In the December 14, 2009���issue of THE NEW YORKER,���the book review is���given over to Terry Teachout’s Louis Armstrong biography, POPS, which has received unprecedented media coverage.��� The review is titled “THE ENTERTAINER,” which gave me pause.���

Its author is���John McWhorter, “a Senior Fellow of Public Policy at the Manhattan Institute and a lecturer at Columbia University.”��� Thus, he���seems not to be an official “Jazz Critic,” which is fine, and his prose is commendably clear.��� And���the review is mostly���an overview of���Armstrong’s life, with comments on Teachout’s book sprinkled here and there.������McWhorter closes���by quoting alto saxophonist Charlie Holmes,���a commendable act.

I suppose I should confess���(although close readers will have guessed it by now) that I am what some uncomprehending writer referred to���as “guilty of Amstrongidolatry,” although I do not value���all of Louis’s���performances...