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Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 19 hrs and 18 mins
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Publisher's summary
The definitive account of Louis Armstrong - his life and legacy - during the most creative period of his career. Nearly 100 years after bursting onto Chicago’s music scene under the tutelage of Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. A trumpet virtuoso, seductive crooner, and consummate entertainer, Armstrong laid the foundation for the future of jazz with his stylistic innovations, but his story would be incomplete without examining how he struggled in a society seething with brutally racist ideologies, laws, and practices. Thomas Brothers picks up where he left off with the acclaimed Louis Armstrong's New Orleans, following the story of the great jazz musician into his most creatively fertile years in the 1920s and early 1930s, when Armstrong created not one but two modern musical styles. Brothers wields his own tremendous skill in making the connections between history and music accessible to everyone as Armstrong shucks and jives. Through Brothers's expert ears and eyes we meet an Armstrong whose quickness and sureness, so evident in his performances, served him well in his encounters with racism while his music soared across the airwaves into homes all over America. Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism blends cultural history, musical scholarship, and personal accounts from Armstrong's contemporaries to reveal his enduring contributions to jazz and popular music at a time when he and his bandmates couldn’t count on food or even a friendly face on their travels across the country. Thomas Brothers combines an intimate knowledge of Armstrong's life with the boldness to examine his place in such a racially charged landscape. In vivid prose, Brothers illuminates the life and work of the man many consider to be the greatest American musician of the 20th century.
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With more than 90 million records sold and eight Grammy Awards throughout its 40-year history, Earth, Wind & Fire has staked its claim as one of the most successful, influential, and beloved acts in music history. Now, for the first time, its dynamic lead singer, Philip Bailey, chronicles the group's meteoric rise to stardom and his own professional and spiritual journey. Never before had a musical act crossed multiple styles and genres with a quixotic blend of astrology, universalism, and Egyptology as Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) did when it exploded into the public's conscience during the 1970s.
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Great book, but needed pro narrator
- By Wayne on 03-23-16
By: Philip Bailey, and others
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Catch a Wave
- The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson
- By: Peter Ames Carlin
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In Catch a Wave, Peter Ames Carlin pulls back the curtain on Brian Wilson, one of popular music's most revered luminaries, as well as its biggest mystery. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before heard studio recordings, Carlin follows the Beach Boys from their earliest days through Brian's deepening emotional problems to his triumphant re-emergence with the release of Smile, the legendarily unreleased album he had originally shelved.
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Not great
- By J. Barker on 08-08-16
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Never a Dull Moment
- 1971 - the Year That Rock Exploded
- By: David Hepworth
- Narrated by: David Hepworth
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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On New Year's Eve, 1970, Paul McCartney told his lawyers to issue the writ at the High Court in London, effectively ending The Beatles. You might say this was the last day of the pop era. The following day, which was a Friday, was 1971. You might say this was the first day of the rock era. And within the remaining 364 days of this monumental year, the world would hear Don McLean's "American Pie", The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar", The Who's "Baba O'Riley", Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", and more.
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A blast from the past
- By Amazon Customer on 07-30-16
By: David Hepworth
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The Wrecking Crew
- The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret
- By: Kent Hartman
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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If you were a fan of popular music in the 1960s and early '70s, you were a fan of the Wrecking Crew - whether you knew it or not. On hit record after hit record by everyone from the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and the Monkees to the Grass Roots, the 5th Dimension, Sonny & Cher, and Simon & Garfunkel, this collection of West Coast studio musicians from diverse backgrounds established themselves as the driving sound of pop music - sometimes over the objection of actual band members....
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Left Guessing
- By Patrick King on 04-29-14
By: Kent Hartman
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The Never-Ending Present
- The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip
- By: Michael Barclay
- Narrated by: George Stroumboulopoulos
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From our talent-rich neighbor to the north comes this biography of one of the most successful Canadian rock bands, The Tragically Hip, which announced a year-long tour after sharing the news of lead singer Gord Downie’s inoperable cancer. Now available to US listeners, The Never-Ending Present details what led up to the memorable night when music fans all over the world watched Downie’s heroic final performance.
