Author Archives: Ricky Riccardi

On Monday, we kicked off our new “Neighbor Spotlight” series with a post about the Armstrong’s beloved neighbor, Selma Heraldo. Hyland Harris joined the Armstrong House in mid-2010 and became especially close to Selma before her passing in December 2011. For this installment of “Hanging With Hyland,” we asked for some of his memories ofContinue reading “Hanging With Hyland: Memories of Selma Heraldo”

In our earlier Virtual Exhibit “Our Neighborhood,” we explored why the community of Corona, Queens meant so much to Louis and Lucille Armstrong. Between the time they moved in in 1943 until Lucille’s passing in 1983, the Armstrongs were beloved by the residents of 107th Street. This will be the first post in a seriesContinue reading “Neighbor Spotlight: Remembering “Little Dynamite,” Selma Heraldo”

And now for something completely ridiculous. Louis Armstrong spent most of his time at home listening to music and when his tape recorder was running, he sometimes captured his own spontaneous reaction to the music he was dubbing. We shared a few such reactions in our original post about Armstrong’s record collection. It’s one thingContinue reading “Satch’s Tracks: Jerry Lewis’s “Bend Somethin’ at the Bar (Besides Your Elbows)” and “I Love Girls””

50 years ago tonight, George Wein turned the Newport Jazz Festival into a star-studded celebration of Louis Armstrong’s birthday, as he recently celebrated (what he believed to be) his 70th on July 4. Once again, we find ourselves departing a bit from the “That’s My Home” theme of this site to take you to Newport,Continue reading ““A Beautiful Night”: Salute to Satch, Newport Jazz Festival July 10, 1970″

Louis Armstrong passed away in his sleep in the early hours of July 6, 1971, 49 years ago today. He spent his final day in his den listening to music and dubbing records to tape. What was the final music his listened to? This Virtual Exhibit will tell the tale of Louis Armstrong’s final tape.Continue reading “The Story of Louis Armstrong’s Final Tape”

It’s July 4 weekend, which means it’s time to celebrate what we here at the Louis Armstrong House Museum refer to as Louis’s “traditional” birthday. For much of his life, Louis claimed he was born on July 4, 1900, but a baptismal certificate discovered by Tad Jones in the 1980s featured a birth date ofContinue reading ““My Fifty-Fifth Birthday Celebration”: Happy Birthday, Louis Armstrong!”

Early July brings us memories of Louis Armstrong’s traditional July 4 birthday, as well the July 6 date of his passing. In this installment of “Hanging With Hyland,” Hyland Harris and Ricky Riccardi discuss Louis Armstrong’s final years, his determination to play the trumpet again, his final gifts to his Queens neighborhood and how LucilleContinue reading “Hanging With Hyland: Louis Armstrong’s Final Years”

In case you’ve missed them, Part 1 of this series opened with a page-by-page breakdown of the first half of a scrapbook Louis Armstrong began compiling in 1969. The shorter Part 2 continued through the middle pages, focusing on a number of photographs of Louis with Israeli trumpeter Yakov Uriel. This post will conclude thisContinue reading “Louis Armstrong’s 1969-1971 Scrapbooks: Scrapbook 1, Part 3”

70 years ago today, Louis Armstrong entered Decca’s New York studios to record two songs of French origin: “La Vie En Rose” and “C’est Si Bon.” Sy Oliver put together a terrific studio orchestra and arranged both songs for the date. The result was the biggest hit of Armstrong’s career to this point and twoContinue reading “Pops Goes French: “La Vie En Rose” and “C’est Si Bon””

This is a different, yet special edition of “Hanging With Hyland” as we’re shining the spotlight on our two wonderful LAHM Fellows, Jazz Milligan and Jovan Slaughter. For those who don’t know, we just completed our third year of a fellowship program funded by Robert F. Smith’s Fund II Foundation. Each year, two students areContinue reading “2020 LAHM Fellows Presentations”