A
dual biography of two great innovators in the history of jazz. One was
black, one was white—one is now legendary, the other nearly forgotten.
In Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman thejazz
scholar Joshua Berrett offers a provocative revision of the history of
early jazz by focusing on two of its most notable
practitioners—Whiteman, legendary in his day, and Armstrong, a legend
ever since.
Paul Whiteman’s fame was unmatched throughout the
twenties. Bix Beiderbecke, Bing Crosby, and Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey honed
their craft on his bandstand. Celebrated as the “King of Jazz” in 1930
in a Universal Studios feature film, Whiteman’s imperium has declined
considerably since. The legend of Louis Armstrong, in contrast, grows
ever more lustrous: for decades it has been Armstrong, not Whiteman, who
has worn the king’s crown.
This dual biography explores these
diverging legacies in the context of race, commerce, and the history of
early jazz. Early jazz, Berrett argues, was not a story of black
innovators and white usurpers. In this book, a much richer, more
complicated story emerges—a story of cross-influences, sidemen, sundry
movers and shakers who were all part of a collective experience that
transcended the category of race. In the world of early jazz, Berrett
contends, kingdoms had no borders.
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