{"id":1947435,"date":"2025-08-07T19:37:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T19:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1947435"},"modified":"2025-08-07T19:37:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T19:37:57","slug":"satchmo-summerfest-has-live-music-at-new-orleans-jazz-museum-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/satchmo-summerfest-has-live-music-at-new-orleans-jazz-museum-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Satchmo SummerFest has live music at New Orleans Jazz Museum | Events"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Louis Armstrong\u2019s virtuoso talents and charm earned him a singular place on top of the jazz world, as well as international fame and popularity, which can obscure his very humble beginnings.<\/p>\n

He adored his mother, though she sometimes left him to take care of his younger sister for weeks at a time. She drank heavily and was arrested for prostitution. Armstrong has talked of standing up to bullies in his neighborhood, and for a while, he worked carting coal in Storyville, which inspired entertaining recollections in his autobiography.<\/p>\n

But for all the hard knocks, he always thought of New Orleans as his home and wrote fondly about his young life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you read his book, Louis tells everything with a wink and a smile: \u201cWell, we were poor, but we were happy,\u2019\u201d says Ricky Riccardi<\/a>, who earlier this year released the biography \u201cStomp Off, Let\u2019s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong.\u201d \u201cAt the same time, I am coming across arrest records and alcohol. It was definitely darker than the picture he paints. It was a scary, uncertain time: racism, hunger, poverty, the police. It\u2019s all real, and it\u2019s scary. But Louis had his mother, he had Black Benny and Joe Oliver. He had this community that nurtured him, protected him and made sure that he emerged a great man and a great musician.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Keep up with the latest New Orleans events at calendar.gambitweekly.com.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

Riccardi will discuss Armstrong and his mentor Joe Oliver and other related topics at Satchmo SummerFest<\/a> at the New Orleans Jazz Museum on Aug. 2-3. The annual festival features two music stages outdoors and one indoors, as well as panel discussions with talks about Armstrong\u2019s life and music and related subjects.<\/p>\n

Satchmo SummerFest is marking its 25th anniversary. It was founded on roughly the centennial of Armstrong\u2019s birth, though that is a subject of disagreement. Armstrong always said he was born on July 4, 1900, though scholars point to a birth certificate that says Aug. 4, 1901. Riccardi examines that and gives great deference to Armstrong\u2019s views of it in the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cStomp Off\u201d offers a lively chronicle of Armstrong\u2019s youngest years and offers new insight about when he first learned to play music and who might have influenced him. It details where he lived, in both the home of his grandmother, who was born into slavery, and with his mother, and the community that nurtured him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn \u2018Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans,\u201d people got frustrated that he didn\u2019t talk so much about the music,\u201d Riccardi says. \u201cHe spends pages talking about Black Benny and Joe Oliver and pimps and gamblers and all that stuff. I think there was a reason for that. I think those were the people who allowed him to become Louis Armstrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riccardi has released two books about Armstrong\u2019s adult life, \u201cHeart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong\u201d and \u201cWhat a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong\u2019s Later Years.\u201d He says it seems odd to do his books in reverse chronological order, but it worked to his benefit. In the last decade, new sources have become available, many of them due to the internet and digitization of all sorts of records.<\/p>\n

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‘Is there anyone who would like a $12 meal voucher?’<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

Riccardi is the director of research collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens, New York. The son of an editor for Armstrong\u2019s \u201cSatchmo\u201d autobiography gave the archives an original, unedited manuscript, which Riccardi used heavily for his book. He also received transcripts and documents that have become available from Lil Hardin, Armstrong\u2019s second wife. There also were volumes of past interviews posted online, and the Tulane Hogan Jazz Archive has papers from Tad Jones, who did extensive research about Armstrong\u2019s early years.<\/p>\n

The picture is fascinating, with accounts of Armstrong in the rough Backatown neighborhood and at the Colored Waif\u2019s Home for Boys, where he was sent a couple of times, most famously after shooting a pistol on New Year\u2019s Eve. Armstrong quickly became the leader of the institution\u2019s band.<\/p>\n

Riccardi will discuss the book at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Jazz Museum.<\/p>\n

Riccardi also is a Grammy winner this year. His 40,000-word liner notes for a box set of work from Armstrong mentor Joe \u201cKing\u201d Oliver won a trophy, as did the box set for best historic album. Riccardi and Archeophone Records\u2019 Richard Martin and Meagan Hennessey will discuss that project at 1 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n

Riccardi also is a pianist, and he\u2019ll play his first proper set at the festival. He\u2019ll perform duets with Preservation Hall Jazz Band leader and trumpeter Wendell Brunious at 2 p.m. Saturday inside the museum.<\/p>\n

Other highlights of the scholarly portion of the festival include Robert Cataliotti discussing Armstrong\u2019s work with women singers including Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith (noon Sunday). Professor Robert Mikell screens clips of Armstrong on film (1 p.m. Saturday). There also are sessions on musicians Dexter Gordon and Joe Darensbourg.<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s music lineup features traditional jazz and more. Saturday features Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, Joe Lastie\u2019s New Orleans Sound, Victor Campbell, James Andrews and the Sons of Satchmo, Anjelika \u201cJelly\u201d Joseph, Don Vappie and the Blue Jazz Band, Young Fellaz Brass Band and more.<\/p>\n

Sunday has Kermit Ruffins\u2019 Tribute to Louis Armstrong, John Boutte, Charmaine Neville, Kyle Roussel with Quiana Lynell and Erica Falls, Shamarr Allen with Cyril Neville and more.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a Jazz Mass and second line parade on Sunday. Visit the festival website for a schedule and full list of events.<\/p>\n

Satchmo SummerFest is a free festival. Find information at satchmosummerfest.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ricky Riccardi discusses and signs copies of “Stomp Off, Let’s Go” at 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 31, at Octavia Books<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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Doing it for the ’99 and 2000.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

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Sarah Newton told us about learning to cook, getting into barbecue and starting Coop’s Table.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div><\/div>\n