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Hometown Heroes
- By Tommy Garou on 12-13-18
By: Michael Barclay
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My Life with Earth, Wind & Fire
- By: Maurice White, Herb Powell
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The late Grammy-winning founder of the legendary pop/R&B/soul/funk/disco group tells his story and charts the rise of his legendary band in this sincere memoir that captures the heart and soul of an artist whose groundbreaking sound continues to influence music today. With a foreword by David Foster.
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Maurice--Earth, Wind and Fire
- By Linda Ealey on 02-28-17
By: Maurice White, and others
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Django
- The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend
- By: Michael Dregni
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Django Reinhardt was arguably the greatest guitarist who ever lived, an important influence on Les Paul, Charlie Christian, B.B. King, Jerry Garcia, Chet Atkins, and many others. Yet there is no major biography of Reinhardt. Now, in Django, Michael Dregni offers a definitive portrait of this great guitarist. Handsome, charismatic, childlike, and unpredictable, Reinhardt was a character out of a picaresque novel. Born in a gypsy caravan at a crossroads in Belgium, he was almost killed in a freak fire that burned half of his body and left his left hand twisted into a claw.
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Django in context
- By George MP on 10-08-18
By: Michael Dregni
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Bright lights dark shadows
- The real story of Abba
- By: Carl Palm
- Narrated by: Adrian Mulraney
- Length: 26 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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An exploration of all aspects of the Abba member’s lives and careers. Amazingly detailed, it examines the group member’s family backgrounds, the pre-Abba days, the legendary 70s, the marriages, the divorces, the business ups and downs, and the post-Abba solo careers.
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Awesome! -- All the Swedish words pronounced!
- By Howard_a on 06-18-12
By: Carl Palm
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The Ballad of Bob Dylan
- A Portrait
- By: Daniel Mark Epstein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a vivid, full-bodied portrait of one of the most influential artists of the 20th-century - a man widely regarded as the most important lyricist America has ever produced. Acclaimed poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein frames Dylan against the backdrop of four seminal concerts - all of which he attended. Beautifully written, The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a unique, eye-opening portrait of an artist who has transformed generations and continues to inspire and surprise today.
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Excellent book, excellent narration
- By L chandler on 12-22-11
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King of the Blues
- The Rise and Reign of B.B. King
- By: Daniel De Visé
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Riley “Blues Boy” King (1925-2015) was born into deep poverty in Jim Crow Mississippi. Wrenched away from his sharecropper father, B.B. lost his mother at age 10, leaving him more or less alone. Music became his emancipation from exhausting toil in the fields. Inspired by a local minister’s guitar and by the records of Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker and encouraged by his cousin, the established blues man Bukka White, B.B. taught his guitar to sing in the unique solo style that, along with his relentless work ethic and humanity, became his trademark.
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Excellent
- By Sonny Garcia on 01-02-24
By: Daniel De Visé
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1965
- The Most Revolutionary Year in Music
- By: Andrew Grant Jackson
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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During 12 unforgettable months in the middle of the turbulent '60s, America saw the rise of innovative new sounds that would change popular music as we knew it. In 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music, music historian Andrew Grant Jackson (Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of The Beatles' Solo Careers) chronicles a groundbreaking year of creativity fueled by rivalries between musicians and continents, sweeping social changes, and technological breakthroughs.
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Seems like a good overview
- By wylie smith on 01-12-23
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The Secret Life of the American Musical
- How Broadway Shows Are Built
- By: Jack Viertel
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in actors and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?
