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William Grant Still: Afro-American Symphony - IV. Lento con risulozione

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William Grant Still: Afro-American Symphony - I. Moderato Assai

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Charlie Parker - Summertime (Jazz Instrumental)

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William Grant Still: Afro-American Symphony - II. Adagio

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Who is Charlie Parker? Everything You Need to Know

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Charlie Parker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Check out this biography to know about his childhood, family life, achievements and other facts related to his life.

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Sweet Georgia Brown - Benny Goodman 1980

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She also recieved more than 1,000 marriage proposals.

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Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was an iconic African-American tap dancer and actor best known for his Broadway performances and film roles.

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Bill " Bojangles " ROBINSON " The Sand Dance " !!!

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Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada

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In a performance called La Folie du jour, Baker danced wearing little more than a skirt made of 16 bananas. The show was wildly popular and she got the nicknames like "Black venus" and "Black Pearl.

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Charlie Parker was born on August 29, 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas. At the age of seven his family moved to kansas city missouri. In 1931 he started playing the baritone in the school band, following his fathers disappearance. Later in his life he was known as the yard bird of Jazz. But sadly his career was cut short. He died on March 12,1955 in New York City.

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HOLIDAY IN HARLEM by Chick Webb and his Orchestra with Ella Fitzgerald 1937

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Josephine Baker was a dancer and singer who became wildly popular in France during the 1920s. She also devoted much of her life to fighting racism.

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Bessie Smith - A Good Man is Hard to Find

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Josephine Baker dancing the original charleston

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Josephine Baker dancing the original charleston

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(1925) Josephine Baker dancing the original charleston

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She was known for her innovative interpretation of ritualistic and ethnic dances.

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Cotton Club Dancers Bessie Dudley and Florence Hill are dancing like crazy!

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Duke Ellington - Rockin in Rhythm & Bugle Call Rag, 1933

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Pattie LaBelle Performance in 1985 in Apollo Theater

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Pattie LaBelle Performance in 1985 in Apollo Theater

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Patti LaBelle - You'll Never Walk Alone (Live @The Apollo Theatre 1985)

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Historic Tours A MUST-SEE DESTINATION IN NEW YORK! Historic Tours The Apollo Theater is one of Harlem's, New York City's and America's most iconic and enduring music halls. Many of the world's greatest musicians and entertainers have graced its stage, giving it a starring role at the epicenter of American popular culture.

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"Some will say that Jazz was born in 1895, when Buddy Bolden started his first band. Others will say 1917, when Nick LaRocca and his Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded the first Jazz record."

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One has just to blow a note on a sax and your feet start tapping to the rhythm and your body starts swaying to the music. That's Jazz for you. Ragtime, hip-hop, be bop, cool, blues - the very names make your finger snap and do a Texas two- step, no?

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The Cotton clubs performers were all black. Duke Ellington led the band from 1927-1930. Other jazz and blue performers that performed there include Ethel Waters and Cab Calloway.

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She was American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist.

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Duke Ellington - It don't mean a thing (1943)

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The Cotton Club opened in 1923 in 142nd St and Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The club sold beer doing prohibition times and was closed down many times for selling alcohol. It was suppose to be a club with a ¨stylish plantation enviorment¨. For its completely white crowd.

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She dies in her sleep of a stroke on April 12, 1975.

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It was at this time that Josephine first took up dancing, honing her skills both in clubs and in street performances, and by 1919 she was touring the United States with Jones Family Band and the Dixie Stepper performing comedic skits.

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Singer, Civil Right Activist, Dancer, Activist. Born June 3, 1906. Died April 12 1975 Paris, France

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Duke was raised by two talented, musical parents. At the age of 7 he began studying piano and earned the nickname Duke

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Afro-American Symphony (1931)

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Muddy Waters - Rolling Stone(Catfish Blues) (Live)

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Webb drummed in one of the dominant bands of the Swing era. In New York City, 1926, Webb formed his own band consisting of Benny Carter & Johnny Hodge.  Webb had a short physical stature due to a curved spine.

