While one might wish for more musical detail about this transformation, it’s in describing people that Mr. Tye’s strengths shine ... Mr. Tye has an easy way of telling a story, a knack for characterization and a pacing that feels right.
With descriptions of such key venues as Ellington’s Cotton Club in Harlem, Basie’s Reno Club in Kansas City, and Armstrong’s Sunset Cafe in Chicago, Tye incisively portrays three seminal American artists.
Mesmerizing ... With scrupulous attention to detail, Tye brings his subjects to life as both forces of social change and three-dimensional human beings who lived and breathed their art.
Tye does a nice job covering the high and low points of their careers, including deprived upbringings, audiences with presidents, personal quirks (Armstrong loved Swiss Kriss laxatives so much he had a picture of himself on the toilet on his business cards), many mistresses, and the racism they endured from hoteliers, critics, and even churches. If the structure of the book is repetitive, with chapters divided into an Armstrong section, a Basie section, and an Ellington section, the content is never dull, thanks to Tye's assured style and the unique lives these men lived. They weren't perfect, but there was nothing false about these idols.
This thoroughly enjoyable musical journey is succinctly titled, yet the scope of Tye's research demonstrates why and how Armstrong, Basie, and Ellington transcended jazz and even music itself to establish themselves in American culture forevermore.
