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He is the most important jazz musician of all time, and even that's an understatement. Louis Armstrong defined American popular culture in the 20th century as a musician, an actor and an entertainer. As a singer and trumpeter, he taught the world to swing.

Jazz expression remains forever steeped in the innovations of Armstrong's trumpet solos. The scope and magnitude of his virtuosity was nothing short of world-altering. Each time he held his horn up to his lips, he made melodies ring out in a joyful, brilliant tone.

For Chinese indie band Rebuilding the Rights of Statues, the art of making anti-establishment music in a non-democratic state is all in the translation. For example, the band translated the title of its song "Hang the Police" as "the police are laughing."

Dinaw Mengestu's How to Read the Air is an unsentimental meditation on the immigrant experience and the illusory idea of asylum. With lyrical prose, he reassesses the by-your-bootstraps mythology associated with American mobility.

A wise spiritual teacher (who also happens to be a bear) stars in Jon J. Muth's vibrantly illustrated picture books. Zen Ghosts combines the simplicity and elegance of a Zen teaching with the mystery and magic of a full-moon, Halloween ghost story.

When gold was discovered in Alaska and Canada in the 1890s, thousands packed their bags and headed north, knowing little of the troubles they would face. Howard Blum writes about their adventures in The Floor Of Heaven: A True Tale of the Last Frontier and the Yukon Gold Rush.

An action thriller of a symphony, Mahler's First is piled high with ambition, self-reflection and fear. Conductor Marin Alsop shares her approach to Mahler's multilayered music.

The violinist, once described as having a "controversial sense of fun," reflects on her self-confidence and her much-discussed album covers.

In 2005, the British actor played brooding aristocrat Mr. Darcy in the film adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. Now, he's Tom Wambsgans, a scheming Midwesterner on the HBO series Succession.

There's nothing mythic about this series, which acts as a sequel to Paul Schrader's hit 1980 movie. This American Gigolo relies too much on people caring about a film that was made four decades ago.