If I Only Had a Horn by Orgill

If I Only Had a Horn by Orgill

Roxane Orgill's vivid words and Leonard Jenkins's dramatic pictures combine to tell the story of a boy who grew up to be a giant of jazz--the legendary and beloved Louis Armstrong. As a poor boy in New Orleans, where music was everywhere--dancing out of doorways, singing on street corners, crying from the cornet of the great Joe Oliver for all to hear--Louis longed for a horn so that he too could sing, bring home pennies, and, most of all, tap happy-feet blues till the sun rose. It wasn't going to be easy. Many things, not all of them good, had to happen before he got his horn. But when at last he did, he sent music spiraling up into the New Orleans night sky like a spinning top gone crazy.

Roxane Orgill studied music history and theory in undergraduate and graduate school after playing the violin as a child. She has worked as a music critic for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Bergen County (New Jersey) Record, the Milwaukee Journal, and Billboard for more than two decades. She's also the author of If I Only Had a Horn: Little Louis Armstrong, a picture book. Orgill lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband and little daughter.