The extract looks great, I'll have to pick up the 3 books he mentions --- I love Armstrong.

One thing that always amazed me about these jazz performers was how much they toured, even at the peak of their popularity. They went everywhere. A couple years ago I sat down with my grandfather when his health was fading and asked him to tell me his life-story, recording it for my father so that he would always have a record of his father's voice. My grandfather grew up in a middle of nowhere Canadian town, but it did have a pavilion in its town park. I just about lost it when my grandpa casually mentioned that he'd seen Armstrong play there 4 times(!) over the years. Nowadays, you'd be lucky if any band or act came to play in that town. But Armstong and his band came.