Monday, February 29, 2016

My First Real Book

I'm not sure but I think I was 10 or  11 when I picked up a copy of the autobiography of Louis Armstrong, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans.

It covers his childhood, his stay in a home for JD's where he learned to play trumpet, and then up to the time he was hired by Joe Oliver to play in a band in Chicago.

I think what drew me in was that it was about a kid about my age, growing up in different circumstances than me but surrounded by lots of vivid personalities as I was too.

Armstrong wrote it himself and it was subjected to only a little prissy editing so it has an extraordinary integrity about it, you really heard his voice, his zest for life. I'd read it again.

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