A portrait of the longtime kings of jazz – Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie – who, born within a few years of one another, overcame racist exclusion and violence to become the most popular entertainers on the planet.
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.
