Author Archives: Ricky Riccardi

Last month, we set the scene for Louis Armstrong’s August 1967 engagement at Caesar’s Monticello in Framingham, Massachusetts with a post about Louis and his entourage’s stay at the Monticello Motel, aided and abetted by several dozen photos snapped by Jack Bradley. Today, we will continue the saga but this time will focus on theContinue reading ““The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 31–Caesar’s Monticello 1967″

It has been entirely too long since we posted an entry in our ongoing Jack Bradley series, but that’s about to change as this represents the first in a three-part examination of a Louis Armstrong engagement that took place at Caesar’s Monticello in Framingham, Massachusetts in August 1967. First, a little recap. In April 1967,Continue reading ““The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 30–Framingham Motel 1967″

Things have been a little quiet over here on our “That’s My Home” site but they’ve been anything but over in Corona, Queens: on July 6, 2023, the Louis Armstrong Center opened for business right across the street from the Louis Armstrong House Museum! A week earlier, we held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newContinue reading “The Louis Armstrong Center is Open!”

Anniversaries don’t come much bigger than this one, folks. 100 years ago today, on April 5, 1923, seven African American jazz musicians entered a ramshackle shed located near the railroad tracks in Richmond, Indiana and made their very first recordings for the Gennett label. Yes, for our purposes, we especially celebrate these historic sides becauseContinue reading ““I Always Played Pretty Under Him”: The King Oliver Creole Jazz Band Centennial Celebration!”

We’ve reached the conclusion of what has been a very well-received miniseries on Jack Bradley’s photos of Louis Armstrong rehearsing in June 1967 for a Kraft Music Hall television show appearance with Herb Alpert. In part one, we covered the initial meetings and rehearsals with Armstrong, Alpert, their respective bands–the All Stars and the TijuanaContinue reading ““The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 29–Kraft Music Hall Final Rehearsal and Broadcast”

In our last post, we set the scene for Louis Armstrong’s appearance on an episode of the Kraft Music Hall that was hosted by Herb Alpert and broadcast in September 1967. That earlier post was filled with dozens of photographs taken during the first two rehearsals that took place for the taping. Today, we actuallyContinue reading ““The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 28–Kraft Music Hall Session and Studio Photos”

In our previous post, we chronicled Louis Armstrong’s bout with bronchial pneumonia in May and early June 1967 and his initial rehearsals with the All Stars that took place on June 23 and the morning of June 24, mostly done to get Pops’s chops back up and to welcome the group’s new clarinetist Joe Muranyi.Continue reading ““The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 27–Kraft Music Hall First Rehearsals”

It’s been several months since we posted an entry in our ongoing series on the friendship between Louis Armstrong and Jack Bradley (catch up on the first TWENTY-FIVE parts here!) but after finishing off our other series on Louis’s tapes, we are ready to resume our tribute to Jack. I do admit that one ofContinue reading ““The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 26–All Stars Rehearsal June 1967″

In our previous post, we reached “Reel 170,” the final reel Louis Armstrong put a number on and wrote catalog pages for before entering the Waldorf-Astoria for a two-week engagement that began on March 2. One day after ending his run, Armstrong had a major heart attack and wouldn’t make it back to Corona untilContinue reading “Louis Armstrong’s 1969-1971 Tapes: “Empty” Reels and Final Collages”

It’s been a couple of weeks since our last post in this series, as we devoted last week’s entry to the story of Louis Armstrong’s adopted son, Clarence Hatfield Armstrong. But we’re back now and folks, this is most likely the next-to-last installment of a series that began way back in 2020. As usual, there’llContinue reading “Louis Armstrong’s 1969-1971 Tapes: Reels 166-170”