#InTheLoop | Garden Concert. Exhibition. New Center. Great Things Are Happening at Satchmo’s House.
BY QEDC It's In Queens
Due to some documentation issues, historians and Jazz lovers often debate Louis Armstrong’s birthday. Is it July 4 or Aug. 4?
Well, how about both days? After all, there’s plenty to celebrate in Satchmo World these days.
The Louis Armstrong House Museum presents a Garden Concert on July 4. Then on July 6, the Corona landmark launches a new exhibition and opens a visitors center across the street.
First, July 4. Jazz performer Catherine Russell — who has “a voice that wails like a horn and whispers like a snake in the Garden of Eden,” according to NPR – leads the music for the Garden Concert at 2 pm. Attendance is free with an optional donation.
Second, July 6. The Louis Armstrong Center opens to the public at 11 am. Designed by Caples Jefferson Architects, the new 14,000-square-foot venue will be a permanent home for the trumpeter/band leader’s 60,000-piece archive — the world’s largest for a Jazz musician. The state-of-the-art facility will also have a 75-seat venue for performances, lectures, films, and educational experiences.
Staying on July 6, the new center will unveil Here to Stay, which looks at Satchmo’s career as a musician, archivist, collaborator, and community builder. Award-winning pianist, composer, and Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran is the curator.
Satchmo is often associated with New Orleans, where he grew up. However, the only piece of land he ever owned is a two-story, unattached brick house at 34-56 107th St. He and his wife, Lucille (née Wilson), bought for about $8,000 in 1943. Lucille, a former singer at Harlem’s Cotton Club, outlived him and donated the property to the city for use as a museum upon her death in 1983. Nobody else lived in this national and city landmark after the Armstrongs, so the inside is just like it was when they were there.
Top two images: Armstrong House; bottom image: Rob MacKay