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Synopsis

Born on October 21, 1917, in Cheraw, South Carolina, Dizzy Gillespie, known for his "swollen" cheeks and signature (uniquely angled) trumpet's bell, got his start in the mid-1930s by working in prominent swing bands, including those of Benny Carter and Charlie Barnet. He later created his own band and developed his own signature style, known as "bebop," and worked with musical greats like Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. Gillespie's best-known compositions include "Oop Bob Sh' Bam," "Groovin' High," "Salt Peanuts," "A Night in Tunisia" and "Johnny Come Lately." Gillespie died in New Jersey in 1993. Today, he is considered one of the most influential figures of jazz and bebop.

Early Life

Famed jazz trumpeter and composer Dizzie Gillespie was born John Birks Gillespie on October 21, 1917, in Cheraw, South Carolina. He would go on to become one of the most recognizable faces of jazz music, with his "swollen" cheeks and signature (uniquely angled) trumpet's bell, as well as one of the most influential figures of jazz and bebop.

When he was 18 years old, Gillespie moved with his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He joined the Frankie Fairfax Orchestra not long after, and then relocated to New York City, where he performed with Teddy Hill and Edgar Hayes in the late 1930s. Gillespie went on to join Cab Calloway's band in 1939, with whom he recorded "Pickin' the Cabbage"-one of Gillespie's first compositions, and regarded by some in the jazz world as his first attempt to bring a Latin influence into his work.

Commercial Success

From 1937 to '44, Gillespie performed with prominent swing bands, including those of Benny Carter and Charlie Barnet. He also began working with musical greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, Jimmy Dorsey and Charlie Parker around this time. Working as a bandleader, often with Parker on saxophone, Gillespie developed the musical genre known as "bebop"-a reaction to swing, distinct for dissonant harmonies and polyrhythms. "The music of Charlie Parker and me laid a foundation for all the music that is being played now," Gillespie said years later. "Our music is going to be the classical music of the future."

In addition to creating bebop, Gillespie is considered one of the first musicians to infuse Afro-Cuban, Caribbean and Brazilian rhythms with jazz. His work in the Latin-jazz genre includes "Manteca," "A Night in Tunisia" and "Guachi Guaro," among other recordings.

Gillespie's own big band, which performed from 1946 to '50, was his masterpiece, affording him scope as both soloist and showman. He became immediately recognizable from the unusual shape of his trumpet, with the bell tilted upward at a 45-degree angle-the result of someone accidentally sitting on it in 1953, but to good effect, for when he played it afterward, he discovered that its new shape improved the instrument's sound quality, and he had it incorporated into all his trumpets thereafter. Gillespie's best-known works from this period include the songs "Oop Bob Sh' Bam," "Groovin' High," "Leap Frog," "Salt Peanuts" and "My Melancholy Baby."

In the late 1950s, Gillespie performed with Duke Ellington, Paul Gonsalves and Johnny Hodges on Ellington's Jazz Party (1959). The following year, Gillespie released A Portrait of Duke Ellington (1960), an album dedicated to Ellington also featuring the work of Juan Tizol, Billy Strayhorn and Mercer Ellington, son of the legendary musician. Gillespie composed most of the album's recordings, including "Serenade to Sweden," "Sophisticated Lady" and "Johnny Come Lately."

Final Years

Gillespie's memoirs, entitled To BE or Not to BOP: Memoirs of Dizzy Gillespie (with Al Fraser), were published in 1979. More than a decade later, in 1990, he received the Kennedy Center Honors Award.

Dizzy Gillespie died on January 6, 1993, at age 75, in Englewood, New Jersey.

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Born on October 21, 1917, in Cheraw, South Carolina, Dizzy Gillespie, known for his "swollen" cheeks and signature (uniquely angled) trumpet's bell, got his start in the mid-1930s by working in prominent swing bands, including those of Benny Carter and Charlie Barnet.

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Darker American (1924)

Black Belt (1926)

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Bessie Smith, also called Empress of the Blues, was the most popular female blue singers of the 1920"s and 1930"s.   She was born in Chattanooga TN on April 15th, 1894. She died from injures she got from a car accident in September and died on 9/26/1937. She was a classical blues singer mostly singing about poverty and oppression.

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Fats Waller - Ain't Misbehavin' - Stormy Weather (1943)

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Raised by his mother, and grandmother in Little Rock, Arkansas. He studied medicine at Wilberforce University. Later he would study composition at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, then under George Whitefield Chadwick, and later under Edgard Varése. His work that he is famous for would be his Symphonies.

