Music

Part 2 Interview (from 2019 ) with Deano Assunto & Jan Assunto Robicheaux, son & daughter of Frank & Freddie Assunto, respectively, about their family's history with Louis Armstrong through the Dukes of Dixieland, both personally & professionally, including the 1959 recording of the LOUIE & THE DUKES LP, released in 1960.

Musician, composer, and educator, Don Vappie is a Steve Martin Banjo Prize winner, a Banjo Hall of Fame inductee, and has received awards for his contributions to the preservation of New Orleans Creole Culture through music and film. New Orleans Jazz Museum Music Curator, David Kunian, talks to Don about his life in music, & the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band Centennial.

Ricky Riccardi and Maxine Gordon will follow the map of the tour to Africa in 1960 of the Louis Armstrong All Stars. It was the final tour for Velma Middleton who suffered a stroke on January 16, 1961 and died in Freetown, Sierra Leone on February 10, 1961.

What did the ideals of the United States Declaration of Independence mean to the grandson of a slave? The 20th-century erosion of African American civil rights essentially disregarded the idea of Black patriotism. Louis Armstrong was deeper than most folks give him credit and a supposition can be made that Pops deliberately chose Independence Day as his birthday. My talk will cover the historical details I wrote about in the chapter "Born on the Fourth of July" in my new book "The Hidden History of Louisiana's Jazz Age." (History Press, January 2023.)

On April 5, 1923, Louis Armstrong stepped into a recording studio for the first time to make his initial recordings as a sideman with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Over the next nine months, Oliver's band would go on to record over 30 classic sides that have become known as perhaps the most significant recorded examples of early New Orleans jazz. For the special centennial anniversary, Ricky Riccardi will offer a multimedia celebration of these recordings with rare audio clips, interviews, and videos.

A conversation between Ricky Riccardi and Director Christopher Renshaw about his musical which Premieres its pre-Broadway engagement at the Saenger Theatre, New Orleans in October 1st. This new musical tells the story of the Life and Loves of Louis Armstrong.

The presentation is based on the Drumsville! Evolution of the New Orleans Beat exhibit at the N.O. Jazz Museum and the accompanying LSU Press book. Co-curated by Robert Cataliotti. Cataliotti presents the background on drumming and rhythm in New Orleans leading up to the invention of the drum set. The presentation examines 3 of the pioneers of the drum set, Dodds, Singleton, and Barbarin—all of whom played with Armstrong—and discusses their innovations, their impact on the evolution of jazz, and highlights their experiences with Armstrong. It concludes with an overview on how their legacy continues to the present day.

Ricky Riccardi's life's work is informed by his dedication to Louis Amstrong, whether writing award-winning books or serving as Director of Research Collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum. Melissa A. Weber, curator with Tulane University Special Collections, will engage Riccardi in a conversation about his stellar career sparked by a passion for Armstrong's legacy and history.

This is a collection of images of Louis Armstrong taken by Jack Bradley, with a biographical narration and recorded music.

Louis Armstrong kicked off the year of 1933 resting at home in Chicago, nursing bruised chops after injuring them while performing. He recovered to form a new band with youngsters such as Teddy Wilson and Budd Johnson and embarked on a stunning series of recordings for RCA Victor. On his way to Europe that summer, Armstrong gets in a fight with his manager Johnny Collins and spends the rest of the year overseas, where he was captured on film and recordings in Scandinavia. 90 years later, Ricky Riccardi will explore the high and low points of this action-packed year, climaxing with a screening of a new restoration of the famous film footage of Armstrong in Denmark.