Legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong’s personal archive, the world’s largest for any single jazz musician, has a new home at the Louis Armstrong Center in Corona, Queens.
Historical context: Louis Armstrong, worldwide music star, was presented with a house by his wife, Lucille, in Corona, Queens, in 1943.
* Armstrong filled the house with homemade tape recordings, scrapbook photo collages, and written texts, all of which became part of an archive after his death in 1971.
* Author Ricky Riccardi, the museum’s Director of Research Collections, emphasized that visitors have so far rarely seen this side of Armstrong’s work.
The new location: The Louis Armstrong Center, a $26 million facility, will now house about 60,000 items from the Armstrong Archive.
* The Center was officially opened with a ceremonial fanfare, an interactive kiosk featuring artifacts like Armstrong’s trumpet, and two of his passports.
* The facility will allow expansion of the Louis Armstrong House Museum and will return the vast collection to the block.
The inaugural exhibition: The debut display at the Louis Armstrong Center was curated by pianist Jason Moran, who emphasized the importance of the physical archive for recording sound artists.
* Moran hints at the archival importance of Armstrong with his choice of exhibition title: “Here to Stay”.
Legacy and contributions: The center’s establishment, after more than two decades of planning, is a testament to the ongoing influence of Armstrong’s music and personality.
* The center is not only an homage to Armstrong and his wife, Lucille, but also to the enduring community impact they had.
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