Armstrong News

A year-end roundup of some of the noteworthy books about the arts, including "Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong," "Bette Davis: Larger than Life" and "Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast." For the arts-lovers on your list, a roundup of books about actors, musicians, artists and more.

They're always a hit on the holidays -- coffee table books. There are pop-up books, books that take you to wonderful places, collections of great photography and absolute jaw-dropping tales.

When Louis Armstrong recorded Bob Thiele and George David Weiss' song "What a Wonderful World" in 1968, the song really became his, so perfectly does his warm, sandy voice express the song's gentle optimism.

Thirty-eight years after Louis Armstrong's death, Terry Teachout has made the possible, possible: He has written a definitive narrative biography of the greatest jazz musician of the 20th century.

Jazz enthusiasts will appreciate a new exhibit entitled Jam Session: Americas Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World, now on display in the changing gallery of the American Jazz Museum.In partnership with Meridian International Center, the exhibit includes a fascinating collection of photographs, documents and jazz memorabilia drawn from archives ...

One of the hardest parts of writing a biography is finding a fit subject, but sometimes they're in plain sight.

Interview: Terry Teachout The more time you spend looking at Louis Armstrong on film and listening to him on record, the more you come to a single realization: Armstrong has done more than any other performer to shape America's collective personality.

This class is Open. Drop/Walk-In Same Day as the Dance Lesson and Just Show Up to Register/Sign Up & Pay at the Door.

Writing on theater for the Wall Street Journal and on music for Commentary, Terry Teachout is my favorite working critic.

Louis Armstrong performs with his All Stars in 1956. Terry Teachout's new biography of Armstrong is based in part on a cache of backstage and after-hours conversations that Armstrong recorded for himself.

Saw picture of Louis Armstrong as young man, and saw total resemblance to former Nick star and current SNL cast member Kenan Thompson, who has a real gift for playing spacey, artistic types.

Not long before he died in 1971, Louis Armstrong wrote to a friend, "Life was there for me and I accepted it.

Admission: Free; 767-8438 More Sun music coverage BLU7 Jazz trumpeter James Barela was on a roll until he blew out his lip.

Illustrated. 475 pages. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $30. Times Topics: Louis Armstrong Ken Howard Terry Teachout, the author of "Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong." His determination to entertain and the mass popularity he eventually achieved, coupled with his gregarious, open-hearted personality, would obscure the magnitude of his achievement and win ...

I recently reorganised the books in my study, and collected my remnants of feminist theory on a separate shelf; a fragment of another world.

Today's idea: Louis Armstrong's bluntest written views on black individual responsibility "are the source of considerable disquiet among his admirers, many of whom prefer to ignore them altogether," a biographer says.

Louis Armstrong is seen in Paris in this 1934 file photo. Louis Armstrong's first cornet is on the way to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

NEW Year's Eve, 1912. Eleven-year-old Louis Armstrong and his posse of four friends were strolling along the crowds of Rampart Street in New Orleans when a thug started shooting at them with a cap gun.

Nov. 5 Once upon a time it seemed that New Orleans trumpeter Nicholas Payton was the reincarnation of Louis Armstrong , with his bright virtuosic phrases and Big Easy swing.

I've been keeping an amused eye on the books, CD, and DVDs purchased by people who order an advance copy of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong from Amazon.