would say. Frightening, isn’t it? However, it was because I understood Daisy so well that I was able to take four years of torture and bliss with her.”
By 1922, Armstrong moved to Chicago to join Joe “King” Oliver, who invited Armstrong to join his jazz band. He got his own apartment with his own private bath (his first). Armstrong’s book ends here, stating “I had hit the big time. I was up North with the greats. I was playing with my idol, the King, Joe Oliver. My boyhood dream had come true at last.”
April 18, 2017
A wonderful memoir of the first two decades of Armstrong's life in New Orleans, ending just as he moved up to Chicago to join his boyhood idol, King Oliver. With a great humility Louis tells his story, including growing up dirt poor and being introduced to the cornet while in a waifs home for boys after his arrest, while still in short pants, for firing a pistol in the air. This generous memoir is pungently populated with an assortment of colorful characters -- from fellow musicians to pimps and hookers and other assorted hustlers -- even as it makes clear the loving influence of his mother and older sister. A story only Satchmo himself could tell.
December 2, 2009
Louis Armstrong's personal tale of growing up in New Orleans. A quick read, and full of interesting tidbits!
July 4, 2014
Who doesn't love Louis Armstrong and anything he writes or says?
July 5, 2022
Reviewing books by famous non-writers is always interesting. There's so many angles you could go with. I can picture some smart ass writing something like "Hmmmm, lets see. The greatest musician of the 20th century, and just generally one of the most admirable human beings to ever live, wrote an easygoing autobiography reminscing about his childhood? If that alone doesn't convince you to read this you are a terrible person".
On the other end, I can also imagine someone giving this book 1 star because Armstrong's writing style is too undeveloped, his stories meandering, and not enough attention is given to molding a well rounded/detailed image of jazz in its infantile days (in a way that would satisfy academics/amateur historians who try to suck the marrow out of any rare early details they can find). In reality, this book is just a hearty dose of memories that are prepared with a lot of love and toil; just like Mayann's Jumabalaya (if he wasn't exaggerating it).
Pretty much all I have to say is that Louis' optimism and pure love of life is infectious. The strength of it is at times enough to veer on the prepousterous for those of us stuck grinding away in our drole nine-to-fives. It's even more evident that this quality isn't something fabricated for the media when you get just a little sliver of all he went through. It must be something that is fused into him in the deeper reaches of his soul, because any normal man would nose dive off his nearest neighbourhood skyscraper if they had to put up with what Louis did.
When you read jazz autobiographies like that of Miles Davis or Charles Mingus, you often get told these "unfiltered", striking, and horrifying stories, and you think "wow yeah he's right, that IS really fucked up". Then you fly back 50 years earlier to New Orleans, and Louis tells you something along the lines of "....well when I was 12 I was abudcted by the police and, without a trial, taken to an all black children's prison. I had a blast there!", and that's when you realize that this man was just cut from an entirely different cloth. That is when you stop being impressed by details he nonchalantly mentions. Did he walk bare feet for years in the most dangerous red light district in the whole city? Sure? But this is irrelevant. This is to be expected. This is all status quo because Louis ripped through hardships like a rocket through empty space and didn't stop flying even when he touched the stars.
What no one could have expected is a creative genius this obscenely pure to come out of this environment AGAIN, when it already seemed like the city produced the best it possibly could with King Oliver, Buddy Bolden, Bunk Johnson, Freddie Keppard, and Jelly Roll Morton. I guess lightning really can strike the same place twice.... wait no, sorry I'm saving that line for the Charlie Parker book.
On the other end, I can also imagine someone giving this book 1 star because Armstrong's writing style is too undeveloped, his stories meandering, and not enough attention is given to molding a well rounded/detailed image of jazz in its infantile days (in a way that would satisfy academics/amateur historians who try to suck the marrow out of any rare early details they can find). In reality, this book is just a hearty dose of memories that are prepared with a lot of love and toil; just like Mayann's Jumabalaya (if he wasn't exaggerating it).
Pretty much all I have to say is that Louis' optimism and pure love of life is infectious. The strength of it is at times enough to veer on the prepousterous for those of us stuck grinding away in our drole nine-to-fives. It's even more evident that this quality isn't something fabricated for the media when you get just a little sliver of all he went through. It must be something that is fused into him in the deeper reaches of his soul, because any normal man would nose dive off his nearest neighbourhood skyscraper if they had to put up with what Louis did.
