About this item
Roxane Orgill's vivid words and Leonard Jenkins's dramatic pictures combine to tell the story of a boy who grew up to be a giant of jazz - the legendary and beloved Louis Armstrong. As a poor boy in New Orleans, where music was everywhere - dancing out of doorways, singing on street corners, crying from the cornet of the great Joe Oliver for all to hear - Louis longed for a horn so that he too could sing, bring home pennies, and, most of all, tap happy-feet blues till the sun rose. It wasn't going to be easy. Many things, not all of them good, had to happen before he got his horn. But when at last he did, he sent music spiraling up into the New Orleans night sky like a spinning top gone crazy.
About the Author
Ever find yourself doing something you didn't expect?
I was looking at a famous photograph of jazz musicians crowded outside a Harlem brownstone, and I was wondering how to write about it. A poem popped out.
I'm not a poet. I write nonfiction. I used to be a music critic and journalist. I rarely even read poetry. But I like research, so I dug into that August day in 1958 when an amateur photographer tried to corral 57 musicians into a picture. And I kept writing - poems!
See the results in my new book, JAZZ DAY: THE MAKING OF A FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPH, illustrated by Francis Vallejo (Candlewick Press, 2106) . It has earned six * * * * * * starred reviews!
