by Larry Tye
First published 2024
Larry Tye examines how three titans of American music changed the nation through their art. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie emerged from similar backgrounds within a few years of each other to become the country's most beloved entertainers. The author reveals how these musicians navigated the brutal realities of Jim Crow America without direct confrontation over every injustice. Instead, they chose a different path. They opened hearts and minds through the power of their performances, allowing their music to speak where words could not. Tye draws from over 250 interviews to reconstruct their parallel journeys from obscurity to stardom. The book shows how these three artists faced the same racist exclusion and violence that plagued Black performers of their era, yet each found ways to transcend those barriers. Their music became the unofficial soundtrack for the civil rights movement that would follow. Through their stories, Tye illuminates the broader experience of Black America from the early 1900s through the mid-century, using these gifted musicians as a window into a transformative period in American history.
Genres: history, 20th-century, african-american, biography-memoir, music, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: biographical, historical-fiction
Setting: America
Period: Early 20th Century, Mid 20th Century
416 pages · Hardcover · Mariner Books