Camdyn’s Reviews > The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America > Status Update

This part of the book talks about the early life of the great Duke Ellington. So far, he has not discovered his passion for music yet. Although, everyone is claiming that even early on they knew he was going to be special.

tough, business, dramatically, sleep, thrive

The business of the young count was tough.
Many nights he wouldn't sleep.
But still, he would thrive dramatically
Playing his piano emphatically.

The metaphor used in this part of the book is "Satchelmouth." This is the name that Louis Armstrong was called by his friends when he was younger and is still known today. It is a metaphor for Louis' large mouth and his great trumpet playing even at a young age.

my poem:

Work and work and work
Job after job after job
Little Louis will find a way to pay for his sister and mom

deprivation
separation
segregation
provenance
freedom

These words speak to the hard and unfair lives of black people in early America. Specifically, the early life of Louis Armstrong. These words point to the struggles but also the hope for new and positive change. If you changed some of these words they would likely have a more vague meaning, but as they are I think it is somewhat obvious what they reference.

The introduction to this book sets the stage and explains the author's approach to explaining these three musicians' lives. The book intends to focus on what the musicians did off the bandstand rather than what they did at their shows. I think there will be a lot of deeper dives into the racial inequalities of the time and how that affected their daily lives as well as how they wrote their music.

I have just started this book; it is more of a nonfiction-style book than a story. Currently, it is just introducing some of the main jazz musicians who popularized the music. I am looking forward to hopefully reading about some new stories of these musicians that I haven't already heard.