From Make: A Chicago Literary Magazine

Early in Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans, Thomas Brothers takes direct aim at the accepted historical reading of Louis Armstrong and his  musical legacy. Nearly a century since Armstrong first made a name for himself as a hot young trumpet player, the musician has reached  a sanctified state in American history. In the process, he has become a figure without  context, background, or historical mooring. As a result, Armstrong and his historical moment has been robbed of its truth, the reality of the racial relations he navigated every day. Brothers argues, and makes a compelling case, that Armstrong has been transformed into an unreal figure whose  talent has been codified in a manner consistent with the recurrent racist trope of the noble savage. (more…)