Terry Teachout's Pops: The Life of Louis Armstrong

I've mentioned Terry Teachout's blog About Last Night in this space on a few occasions. I read it every day and if you're interested in books, music, theater, and art, you should too. I've also read two of his books, his excellent biography of H.L. Mencken, The Skeptic: A Life of H. L. Mencken, and his collection of essays, The Terry Teachout Reader. Over the years I've gotten dozens of good ideas from Terry. For instance, I would never have discovered Edwin O'Connor's The Edge of Sadness, a book I love, if not for Terry mentioning it on his blog. In fact, I've read so many excellent books, discovered so much great music, and enjoyed so many plays and exhibits in NYC based on his suggestions that I feel eternally indebted to him. He's the best critic going, period. Terry just put the finishing touches on his forthcoming biography of Louis Armstrong, Pops: The Life of Louis Armstrong, due out in the fall, and he answers the question Why do we need another book about Satchmo? on his blog this morning. It's a fabulous post. Go take a look and start making About Last Night part of your daily routine.

You've noticed I've just discovered how to embed music into my blog. I gave you a couple of great weather-related songs the past few mornings (scroll down). Yesterday morning I was actually looking to embed Louis Armstrong's "Potato Head Blues," my favorite Armstrong recording, but apparently no one has the full version available for embedding - I could get only 30 second snatches of it. So I embedded Jo Stafford's "The Things We Did Last Summer" instead. Then later in the day, I watched "Manhattan," Woody Allen's 1979 homage to the city with the all-Gershwin soundtrack. I enjoyed the movie when it first came out but I found it extremely self-indulgent this time around. Self-awarely self-indulgent: Woody Allen appears to realize he's a megalomaniac. Anyhow, near the end of the movie the Allen character talks into a tape-recorder about what makes life worth-living, and he begins to list off the things he loves most in life - Willie Mays, Cezanne's still lifes, the second movement of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, and a few other things. And one of the things he mentions is Louis Armstrong's "Potato Head Blues". Say what you want about Allen, he has terrific taste in music. In fact, some of his movies are worthwhile only for their soundtracks. Listen below to one of the greatest jazz recordings ever.