Satchmo: The Wonderful World & Art Of Louis Armstrong
by Steven Brower

The ultimate Louis Armstrong coffee table book

Jazz icon Louis Armstrong was as passionate about his hobbies as he was about playing his horn and making music. When he wasn’t performing he could usually be found messing around with his trusty reel-toreel tape recorder, transferring his vinyl LP collection on to tape while recording voiceovers of his thoughts and feelings.

Not content with this, Satchmo would decorate his large collection of tape boxes with collages consisting of newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, letters, postcards, telegrams and various memorabilia. This private, hitherto unseen and undocumented side of Armstrong’s life, is brought into the public domain thanks to a beautifully illustrated new book. It combines an eloquently-written narrative about the trumpeter’s life and achievements with page after page of richly-detailed colour photographs depicting Armstrong’s tape box collages.

With their vivid colours and interesting juxtaposition of images and words (Satchmo would often cut out quotations that caught his eye from newspapers) the tape boxes offer a fascinating insight into Armstrong’s personality and creative thinking. That said, these collages aren’t on the same plane as Armstrong’s music, despite the author suggesting otherwise. In fact, it’s doubtful whether anyone would give them a second glance if they weren’t the work of an icon. Even so, a visual feast for Satchmo fans.

Abrams

Reviewed by Charles Waring
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