The Jazz Men:
How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, And Count Basie Transformed America
By Larry Tye
This is the story of three revolutionary American musicians, the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of twentieth-century America.
- Duke Ellington, the grandson of slaves who was christened Edward Kennedy Ellington, was a man whose story is as layered and nuanced as his name suggests and whose music transcended category.
- Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in a New Orleans slum so tough it was called The Battlefield and, at age seven, got his first musical instrument, a ten-cent tin horn that drew buyers to his rag-peddling wagon and set him on the road to elevating jazz into a pulsating force for spontaneity and freedom.
- William James Basie, too, grew up in a world unfamiliar to white fans—the son of a coachman and laundress who dreamed of escaping every time the traveling carnival swept into town, and who finally engineered his getaway with help from Fats Waller.
Based on more than 250 interviews, this exhaustively researched book brings alive the history of Black America in the early-to-mid 1900s through the singular lens of the country’s most gifted, engaging, and enduring African-American musicians.
Join Us
Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Time:
7PM
Location: JCA 1342 Congress Street, Portland
Bonus Discount!
Portland Ovations, our community partner, is bringing the Legendary Count Basie Orchestra to Merrill Auditorium on May 8th! Special discounted tickets are available for the JCA community — use code JCA at checkout for 10% off any regularly priced ticket. Get your tickets today!