How New York’s jazz scene is getting more accessible

Louis Armstrong drove around the block several times before setting foot in his new home in Queens, New York in 1943. Keen to lay down roots after years touring the world with someone who often performed 365 nights a year, his wife Lucille bought the house months earlier, only telling her husband after signing the paperwork. Louis was confused – he lived in hotels and didn’t see the point of houses. When Lucille eventually flagged him down long enough to explain that this beautiful two-storey brick building was his new home, the world’s most famous jazz musician was gobsmacked; after all, his childhood home was a rundown property in a New Orleans neighbourhood so dangerous its nickname was the Battlefield.

It’s easy see why he instantly fell in love with the 107th Street property, which has been immaculately preserved and is open to the public. Highlights include the Versailles-inspired bathroom with its mirrored walls and swan-shaped taps (Louis’s childhood home hadn’t had a bathroom, and Lucille spent more on this one than she’d paid for the house), the kitchen, with its lacquered, teal-coloured cupboards (Lucille’s Cadillac was the same colour) and their bedroom, lined with silk wallpaper. My favourite spot is the office, where Louis listened to music, corresponded with fans and made his beloved scrapbooks, filled with tour programmes. Sometimes, Louis stepped onto the office’s balcony with his trumpet to serenade the local children he’d become close to. An audio guide for the house reveals that the line “I hear babies cry, I watch them grow” from What a Wonderful World references these children, who’d carry Louis’s instruments inside when he returned from tours.

But the Armstrongs’ former home is no longer the only reason to visit this tree-lined avenue in Corona, Queens. In July 2023, the Louis Armstrong Center opened across the street. It was built to house a 60,000-item archive (including 5,000 photographs, 650 recordings and five gold-plated trumpets) relating to the Armstrongs. It was previously stored at New York’s Queens College under the stewardship of the late Michael Cogswell, a firm believer that the collection deserved a more fitting permanent home.

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