Pilgrimage for Pops

Louis Armstrong at home, and Ricky Riccardi on The Late Set

Louis Armstrong’s command center in Corona, Queens. (The Gig)

Every true jazz fan owes it to themself to visit the Louis Armstrong House Museum.

You probably know the story — about how Louis’ wife, Lucille, surprised him with the purchase of a modest brick house in Corona, Queens in 1943, and how they made it the center of a humming home life until his death in ‘71. Now a National and New York Historic Landmark, it has been fastidiously preserved by a nonprofit foundation, and welcomes the public for guided tours. The house is a shrine and a time capsule, but one with a warmly unpretentious air. Pops and Lucille would surely approve.

Two years ago, the Louis Armstrong House Museum opened a second facility across the street: a brand-new, $26 million Louis Armstrong Center, to contain the massive Armstrong archive (which had previously been housed at Queens College) and host educational and other public programming. I covered the grand opening for NPR, speaking with a handful of associated parties, like Ricky Riccardi, the Armstrong House’s Director of Research Collections. At the time, he was finishing work on the third volume of a comprehensive biographical project, and we resolved to catch up again when the time was right. His amazing book Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong was published on Oxford Univ. Press earlier this year. A couple of months ago, The Late Set took a trip up the turnpike to talk about it.

Here is our new episode, which features that lively and enlightening conversation. I know I speak for our whole team — cohost Josh Jackson and producer Alex Ariff — in saying that it was an absolute joy to sit with Ricky in the lobby of the Armstrong Center and reflect on the wonders of Pops. Whether you’re an Armstrong scholar yourself or the most casual sort of fan, I can promise that this interview will deliver some unexpected insights — with a high-energy enthusiasm that is Ricky Riccardi’s natural mode. (This clip, in response to a point I made about changing perceptions around Armstrong’s intellectual life, will give you some idea of the register.)

With Ricky Riccardi, Josh Jackson and Alex Ariff on the Armstrongs’ front stoop.

We visited the Louis Armstrong House Museum on a day when it’s usually closed to the public, and I’ve rarely been more aware of my privilege. Ricky took us on a personal tour of the house, drawing from a well-honed spiel but also answering our many questions. He also brought us upstairs in the Armstrong Center to peruse some highlights from the archive: collages that Louis made for his reel-to-reel tape covers; notebooks full of his idiosyncratic catalogs; handwritten manuscript pages, full of childhood memories and travelogues; his collection of books and records. We each had a chance to hold a small assortment of instruments that belonged to Louis, which was as quietly awe-inspiring a moment as you’d imagine.

(Photo by Josh Jackson, who’s reflected in the bell.)

Once again, here is the episode, for your weekend listening. And speaking of listening, I’m wrapping up a killer new installment of Take Five — my regular roundup of new and forthcoming releases, curated and annotated with loving care. This feature, among other things, is only available to paid subscribers, so if you’ve been waiting to make that upgrade, now would be a great time to do it.

Here’s wishing you a restorative weekend full of good music. I’ll leave you with an excellent short video posted last year by the Louis Armstrong House Museum, which gives you a good approximation of a Ricky Riccardi-led tour. You dig?