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Great review lacked music
- By joseph f mcgovern on 10-14-18
By: Jack Viertel
What listeners say about Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Angster
- 12-02-17
Does not include the Referenced musical examples
Extremely thorough. Well written. The text refers to an accompanying CD with musical references to the text. The musical examples were provided. The audiobook should be interspersed with the musical examples. If it were five stars would be appropriate. Whenever the author talked about a certain song I needed to go to Amazon music to find the song and listen to it.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-08-22
American Hero
Louis influenced every vocalist and soloist...he is the father of all us musicians! His style and flash still sounds modern today!
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- Rob E.C.
- 06-01-20
Should get college credits...
...for completing this book. Very detailed in Louis’ music as well as the social world of the time. All tunes/videos the author referenced are available on iTunes & YouTube &, if listen to them before &/or after the author analyzes them, LOTS of insight can be gained. I had a course at Berklee just like this except the subject was Miles Davis.
If you’re a musician or an avid listener this book has lots to offer in understanding the evolution of music improvisation. Highly recommend.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Arthur
- 05-22-14
Enjoyable and informative, but where is part one?
Early in this book the author maks reference to an earlier work called Louis Armstongs New Orleans which deals with the period from 1900 to about 1922. Unfortunatly, this book is currently not available on audible. Master of Modernism covers Armstongs life and career from 1922 to the mid 1930s and while this volume absolutely stands on its own, it would be nice to have part one. There are also a number of references to CD tracks as if a cd was included in the print version but not the audio version. I don't know why these audio clips could'nt be included in the audio version
That being said I found this to be a great book and it would of real historical value to anyone who plays or just enjoys listening to Jazz.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Rob G.
- 09-30-15
Very in-depth look at Armstrong's crucial years.
The best thing about this was how it tied everything together. Armstrong's evolution was as much a part of the times as anything. This book really put things into the proper perspective of music, politics, race, etc. For some people, there may be a bit too much technical discussion of the music, though I never felt it became a theory lesson. My biggest disappointment was that they couldn't have included soundclips instead of referencing time markings on CDs. I doubt that was an option as the recordings are still copyright protected in the US. Still, a fascinating listening energetically read.
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7 people found this helpful
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- paul shire
- 06-28-20
Very analytical
Note by note and solo by solo of the great man
Louis Satch morning Armstrong
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- C. L. Barger
- 11-13-21
Lots of interpretation by the author
Has lots of good information about Armstrong and especially about the when, where and what of early recordings. The technical detail can be interesting but one wonders (as with many well after the fact analysis) how accurate the modern breakdown is vs musicians that were just playing what they feel. (His analysis tends to contradict his own "conclusions" of codified vs non-codified, a white vs black analysis of style)
Tends to head of in tangents about other musicians which many times has little to nothing to do with Armstrong's continued development. Also has a very selective interpretation of events of that time, painting with a very broad brush to his particular narrative only to have his personal conclusions contradicted with additional facts often presented in the next sentence or paragraph.
If you are really interested to learn some details about Armstrong which you would be hard to find anywhere else and can ignore the tangents and the personal interpretation of events, then a wade (a long tedious wade) is worth the time.
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- Ahhbach
- 02-06-21
Useless without the music
The author gets into music theory but doesn't play the music he's talking about - useless.
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- ERICK
- 09-05-20
Tough read for anyone who isn't musically trained
I just wanted to find out about Louis Armstrong's life. If that's what you want too, this isn't the book for you. The big problem with the book is that it really is about music theory and how Louis Armstrong has affected Jazz from that standpoint more than anything else. Yes, there are some historical bits about him as well, but they feel more like an afterthought. The main thrust of the book is for the author to go ga-ga over Louis musicianship. So if you don't want to hear someone go on and on about the ins and outs of musical structure and theory, then give this one a pass. Otherwise, maybe you'll dig it. I sure didn't.
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2 people found this helpful
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- EBigelow
- 06-26-19
Narrator Too Distracting
The narrator over acted, over enunciated, and it felt like he was reading to children. His inflections were so over done, that I was completely distracted. I only got through 20 minutes of the book, and then I had to turn it off. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but I just couldn't listen to him for another minute.
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1 person found this helpful