About the Book
The revelatory origin story of one of America's most beloved musicians, Louis ArmstrongHow did Louis Armstrong become Louis Armstrong?In Stomp Off, Let's Go, author and Armstrong expert Ricky Riccardi tells the enthralling story of the iconic trumpeter's meteoric rise to fame. Beginning with Armstrong's youth in New Orleans, Riccardi transports readers through Armstrong's musical and personal
development, including his initial trip to Chicago to join Joe "King" Oliver's band, his first to New York to meet Fletcher Henderson, and his eventual return to Chicago, where he changed the course of music with the Hot Five and
Hot Seven recordings. While this period of Armstrong's life is perhaps more familiar than others, Riccardi enriches extant narratives with recently unearthed archival materials, including a rare draft of pianist, composer, and Armstrong's second wife Lillian "Lil" Hardin Armstrong's autobiography. Riccardi similarly tackles the perceived notion of Armstrong as a "sell-out" during his later years, highlighting the many ways in which Armstrong's musical style and personal
values in fact remained steady throughout his career. By foregrounding the voices of Armstrong and his contemporaries, Stomp Off, Let's Go offers a more intimate exploration of Armstrong's personal and
professional relationships, in turn providing essential insights into how Armstrong evolved into one of America's most beloved icons.
Table of Contents:
Prologue - "My Whole Life, My Whole Soul, My Whole Spirit"
1. "A Firecracker Baby!" - 1901-1906
2. "Everything Happened in the Brick Row" - 1906-1910
3. "Like a Human Being" - 1910-1911
4. "Nothing Could Stop Him" - 1911-1912
5. "Blessed Assurance" - 1912
6. "Hooray for Louis Armstrong!" - 1913-14
7. "I Would Gladly Live It Over Again" - 1914
8. "Destined to be Great" - 1914-1915
9. "The Memory of the Bullies and Trouble Makers" - 1916
10. "My Fairy God Father" - 1916-17
11. "Just Wasn't My Time to Die, Man" - 1917
12. "Had to Eat" - 1917-1918
13. "Nothing But Fuck and Fight" - 1918-1919
14. "They Loved Us" - 1919
15. "Descending the Sky Like a God" - 1919-1921
16. "Son, You Got a Chance" - 1921-1922
17. "I Always Played Pretty Under Him" - 1922
18. "The Hot Miss Lil" - 1922-23
19. "He's Got to be Better" - 1923-1924
20. "Second Trumpet to No One" - 1924
21. "Big Headed Motherfuckers" - 1924-25
22. "I Know I Can Play and I Know I Can Sing" - 1925
23. "The World's Greatest Jazz Cornetist" - 1925-1926
24. "I Got the Heebies" - 1926
25. "The Latest Novelty" - 1926
26. "Just Keep on Blowing" - 1927
27. "Awful Glorious Days" - 1927-1928
28. "A Record of Importance" - 1928
29. "Louis Had Changed the Whole World" - 1929
Epilogue - "I Never Did Leave New Orleans"
Index
About the Author :
Ricky Riccardi is Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum, and author of What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years and Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong. In 2022, he won a GRAMMY Award for Best Album Notes for The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia and RCA Studio Sessions 1946-1966. He has delivered lectures on Armstrong at venues around the
world and has taught Armstrong courses for Jazz at Lincoln Center's Swing University and at Queens College, CUNY. Riccardi has a degree in Jazz History and Research from Rutgers University.
Review :
Mr. Riccardi's account brings to light new pieces of information - including a little-known interview with Armstrong's sister, recorded in 1973, and unpublished chapters from the autobiography of his second wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong - that add depth to what we already know... Delightful.
Written in an easygoing, detail-laden, conversational style and relying extensively on Armstrong's own writings.... Riccardi leaves no stone unturned in this expansive biography that jazz fans will enjoy.
Overall, this is a highly readable book, well-annotated, and loaded with details about all aspects of Armstrong's early life, as well as pertinent facts about other musicians referenced in the book. Armstrong is among the most significant musicians ever to perform, and this volume completes a masterful biographical and critical examination of his life.
Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to 20th-century music what Einstein is to physics, Freud is to medicine, and the Wright Brothers are to travel. In this indispensable and thrilling book, Ricky Riccardi guides us through the period of Pops's own creative Big Bang, the first decades. Stunning!
Ricky Riccardi has artfully researched and presented the early years of Louis Armstrong's life to teach us the story of the man who changed music forever. The narrative, with illustrations, moves at an even tempo, offering everything needed to create a playlist and embark on this phenomenal journey. From the beginning, love and soul invited scholarship to liberate the treasure.
Riccardi handles the legacy of our greatest musical icon with care, laser precision, and staunch integrity. This early accounting of Louis's community and work is an extremely important chronicle of world history. Amazing work!
Ricky Riccardi has written, with love, passion, and respect, the most thoroughly researched biography of the most influential musician in American history.
