Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong and the spy: how the CIA used him as a ‘trojan horse’ in Congo
Book reveals how the jazz musician unwittingly became party to secret cold war manoeuvres by the US in Africa
Jason Burke Africa correspondent
12, Sep, 2021 @8:45 AM
Jazz on a Summer’s Day review –Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson and more shine bright
Powerful musical moments are undercut by exasperating blandness in this rerelease of Bert Stern’s film of the 1958 Newport jazz festival
Peter Bradshaw
29, Aug, 2021 @9:03 PM
A Man Called Adam review – Sammy Davis Jr swings in earnest race-issue drama
Histrionic 1966 picture about a struggling musician has worthy ambitions but is deeply unhip
Peter Bradshaw
10, Aug, 2021 @3:00 PM
Marcel Stellman obituary
Record producer and lyricist known for Tulips from Amsterdam who brought the TV show Countdown to the UK
Spencer Leigh
10, May, 2021 @5:06 PM
Ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bop: is scatting having a revival?
Serpentwithfeet’s latest track uses the classic jazz technique. But from Bobby McFerrin to Scatman John and Baby Shark, maybe it never went away
Ammar Kalia
12, Mar, 2021 @1:00 PM
Not a wonderful world: why Louis Armstrong was hated by so many
Casual listeners think of him as a gentle giant of jazz, but critics and African Americans often saw him as a sell out or ‘Uncle Tom’. A new book aims to show how radical ‘Pops’ really was
Ed Prideaux
17, Dec, 2020 @10:08 AM
The week in radio: Moon; The Dying of the Ice; Cold War in Full Swing and more
Radio 4 recreated the moon landing and explored ice instruments, while Radio 3 celebrated Louis Armstrong’s 1965 GDR tour
Sean O’Hagan
21, Jul, 2019 @6:00 AM
Why Earl Scruggs was the Beethoven of the banjo
Emma John: A trip to North Carolina to study bluegrass yielded this lesson: Earl Scruggs was the greatest there ever was
Emma John
11, Jan, 2019 @2:43 PM
When America's hottest jazz stars were sent to cool cold-war tensions
When a US blighted by racial unrest found itself needing to win a global propaganda war, a team of musical ambassadors was assembled. The result was anything but straightforward
Hugo Berkeley
03, May, 2018 @8:57 AM
Desert Island Discs: 75 defining moments from 75 years of castaways
The show’s first guest was marooned three quarters of a century ago this month. Here are the moments that made Desert Island Discs a radio classic
Stephen Moss
06, Jan, 2017 @3:56 PM
Readers recommend playlist: songs about hope and resilience
From Beethoven to Bob Dylan, here are the top picks for tracks to get us through hard times
Chris Wheatley
08, Sep, 2016 @11:04 AM
Billy Paul: five of the best from the soul maestro who created an all-time classic
From sampling Malcolm X and Martin Luther King to covering Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney, Billy Paul’s greatest moments were often his most unlikely
David Ma
26, Apr, 2016 @2:06 PM
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