Stomp Off, Let's Go The Early Years of Louis Armstrong

by Riccardi, Ricky

• ISBN13: 9780197614488
• ISBN10: 0197614485
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780197614501
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-02-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

The revelatory origin story of one of America's most beloved musicians, Louis Armstrong

How did Louis Armstrong become Louis Armstrong?

In Stomp Off, Let's Go, author and Armstrong expert Ricky Riccardi tells the enthralling story of the iconic trumpeter's meteoric rise to fame. Beginning with Armstrong's youth in New Orleans, Riccardi transports readers through Armstrong's musical and personal development, including his initial trip to Chicago to join Joe "King" Oliver's band, his first to New York to meet Fletcher Henderson, and his eventual return to Chicago, where he changed the course of music with the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings.

While this period of Armstrong's life is perhaps more familiar than others, Riccardi enriches extant narratives with recently unearthed archival materials, including a rare draft of pianist, composer, and Armstrong's second wife Lillian "Lil" Hardin Armstrong's autobiography. Riccardi similarly tackles the perceived notion of Armstrong as a "sell-out" during his later years, highlighting the many ways in which Armstrong's musical style and personal values in fact remained steady throughout his career. By foregrounding the voices of Armstrong and his contemporaries, Stomp Off, Let's Go offers a more intimate exploration of Armstrong's personal and professional relationships, in turn providing essential insights into how Armstrong evolved into one of America's most beloved icons.

Author Biography

Ricky Riccardi is Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum, and author of What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years and Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong. In 2022, he won a GRAMMY Award for Best Album Notes for The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia and RCA Studio Sessions 1946-1966. He has delivered lectures on Armstrong at venues around the world and has taught Armstrong courses for Jazz at Lincoln Center's Swing University and at Queens College, CUNY. Riccardi has a degree in Jazz History and Research from Rutgers University.

Table of Contents

Prologue - "They're Going to Write About Me in the History Books"

1. "Just Glad to Be Here!" - 1901-06
2. "Everything Happened in the Brick Row" - 1906-10
3. "Just a Kid Who Could Use a Little Word of Kindness" - 1910-11
4. "Did That Band Swing!" - 1911
5. "Blessed Assurance" - 1911-12
6. "Hooray for Louis Armstrong!" - 1913-14
7. "A Beautiful Soul" - 1914
8. "Man, You Ain't Never Heard So Much Horn Blowin'" - 1914-15
9. "The Memory of the Bullies and Trouble Makers" - 1916
10. "My Fairy God Father" - 1916-17
11. "Just Wasn't My Time to Die, Man" - 1917
12. "Had to Eat" - 1917-18
13. "Nothing But Fuck and Fight" - 1918-19
14. "They Loved Us" - 1919
15. "Descending the Sky Like a God" - 1919-21
16. "Son, You Got a Chance" - 1921-22
17. "I Always Played Pretty Under Him" - 1922
18. "The Hot Miss Lil" - 1922-23
19. "The Little Frog-Mouthed Boy Who Played the Cornet" - 1923-24
20. "Second Trumpet to No One" - 1924
21. "Big Headed Motherfuckers" - 1924-25
22. "I Know I Can Play and I Know I Can Sing" - 1925
23. "Girl, I Think You're Crazy" - 1925-26
24. "I Got the Heebies" - 1926
25. "The Latest Novelty" - 1926
26. "Just Keep on Blowing" - 1927
27. "Awful Glorious Days" - 1927-28
28. "We Had No Idea It Was Gonna Have the Effect That It Did Have" - 1928
29. "Louis Had Changed the Whole World" - 1929

Epilogue - "I Never Did Leave New Orleans"

Index