When you read jazz autobiographies like that of Miles Davis or Charles Mingus, you often get told these "unfiltered", striking, and horrifying stories, and you think "wow yeah he's right, that IS really fucked up". Then you fly back 50 years earlier to New Orleans, and Louis tells you something along the lines of "....well when I was 12 I was abudcted by the police and, without a trial, taken to an all black children's prison. I had a blast there!", and that's when you realize that this man was just cut from an entirely different cloth. That is when you stop being impressed by details he nonchalantly mentions. Did he walk bare feet for years in the most dangerous red light district in the whole city? Sure? But this is irrelevant. This is to be expected. This is all status quo because Louis ripped through hardships like a rocket through empty space and didn't stop flying even when he touched the stars.
What no one could have expected is a creative genius this obscenely pure to come out of this environment AGAIN, when it already seemed like the city produced the best it possibly could with King Oliver, Buddy Bolden, Bunk Johnson, Freddie Keppard, and Jelly Roll Morton. I guess lightning really can strike the same place twice.... wait no, sorry I'm saving that line for the Charlie Parker book.
Want to read
January 1, 2022Library-of-Congress ML419 A75 A3
Music Library (Mills)
Louis Armstrong, 1901-1971
(c) 1954
Music Library (Mills)
Louis Armstrong, 1901-1971
(c) 1954
December 17, 2021
I guess it’s no surprise Louis Armstrong is a great storyteller and generally a kind person. A nice look into his early years in New Orleans.
April 28, 2018
So cool to hear his voice in your head while you read it. You like his music, you'll enjoy this quick short book. kinda ended abruptly,i had a very early edition. I assume there are better books for a complete understanding of Mr. Armstrong life, as this one ends in 1938. I think Mr Armstrong held back quite a bit, but enjoyed the read regardless
December 21, 2015
An amazing read. This is Louis Armstrong's (aka Satchmo) memoirs about his childhood in New Orleans 1900 to 1920 until he went to Chicago. The story is an incredible view into the old New Orleans music scene and how one gifted child rose through it. First, Satchmo's description of New Orleans is a wild delight. He writes of street musicians, honky tonks, juke joints, bordellos and the characters that populated them. Those characters are a colorful bunch. They are the hustlers, madams, pimps, working girls of the New Orleans underworld and Satchmo makes them come alive. This may seem like an unwholesome crowd, but a young Jazz musician had only so many places to play his music and these establishments were the ones that hired and paid young Louis and his band to play. They come across as flawed, but human and certainly a very colorful bunch.
The story includes Satchmo's earliest musical efforts, his arrest for some gun play and time in a juvenile home which had an orchestra and where the orchestra director noticed the promising new inmate and gave him his break. The juvenile home orchestra in those days would often be allowed out to play funerals, church events and even family parties for wealthy southern white families and so Satchmo began to get noticed.
The description of life in New Orleans for a very poor young black musician is also an interesting insight. Louis describes how he would gather throw away food from the restaurant quarter to bring home for meals and how he drove a coal cart with a horse to make a living and then played long nights in the bordellos and honky tonks late into the night. There the pimps and working girls would toss the young trumpet player some money in exchange for his ability to keep them in good cheer or to keep the customers drinking and paying.
The story end with Satchmo's call up and move to Chicago to play with King Oliver's band and begin his rise to Jazz legend. Still, its the story of his roots in New Orleans which makes for an incredibly interesting and lively read and a great time piece int a different world and its characters, long gone, but not to be forgotten. At 200 pages, the book is a quick and easy read. Its such an entertaing story, I'm surprised it hasn't been made into a movie.
In any case, even 5 stars don't do it justice. If there was a sixth star for extra awesomeness, I would give it to this book.
The story includes Satchmo's earliest musical efforts, his arrest for some gun play and time in a juvenile home which had an orchestra and where the orchestra director noticed the promising new inmate and gave him his break. The juvenile home orchestra in those days would often be allowed out to play funerals, church events and even family parties for wealthy southern white families and so Satchmo began to get noticed.
The description of life in New Orleans for a very poor young black musician is also an interesting insight. Louis describes how he would gather throw away food from the restaurant quarter to bring home for meals and how he drove a coal cart with a horse to make a living and then played long nights in the bordellos and honky tonks late into the night. There the pimps and working girls would toss the young trumpet player some money in exchange for his ability to keep them in good cheer or to keep the customers drinking and paying.
The story end with Satchmo's call up and move to Chicago to play with King Oliver's band and begin his rise to Jazz legend. Still, its the story of his roots in New Orleans which makes for an incredibly interesting and lively read and a great time piece int a different world and its characters, long gone, but not to be forgotten. At 200 pages, the book is a quick and easy read. Its such an entertaing story, I'm surprised it hasn't been made into a movie.
In any case, even 5 stars don't do it justice. If there was a sixth star for extra awesomeness, I would give it to this book.
