Nearly 50 years after his death, Louis Armstrong remains one of the 20th
century's most iconic figures. Popular fans still appreciate his later
hits such as "Hello, Dolly!" and "What a Wonderful World," while in the
jazz community, he remains venerated for his groundbreaking innovations
in the
1920s. The achievements of Armstrong's middle years, however,
possess some of the trumpeter's most scintillating and career-defining
stories. But the story of this crucial time has never been told in depth
― until now. Between 1929 and 1947, Armstrong transformed himself from a
little-known
trumpeter in Chicago to an internationally renowned pop
star, setting in motion the innovations of the Swing Era and Bebop. He
had a similar effect on the art of American pop singing, waxing some of
his most identifiable hits such as "Jeepers Creepers" and "When You're
Smiling." However as author
Ricky Riccardi shows, this transformative
era wasn't without its problems, from racist performance reviews and
being held up at gunpoint by gangsters to struggling with an overworked
embouchure and getting arrested for marijuana possession. Utilizing a
prodigious amount of new research, Riccardi
traces Armstrong's
mid-career fall from grace and dramatic resurgence. Featuring
never-before-published photographs and stories culled from Armstrong's
personal archives, Heart Full of Rhythm tells the story of how the man called "Pops" became the first "King of Pop."
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