Presents a short study of singer, songwriter, and jazz musician Louis Armstrong and chronicles his childhood in New Orleans and rise in the entertainment industry.

A brief recounting of the career of this jazz musician and composer who, along with his orchestra, created music that was beyond category.

Louis Armstrong has been called the most important improviser in the history of jazz. Although his New Orleans neighborhood was poor in nearly everything else, it was rich in superb music. Young Louis took it all in, especially the cornet blowing of Joe "King" Oliver. But after a run in with the police, 11-year-old Louis was sent away to the Colored Waif's Home for Boys where he became a disciplined musician in the school's revered marching band....

A brief recounting of the career of this jazz musician in the voice of "Scat Cat Monroe."

"A biography of African American musician Melba Doretta Liston, a virtuoso musician who played the trombone and composed and arranged music for many of the great jazz musicians of the twentieth century. Includes afterword, discography, and sources"--

The story of a group of African American orphans who played in their school's all-girl swing band and after leaving school made "it to the big-time in an era when integrated musical groups were practically unheard of. It wasn't always easy, and it wasn't always safe, but the talented Sweethearts of Rhythm ultimately became an international sensation"--Amazon.com.

Traces the life of the internationally-acclaimed musician and composer, Duke Ellington who helped popularize jazz music.

"A pivotal fixture of the Harlem Renaissance, Duke Ellington was the bandleader of the historic Cotton Club and a master composer -- writing close to 3,000 songs in his lifetime and capturing the spirit of the Black experience in the Unites States. Over a 50-year career, Ellington became one of the biggest names in jazz as we know it"--

Presents a chapter-book biography of Louis Armstrong that describes the musician's life and times through the eyes of his closest companion--his horn.

Relates how the famous jazz trumpeter began his musical career, as a poor boy in New Orleans, by singing songs on street corners and playing a battered cornet in a marching band.