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.
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.
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.