August 9, 2017
In this autobiography, jazz icon Louis Armstrong recounts his youth growing up in 19 teens and '20s New Orleans. Armstrong recounts his colorful, albeit dirt poor, upbringing in the Louisiana city. More than the average celebrity autobiography, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans offers a candid, raunchy, rollicking look at the people and places in NOLA history that have now come to embody the storied city. All the greats are here in these pages: Kid Ory. King Oliver, Pete Lala. If you're looking for fascinating stories about the founders of Jazz from someone who knew them, and played with them, then this is the book for you. Armstrong has endless tales of Storyville in is heydey. If you want to know how New Orleans looked, smelled, and sounded at the dawn of the Jazz Age, it's all here, and it's told as if Louis Armstrong were sitting with you at a honkytonk and talking to you over a beer.
I cannot recommend Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans enough, especially to Jazz aficionados and history buffs. The book left me wanting to hear more and more, especially since it ends with Armstrong's leaving to begin his "big time" music career with Kid Ory in Chicago. I'm sure that Armstrong had many more stories to tell in his relatively long life.
I cannot recommend Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans enough, especially to Jazz aficionados and history buffs. The book left me wanting to hear more and more, especially since it ends with Armstrong's leaving to begin his "big time" music career with Kid Ory in Chicago. I'm sure that Armstrong had many more stories to tell in his relatively long life.
March 28, 2014
Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans is the story of New Orleans and of the jazz.
Dippermouth was also a great writer, the proof is this autobiography.
This story is written in first person, it seems to be with him we will witness of his experiences and the difficulties of that times.
Undoubtedly Louis has had a difficult childhood surrounded by poverty ignorance, and the racial hatred between black and white and violence of any kind.
Surprisingly Louis was not devoured by the revenge the main deterrent was the Jazz.
This book in not about a self-celebration, we won't read his musical superiority to other musicians but the opposite.
The "voice" of this tale respects his poor origins, he won't forget his friends and acquaintance, this is a wonderful journey towards the apex, the American's dream.
Dippermouth was also a great writer, the proof is this autobiography.
This story is written in first person, it seems to be with him we will witness of his experiences and the difficulties of that times.
Undoubtedly Louis has had a difficult childhood surrounded by poverty ignorance, and the racial hatred between black and white and violence of any kind.
Surprisingly Louis was not devoured by the revenge the main deterrent was the Jazz.
This book in not about a self-celebration, we won't read his musical superiority to other musicians but the opposite.
The "voice" of this tale respects his poor origins, he won't forget his friends and acquaintance, this is a wonderful journey towards the apex, the American's dream.
January 9, 2010
I didn't know much about Louis Armstrong (except that I love his song, "What a Wonderful World." I find his raspy voice and incredible horn playing refreshingly unique. I was excited when one of my students loaned me this book.
I loved learning about Louis' early years in New Orleans and how an employee at a home for children fostered his interest and talent in playing the cornet. It was fun to learn about how his career took off. I especially liked reading about how he played in the marching bands for New Orleans funerals... such a different world! If you're a fan of jazz music, you'll enjoy reading about Louis and the other talented musicians of his time.
I loved learning about Louis' early years in New Orleans and how an employee at a home for children fostered his interest and talent in playing the cornet. It was fun to learn about how his career took off. I especially liked reading about how he played in the marching bands for New Orleans funerals... such a different world! If you're a fan of jazz music, you'll enjoy reading about Louis and the other talented musicians of his time.
December 14, 2016
This is an enjoyable read that covers the beginning of Armstrong's life. Written as if he were sitting across from you telling you a story, this autobiography is as informal and unpretentious as any I have ever read. As an added bonus, I think I learned more about the history of New Orleans from this book than from the handful of history books I have read on the topic. A pleasure to read, you can't help but like the man and wish you had heard him play live. I recommend this book to everyone.
January 25, 2014
Superb autobiography by Louis Armstrong, from his early years growing up in New Orleans up to his first musical engagement in Chicago. No varnish in this book, very much in his own words, with slang, nicknames and much time spent in a boys home (where he learned to play cornet), growing up too poor to own shoes, with much time spent earning money in the red light district of Storyville. It's a great read about a remarkable time as told by a very remarkable man. Highly recommended.
August 17, 2015
What's not to like about this book, this story, and this man? I made it a point to purchase this at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens. Take the tour there, learn how he lived in and loved that neighborhood, and it will make you appreciate all of his New Orleans reminiscences all the more.
January 26, 2016
For anyone who loves Jazz, History, New Orleans, or any combination of those. From the context of historical narrative and then-versus-now, it's pretty unbelievable. Me: "That actually happened?" L.A.: "Yes. Yes it did." Me: jaw drops.
September 6, 2010
New Orleans currently has city-wide reading project with this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews