An American art form now more than a century old, jazz emerged from the streets of New Orleans. The city has produced some of the world's great jazz musicians, none more celebrated than Louis "Satchmo ...
The innovative remake of a Broadway show tune dethroned the Beatles and won multiple Grammys.
Louis Armstrong has been rightly hailed as the most important figure in early jazz for almost as long as Paul Whiteman, once its biggest star, has been denied his due. Under the racially apologist ...
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We’re happy to present our annual August “Satchmo SummerFest” issue. It focuses, in large part, on New Orleans’ traditional jazz community and legacy—which, of course, is influenced by the spirit and ...
Many music writers and historians consider Gertrude “Ma" Rainey the matriarch of American blues. Beginning her career in the dust of Southern tent shows and minstrel circuits, she became one of the ...
The more you listen to young Louis Armstrong, the more you hear. The more you hear, the more you realize the extent to which jazz evolved from his intelligence, imagination, daring and sense of form.
The Louis Armstrong Center, Queens, New York. I had the good fortune to teach jazz history at Queens College, in the jazz department of the Aaron Copland School of Music, between 2010 and 2017. I say ...
The first time I ever saw my father cry was when he heard Louis Armstrong died. It wasn’t obvious: He was pretending his glasses were just fogging up, necessitating use of a handkerchief near his eyes ...
One day years ago, jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was hanging with Willie Nelson and Ray Charles when the two older musicians started to talk about their long and diverse careers. “Ray, you know, you ...