"Though Armstrong is recognized as a quintessential jazz man, Michael Decuir's Louis Armstrong, Blues Music, and the Artistic, Political, and Philosophical Debate During the Harlem Renaissance establishes him additionally as a blues musician extraordinaire, who honed his skills as he came of age in the multicultural landscape of Congo Square in New Orleans. In this well-researched and documented book, Decuir, also a native of New Orleans and an extremely talented musician himself, explores the vestiges of African and European cultures that informed Armstrong's musical development, his artistry and his performing acumen; and focusing primarily on Armstrong's blues music, Decuir recounts the musician's role in popularizing the blues in America and abroad, contributing to the development of the literary, visual, and performing arts of the Harlem Renaissance and lending his blues music as a model in the divisive cultural debate during the 1920s. In addition to his deft delineation of Armstrong's blues legacy and his place on the Harlem Renaissance, another major strength of Decuir's study is his analysis of some of the vicissitudes of African American double consciousness in the embracement of living in the United States."

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-James Hill, Former, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Albany State University