Features:
- Color
- Black & White
- Widescreen
Description:
You would think there couldn't be anything else to say about Louis Armstrong after Ken Burns's Jazz, which elevated the trumpeter to the status of the 20th century's most important musical figure. But this hourlong program (produced in 1999, some two years before the Burns documentary began airing) equals and often surpasses Jazz by taking a less reverential, more personal approach. Not that Armstrong's monumental innovations and influence are neglected; inevitably, some of the same biographical and musical ground is covered, with several very familiar Jazz faces (like Wynton Marsalis and writer-critics Gary Giddins and Stanley Crouch) providing illumination. But we also get more clips from interviews with Armstrong himself (some from television shows hosted by the likes of David Frost, Jackie Gleason, and even Orson Welles) and those who knew him, like second wife Lil Hardin and longtime bassist Arvell Shaw, as well as some wonderful anecdotes (descriptions of Armstrong's first spouse, a razor-toting prostitute, who kept working after they married, and his audience with the Pope are priceless). Those and other elements show us a more intimate side of the great man than that afforded by Jazz's hagiography. But the most unusual aspect of The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong may be its interpolation of photographs and film not strictly related to Satchmo and his story. Unlike the stock footage used in most such documentaries, these shots (including views of Los Angeles, Paris, Miami, and other locales) tend toward the arty and abstract; some are in black and white, while others use infrared and other post-production effects. They are occasionally a little incongruous, but overall they provide the artful icing on this entertaining and informative cake. --Sam Graham
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