2010 Satchmo SummerFest Seminar Series

Friday, August 6

Satchmo Seminars (exciting new location!)
Palm Court Jazz Café, 1204 Decatur Street at Governor Nicholls (just one block from the Old U.S. Mint)

2 pm to 3 pm - A Satchmo Serenade, Part 1: An Opening Social (open to the public): Come meet and greet this years speakers at the Palm Jazz Cafe with Armstrong songs performed by trumpeter Wendell Brunious.

3pm – 4pm – Keynote Address: A Decade of Dippermouth – Through scholarship, personal reminiscence, sound and film, the Satchmo Summerfest Seminars have showcased the many aspects of Louis Armstrong. Join Dan Morgenstern, director of the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies and participant at every Seminar Series (who picked up his eighth Grammy award for Best Album Notes this past January for his work on “The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions: 1935-1946,”), as he presents a retrospective of the Satchmo Summerfest's first decade of presentations on Pops.

4:00 - 5:30 p.m. – The Song is Ended, but the Melody Lingers on: Treasures from the Jack Bradley Collection and Bradley's Best: Clips from his Film Collection
Photographer, collector and past Satchmo SummerFest participant Jack Bradley spent a lifetime collecting everything he could that had to do with Louis Armstrong. Today, that monumental collection--a stunning compilation of photographs, letters, films, objects, recordings, and much more--makes its home at the Louis Armstrong House Museum. Director Michael Cogswell and Project Archivist Ricky Riccardi provide a sneak preview of treasures from the Jack Bradley Collection, many of them never seen or heard before by the public.

Saturday August 7

Satchmo Seminars (exciting new location!)
Palm Court Jazz Café, 1204 Decatur Street at Governor Nicholls (just one block from the Old U.S. Mint)

11 – 11:30 - A Satchmo Serenade Part 2: Start the day, and grab a good seat, with some of the "good old good ones" performed by the "Jazz King of Toms River, New Jersey".... our own Ricky Riccardi. The author, archivist, and Seminar favorite will be at the piano playing tunes associated with Satch, in a manner Louis himself might have suggested: “lightly, lightly, and politely.”

11:30 -12:30 - Reminiscing in Satchmo: Pivoting off of Dan Morgenstern's keynote, longtime seminar host Michael Gourrier leads Dr. Connie Atkinson, Michael Cogswell, Dan Morgenstern and other past participants in a conversation on the birth of the Satchmo Summerfest, the Seminar Series, and its many highlights.

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm - Louis Armstrong's Musical Gumbo: Trumpeter Clive Wilson, drummer Herman Lebeaux, and pianist Butch Thompson (long associated with Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," explore the New Orleans ingredients – the elements and styles - that contributed to Louis Armstrong's revolutionary trumpet playing.

1:30 – 2:30 - The King in Queens: In 1943, Louis and his wife Lucille settled in a modest frame house in the Queens Borough of New York City. Today their home is a National Historic Landmark open as a museum. The museum also holds the world's largest public archives devoted to a single jazz musician. Michael Cogswell, Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, will take you on a virtual tour of the Armstrong's home and share photographs, home-recorded audio tapes, scrapbooks, and other unique treasures from the museum’s collections.

2:30 - 3:30 - Kermit Goes To Queens: On July 6th of last year, the anniversary of Armstrong's passing, trumpeter Kermit Ruffins (accompanied by the writer Larry Blumenfeld), made a kind of pilgrimage to 107th St. in the Corona section of Queens for a tour of the Louis Armstrong House Museum. It was an emotional experience for Ruffins, and ended with elegy of sorts – Kermit playing a few numbers on Armstrong's front porch. Join Ruffins and Blumenfeld as they recount the experience, after which Kermit admitted, "My life has changed... it's like someone pressed the reset button on me."

3:45 pm – 5 pm - Cinematic Satch with Ricky Riccardi, Part One: Behind the Iron Curtain – Back for the third straight year with a satchel-full of rare film clips, Armstrong historian, and author of the forthcoming What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years, begins his two part film series with a celebration of the 45th anniversary of Louis's historic tour of Eastern Europe with rare footage from Prague and East Berlin of Armstrong favorites such as "Black and Blue," "Royal Garden Blues" and "Hello, Dolly."

Sunday, August 8

Satchmo Seminars (exciting new location!)
Palm Court Jazz Café, 1204 Decatur Street at Governor Nicholls (just one block from the Old U.S. Mint)

12:00 - 12:30 pm – A Satchmo Serenade Part 3, Jazz Age Armstrong: Start the day with a duet performance by trumpeter Clive Wilson and pianist Butch Thompson as they explore tunes Armstrong played in 1920's.

12:30 am - 1:30 pm - Classic Sounds of New Orleans - Producer and annotator Dr. Robert H. Cataliotti will discuss the new Smithsonian Folkways collection, Classic Sounds of New Orleans, which focuses on the relationship between the Folkways record label and New Orleans jazz, blues, and other roots expressions, particularly the work of Frederic Ramsey, Sam Charters and David Wyckoff and Alden Ashforth. The presentation will feature selections from the compilation ranging from brass bands (Eureka, Doc Paulin) to dance hall jazz bands (Billie & De De Pierce, Emile Barnes), from blues men (Snooks Eaglin, Lonnie Johnson, Champion Jack Dupree), to spirituals, gospel, street performers, and what is most likely the first commercial recording of Mardi Gras Indians.

1:30 - 2:30 pm - A City's Soundtrack: Music in HBO's Treme: As the Folkways recordings provided a kind of aural landscape of the New Orleans of the late 50's and early 60's, giving life to the New Orleans of the imagination, HBO's popular new series "Treme" has given a kind of definition to contemporary New Orleans. Central to that presentation is the city's soundtrack. Join us as we discuss the important part music plays in presenting the realities of post-Katrina New Orleans to a wider audience.

2:30– 3:30 pm – Ask Uncle George! - The legendary record producer and executive (and annual SummerFest guest) George Avakian celebrated his 91st birthday this year. Instead of presenting on an aspect of his relationship with Armstrong (he produced Louis Armstrong Sings W.C. Handy and Satch Plays Fats), Avakian, who also produced records by Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Errol Garner, Paul Desmond... you get the picture, will open the floor to questions. Here's an opportunity to query a legend of the American music industry.

3:45-5:00 pm - Cinematic Satch with Ricky Riccardi, Part Two: Louis Armstrong and New Orleans - A video celebration of Louis's hometown featuring interview footage of Louis talking about growing up in New Orleans, along with performances of tunes associated with King Oliver, clips of Louis playing in New Orleans and later television performances of songs such as "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" and "Boy From New Orleans."