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https://www.biography.com/people/bessie-smith-9486520

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Jazz Classics: Dizzy Gillespie - A Night In Tunisia

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Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin (1958) (Full Album)

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Born: May 11, 1885 Woodville, Mississippi
Died: Dec 11, 1978 Los Angeles, California
Cause of Death: Congestive heart failure

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Everybody did something. It was very entertaining. We had a lot of fun. Lot of fun. And there was no segregation, that I could see. I never saw any.

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Everybody did something. It was very entertaining. We had a lot of fun. Lot of fun. And there was no segregation, that I could see. I never saw any.

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Cab Calloway

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My audience was my life. What I did and how I did it, was all for my audience.

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My audience was my life. What I did and how I did it, was all for my audience.

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Cab Calloway

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Born on October 21, 1917, in Cheraw, South Carolina,  and died January 6, 1993, Englewood, New Jersey.

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he was a major figure in the history of jazz music

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Finalists for the National Medal for Museum and Library Service!

Scroll down to learn about the National Medal, and to see exhibition, house tour, concert, education and community events in the coming month, like this one happening soon:

The historic Armstrong home is open for tours by advance registration, Thursdays through Saturdays. Advanced ticket sales required. Group tours available. Purchase tickets and find more details here.

Jazz history comes to life in Corona

Louis Armstrong was one of the most recognizable entertainers in the world when he chose the working-class neighborhood of Corona, Queens to be his home in 1943. We preserve Louis and Lucille's home, now a historic site and world-class museum. We also provide access to Mr. Armstrong's extensive archives, develop programs for the public that educate and inspire and host performances with multi-disciplinary artists from around the world.

The National Medal for Museum and Library Service

The Institute of Museum and Library Services announced that Louis Armstrong House Museum is among 30 finalists for the 2024 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The winners will be announced in June. Fingers crossed! Learn more about the National Medal!

The Armstrong Center

The new Louis Armstrong Center is thriving! Opened this past July, check out this "Year in Review Gallery."

GALA 2024

On June 25, 2024, we will honor our Chair Emeritus, Jerry Chazen, at the Louis Armstrong House Museum Gala. Details here.

PRESERVING THE LEGACY: LISTENING PARTY

Free! Reserve Your Spot.

ARMSTRONG NOW SIGNATURE

Celebrate International Tap Dance Day in style as the sensational Michela Marino Lerman takes center stage at the Louis Armstrong Center Jazz Room, May 25th at 3:00 pm.

Michela has had the honor of working with many legends like Anna Deavere Smith, Wynton Marsalis, Quincy Jones, Jon Batiste, Roy Hargrove, Steve McQueen and more. She very proudly, was mentored by some of the masters of tap dance including Gregory Hines, Buster Brown, Leroy Myers, Peg Leg Bates, Marion Coles, Jeni LeGon and Mable Lee. The Huffington Post has called her a "hurricane of rhythm" and the NY Times has called her both a "prodigy" and has described her dancing as "flashes of brilliance." Quincy Jones has called her an "absolute tap dancing star who knows her roots." She is also the only female honorary member of the legendary tap dance fraternity, The Copasetics.

Secure your tickets now for our tap dance extravaganza that will transport you to a world where the language of dance speaks louder than words. TICKETS HERE!

BOOK TALK:

Date: May 30th, 2024

Location: The Jazz Room of the Louis Armstrong Center
FREE TICKETS
We are thrilled to announce that aauthor Larry Tye will be joining us to discuss his captivating new book: "The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America." Let's explore the transformative power of jazz with Tye as he explores the lives and legacies of three iconic figures who reshaped the American cultural landscape.

Don't miss this exclusive opportunity to:

🎺 Gain insights into the lives of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie

🎶 Engage in a lively discussion with Larry Tye

📖 Discover the rich history and influence of jazz music

🎤 Participate in a Q&A session with the author

This event is free and open to all jazz enthusiasts, book lovers, and curious minds alike. Seating is limited, so reserve your spot today!

THE FIRST GARDEN CONCERT OF THE SUMMER!: Celebrating Juneteenth

SAVE THE DATE! We will celebrate Juneteenth as a LAHM community with Wycliffe Gordon in the Armstrong Garden on Saturday, June 15th. TICKET LINK TO COME. We are also celebrating as part of a community of New York cultural institutions across the city. The list of 2024 cultural events celebrating Juneteenth is coming soon! Learn More!