Riccardi has made a monumental contribution to American history with his biographical work on Louis Armstrong, and this may be his finest volume. Stomp Off, Let's Go presents Armstrong the jazz genius, Armstrong the agent for cultural change, and Armstrong the man-all told with masterful technique, swinging style, and a full, warm tone. This is a book worthy of its extraordinary subject.
Nobody knows Louis Armstrong like Ricky Riccardi. Nobody loves Louis Armstrong like Ricky Riccardi. He generously shares both the knowledge and love with his readers and has delivered the definitive guide to this seminal American musician.
I have waited for this culminating volume in Ricky Riccardi's magisterial trilogy on Louis Armstrong with the same heightened expectations that some folks might reserve for the World Cup. I am happy to report, it does not disappoint! Riccardi brilliantly guides us into the creative vortex of Pops' early decades, a time during which Armstrong made some of the most electric, joyful, revolutionary music known to mankind. Read Stomp Off, Let's Go! while listening to early Armstrong recordings. Your life will be immeasurably enriched!
Ricky is one of the foremost scholars on the subject of Armstrong that I've ever encountered. The love he feels for Pops is palpable. Whereas so many completists take pride in hoarding information, Ricky literally invites people into Armstrong's home and makes them feel comfortable. His joy is in sharing whatever his findings are with whomever is genuinely interested. He curates Armstrong's archives at the level of channeling, which gives you a glimpse into the passion of Pops.
Riccardi's deep research has new stories going off like firecrackers on every page. Even better, this book subtly yet powerfully charts Louis Armstrong's human development. The growth of the phenomenal artist is all here, and more: the man creating himself 'in the cause of happiness.' Louis would be delighted by this 'history book': its accuracy, its empathy, its irresistible swing.
This eagerly awaited third installment of Ricky Riccardi's dazzling Armstrong trilogy proves beyond a whisper of doubt two things: that Ricky understands Louis better than anyone on the planet. And that Louis' is a story not just about a jazz genius, but of the soul of 20th-century America.
Riccardi has Mr. Armstrong on speed dial. This is the only way to explain the richness of the details. Either that or he has the finest time machine on the market. Either way, everybody wins because we better understand why Satchmo is the man!
Mr. Riccardi's account brings to light new pieces of information-including a little-known interview with Armstrong's sister, recorded in 1973, and unpublished chapters from the autobiography of his second wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong-that add depth to what we already know. ... Delightful.
Of the many biographies of Armstrong from the past quarter century, no author may be as well versed in his subject as Riccardi, the director of research collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum. The beauty of this book is that it is not an original history but more of a conversational accumulation of information from previous biographies, supported by newly discovered manuscripts and recordings.... An exceptional conclusion to Riccardi's brilliant trilogy.
Whether you are an expert on Louis Armstrong or wondering what the fuss is about, it is guaranteed that you will enjoy Ricky Riccardi's delightful, colorful, very informative and superb trilogy.
Finally, the greatest figure in all of American music has a full-dress biography that's worthy of him.
Stomp Off, Let's Go represents one of the most impeccably researched jazz biographies of any musician from this era. Taken with his other two Armstrong biographies, Riccardi's three volumes represent the definitive story of one of the most renowned musicians of all time.
A new go-to when looking into the particulars of Pops' first three decades.
"Stomp Off, Let's Go" is definitively a standard work within the not exactly small Armstrong literature, and is also recommended to anyone who is interested in the early history of jazz. It is his last book about Armstrong's story, says Riccardi in the foreword. After reading it, at least this reviewer thinks: We sincerely hope not!
A superb achievement… The research is impeccable, blending a vast array of sources into an engaging narrative… A nuanced and compelling book that does justice to its remarkable subject.
All in all this is one of the best, most readable and absorbing jazz biographies to have been published in recent years and it even outstrips Riccardi's earlier volumes as a genuinely brilliant accomplishment within jazz literature.
Ricky Riccardi's Stomp Off, Let's Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong (Oxford University Press, 2025) is not only the best jazz biography that I've read in recent years, it is the best biography of any kind that I've read in recent years. It's well-researched and it's well-written, with each of its 29 chapters ending in a way that makes you eager to read the next one. And Riccardi has a good feel for both Armstrong the man, and for the music that he created.
Riccardi tells this tale of a musical tsunami as a historian and a fan equally. He brings the trials, tribulations and triumphs of a young genius back to life in a way never quite told before. ^iStomp Off, Let's Go takes its place alongside Riccardi's previous two Armstrong biographies as the definitive telling of an incredible story.
I did briefly wonder whether another biography of Armstrong is needed, but it didn't take long to realise that the answer is a resounding "Yes!" The life story is so incredible that it bears re-telling – and this is a great account with sane interpretation of key events and issues, and much new information....It's a classic biography and an excellent introduction to the work of one of the 20th century's greatest musicians.
