Current Leavings

We are presently making our way through Terry Teachout's brilliant Pops. Although we reamain convinced that there is a loud call for the 2 or 3 volume life and times biography, we think Teachout has finally begun to get the whole thing -- Armstrong the street urchin, Armstrong the band member, Armstrong the standalone soloist, Armstrong the bandleader, Armstrong the writer, Armstrong the film star, Armstrong, who was part of musical reviews, Armstrong the performer, Armstrong the composer, Armstrong the medicine man, Armstrong the first King of Pop, Armstrong the first King of the Blues, Armstrong the king of the Zulus.

When he was there near the start ('cause there were always, as you would expect, precursors), it was all of these threads he pulled together into the fabric.