Genius in brief

Another thought I had on the listening-to-Louis jag this week. I often tell people it's much harder to write a short story than a long one, or rather to write an accurate, literate short story. Now mind you, I love long improvisational flights of jazz soloing. (See "Chasin' the Trane" on Coltrane's "Live at the Village Vanguard," or pretty much anything by Sonny Rollins from the early 1950s to present). But Mr. Armstrong could get a powerful lot into short hops barely lasting a couple minutes, if that.