The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America

Format: Hardcover Language: English ISBN: 035838043X ISBN13: 9780358380436 Release Date: May 2024 Publisher: Mariner Books Length: 416 Pages Weight: 1.28 lbs. Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.0" x 9.1" From the New York Times bestselling author of Satchel and Bobby Kennedy, a sweeping and spellbinding portrait of the longtime kings of jazz--Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie--who, born within a few years of one another, overcame racist exclusion and violence to become the most popular entertainers on the planet.This is the story of three revolutionary American musicians, the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of twentieth-century America.Duke Ellington, the grandson of slaves who was christened Edward Kennedy Ellington, was a man whose story is as layered and nuanced as his name suggests and whose music transcended category.Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in a New Orleans slum so tough it was called The Battlefield and, at age sev