Community

Check out our community page!

That's My Home

That's My Home - Curated Archive Stories New stories arrive regularly.

And More!

The Louis Armstrong House Museum digital guide. Explore more of the life and career of Louis Armstrong from anywhere, anytime with the Louis Armstrong House Museum digital guide on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app. Explore this guide before or after your visit! Download the Bloomberg Connects App.

A musical Immortal

The 20th century produced no shortage of legendary instrumentalists and vocalists but Louis Armstrong is the only figure who completely changed the way people played music on their instruments and he completely changed the way people sang. Perfecting the concept of the improvised solo, popularizing the use of scat singing, defining the concept of swing-those are just some of the ways Louis Armstrong changed jazz, and American popular music-during his lifetime.
Learn about Louis

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Celebrating the life and work of jazz legend Louis Armstrong. Located in his historic Queens, New York City home. Daily tours, outdoor concerts, group tours, and more.

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Check out the site, to learn more about Cab Calloway!!

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Billie Holiday - I'm a Fool to Want You (Official Audio)

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John Dirks Gillespie or his stage name Dizzy Gillespie, known for his swollen cheeks and signature trumpet's bell, got his start in the mid-1930s by working in prominent swing bands, including those of Benny Carter and Charlie Barnet.

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Born Aug 4th, 1901
Died July 6th 1971

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Bessie Smith: Greatest Female Blues Singer | Mini Bio | BIO

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Betty Boop 1933 Cab Calloway "The Old Man Of the Mountain"

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The theater was built in 1913 but first known as Hurteg and Seamon Theater.  They first opened their doors in 1914 as a whites only venue.  In 1934, it became known as the Apollo Theater and became a white and black venue.  The capacity of the theater is 1,506.  Once an artist performed in the Apollo Theater, it became a huge part of their career no matter how famous they were.

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Jeremiah

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Duke Ellington was born April 29,1899 in Washington D.C and died May 24,1974 in New York City https://www.allmusic.com/artist/duke-ellington-mn0000120323/biography

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Louis Armstrong was a trumpeter, composer and jazz artist who quickly became a legend in African american and Jazz history

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born June 22, 1909, Glen Ellyn IL
died May 21, 2006
( aged 96) New York.

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Was born in 1905(?) in Baltimore, Maryland.  Webb died from tuberculosis in 1939, Baltimore, Maryland.

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Chick Webb: Chick Webb, black American jazz drummer who led one of the dominant big bands of the swing era. Its swing, precision, and popularity made it the standard of excellence to which other big bands aspired.

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Known as a jazz singer, he was born May 21st, 1904 In New York City. He died December 15th, 1943 in Kansas City Missouri . One of his best known performances were "Ain't Misbehavin" and "Honeysuckle Rose"

https://www.biography.com/people/fats-waller-9522591
One of his famous quotes is "This heart of mine could never see what everybody knew but me"
Another is
"This is so nice, it must be illegal."

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The blues, is a very soulful form of music. Many musicians saw it as a way to vent about real world issues, while the listener thought it was something they could relate to so they would know they are not alone in their struggle. It was created by slaves in the 19th century as a way for them to relieve pain or suffering.

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A Brief History of the Blues jazz article by Ed Kopp, published on August 16, 2005 at All About Jazz. Find more From Far and Wide articles

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Cab Calloway was born on December 25, 1907, in Rochester, NY 

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Cab Calloway was born on December 25, 1907, in Rochester, NY 

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He died on November 18, 1994, in Hockessin, DE

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Cabell "Cab" Calloway was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, where he was a regular performer.

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" American music developed especially from ragtime and blues and characterized by propulsive syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, and often deliberate distortions of pitch and timbre."

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Jazz definition is - American music developed especially from ragtime and blues and characterized by propulsive syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, and often deliberate distortions of pitch and timbre. How to use jazz in a sentence.

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Bessie Smith- I need A Little Sugar In My bowl

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Eleanora Fagan, better known as Billie Holiday, was a jazz musician. She was born on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia. Her famous music career spanned over thirty years. She was considered one of the best jazz vocalists of all time! She had many spouses in her life. She died at the age of 44 on July 17, 1959 due to liver cirrhosis from substance abuse.