Ain’t Misbehavin’: How Louis Armstrong Conquered New York

Louis Armstrong arrived in New York City in 1929 relatively unknown but left less than a year later a sensation. In celebration of International Jazz Day, historian Ricky Riccardi of the Louis Armstrong House Museum offers a rare glimpse of Armstrong’s meteoric rise to stardom during the Harlem Renaissance from his first performances at the legendary nightclub Connie’s Inn to his stint in the Broadway revue “Connie’s Hot Chocolates.” After Riccardi’s talk, join us for a special live performance by the Louis Armstrong Eternity Band.

This event is part of Core Conversations, a series featuring the city’s most original thinkers as they engage with topics related to our New York at Its Core exhibition. To view all the programs in the series, click here.

About the Speaker and Performers: 
Ricky Riccardi is the Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum and author of What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years (Vintage, 2012). He runs the online blog, “The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong,” and has given lectures on Armstrong at venues around the world. 

David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band has been performing since 1980, inspired by the noble jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, and their colleagues. They have a weekly engagement at  Birdland and have performed at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer’s Night Swing and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.