Ellington and Armstrong: The Lives and Careers of America's Most Famous Jazz Performers

Louis Armstrong once claimed that “Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine-I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans...It has given me something to live for.” This statement conjures an image which most anyone familiar with jazz music can recall: Armstrong clutching his trumpet forcefully, his eyes closed in a manner that distances him from his physical surroundings in favor of a perfect harmony between the man and his instrument. As Armstrong alludes to in this rema...