![]() ![]() He had decided to accept what looked like an exciting job offer from John Streckfus and his bandleader Fate C. Armstrong, who had been born on August 4, 1901, was then seventeen years old. In September 1918 he had started playing on a Streckfus Steamers excursion boat that plied New Orleans harbor but, still restless, announced to friends and colleagues that he would be shipping out to perform along the Mississippi River from New Orleans as far north as Minneapolis. In April 1919, several years before moving to Chicago, where he cut some of his most important records, Louis Armstrong determined to see where his burgeoning talent as a jazz cornetist, vocalist, and entertainer might take him. Jazz on the River is a thoughtful and imaginative exploration of the American character in transition, illuminating how jazz reshaped perceptions of the river and vice versa.”-Bruce Boyd Raeburn, Tulane UniversityĪn excerpt from Jazz on the River by William Howland Kenney ![]() Now William Kenney offers baptism by full immersion. “We've been skimming on the surface of this topic for years. With this book, the history of jazz just became richer, deeper, and more wonderfully complicated.”-John Szwed, author of So What: The Life of Miles Davis Jazz on the River gracefully guides us through the boat business, the entertainers that performed for the passengers and crew, and the culture of life on the riverboats. “After a century of loose talk about jazz coming 'up the river' from New Orleans, William Howland Kenney makes sense of that phrase by putting us on those boats and showing us the life that Mark Twain never experienced.
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