Reviews
"Compelling narrative flow...poised impartiality. . . .Teachout writes in an earthbound style marked by sound scholarship and easy readability. . . . Duke humanizes a man whom history has kept on a pedestal." - The New York Times Book Review "A thoroughly researched homage…Teachout delivers a Duke unlike any we've seen in previous biographies…At last, Teachout affirms that music was Ellington's greatest mistress and to her, the composer was unrelentingly loyal." - Essence Magazine "Comprehensive and well-researched…important….[an] entertaining and valuable biography." - Booklist , Starred Review "Teachout gives much insight into Ellington's life, personality, working habits, and compositions. This work should appeal to Ellington enthusiasts as well as casual jazz fans." - Library Journal "Revealing…Teachout neatly balances colorful anecdote with shrewd character assessments and musicological analysis, and he manages to debunk Ellington's self-mythologizing, while preserving his stature as the man who caught jazz's ephemeral genius in a bottle." - Publishers Weekly "Terry Teachout's biography is destined to be the definitive biography of bandleader, composer, and complex man-Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington." - The American Rag One of The Daily Beast's Fall 2013 Must-Reads Chosen as a Top 10 Music Book by Publishers Weekly, "A thoroughly researched homage…Teachout delivers a Duke unlike any we've seen in previous biographies…At last, Teachout affirms that music was Ellington's greatest mistress and to her, the composer was unrelentingly loyal." - Essence Magazine "Comprehensive and well-researched…important….[an] entertaining and valuable biography." - Booklist , Starred Review "Teachout gives much insight into Ellington's life, personality, working habits, and compositions. This work should appeal to Ellington enthusiasts as well as casual jazz fans." - Library Journal "Revealing…Teachout neatly balances colorful anecdote with shrewd character assessments and musicological analysis, and he manages to debunk Ellington's self-mythologizing, while preserving his stature as the man who caught jazz's ephemeral genius in a bottle." - Publishers Weekly "Terry Teachout's biography is destined to be the definitive biography of bandleader, composer, and complex man-Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington." - The American Rag One of The Daily Beast's Fall 2013 Must-Reads Chosen as a Top 10 Music Book by Publishers Weekly, Praise for Pops; A Life of Louis Armstrong: "Teachout restores this jazzman to his deserved place in the pantheon of American artists." The New York Times "Thirty-eight years after Louis Armstrong''s death, Terry Teachout has made the possible, possible: He has written a definitive narrative biography of the greatest jazz musician of the twentieth century." San Francisco Chronicle "A masterpiece." Seattle Times "Teachout excels at conveying the interplay between Armstrong the artist and Armstrong the entertainer, and at examining the particular challenge of his legacy." The New Yorker "[An] exceptional biography… Upon finishing this definitive biography, the reader is instructed to flip to the discography, download every last song, listen and grin the hell back." The Washington Post Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2009 "Crafted with a musician''s ear and an historian''s eye, Pops is a vibrant biography of the iconic Louis Armstrong that resonates with the same warmth as ol'' Satchmo's distinctive voice. Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout draws from a wealth of previously unavailable material including over 650 reels of Armstrong''s own personal tape recordings to create an engaging profile that slips behind the jazz legend''s megawatt smile. Teachout reveals that the beaming visage of "Reverend Satchelmouth" was not a mark of racial subservience, but a clear symbol of Louis''s refusal to let anything cloud the joy he derived from blowing his horn. "Faced with the terrible realities of the time and place into which he had been born," explains Teachout, "he didn''t repine, but returned love for hatred and sought salvation in work." Armstrong was hardly impervious to the injustices of his era, but in his mind, nothing was more sacred than the music. Dave Callanan "Teachout turns to another mighty pillar of 20th-century American culture, Louis Armstrong, a black man born at the turn of the century in the poorest quarter of New Orleans who by the end of his life was known and loved in every corner of the earth. … Teachout brings a fresh perspective… Teachout''s portrait reminds us why we fell in love with Armstrong''s music in the first place." Publishers Weekly Starred Review "To this fine, exhaustively researched...biography, Teachout brings an insider''s knowledge--he was a jazz musician before launching a career as cultural critic and biographer." National Post The Afterword "No one does better in exploring Armstrong''s social context than Teachout." Montreal Gazette Praise for The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken "Teachout simplifies the process for the casual reader, distilling the weight of information on Mencken into a tidy, fascinating biography that has much of the neat phrasing and sly wit that the rancorous writer displayed himself." Publishers Weekly "A lively and unvarnished portrayal of a complex and fascinating figure." The Baltimore Sun Praise for All in the Dances: A Brief Life of George Balanchine "His book is pithy, conversational and vivid, touching on all the major points of Balanchine''s life. ... Balanchine''s ballets are modern masterpieces, and Teachout, moving chronologically from work to work, uses them as stepping stones to tell Balanchine''s own story. This is highly recommended as a first book on the life and art of George Balanchine." Publishers Weekly "Funny, even catty… [Teachout] generates great excitement with his spirited descriptions of Balanchine's triumphs." Booklist
