Jazz Area presents: Ricky Riccardi
Jazz Forum: Black History Lectures and Discussions
Guest: Ricky Riccardi
Topic: Louis Armstrong
Please note: These workshops are available to staff and students at the Schulich School of Music. Zoom links will be sent by email from publicity.music to the Schulich community weekly.
“Through a combination of intricate research and unbridled enthusiasm, Ricky Riccardi has become the 21st century's foremost expert on Louis Armstrong." – Thomas Cunniffe, Jazz History Online
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. His next book, Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong, is scheduled to be released in 2020 on Oxford University Press. He runs the online blog, “The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong” (dippermouth.blogspot.com) and has given lectures on Armstrong at venues around the world, including the Institute of Jazz Studies, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, the Bristol International Jazz and Blues Festival and the Monterey Jazz Festival. He has twice taught a “Music of Louis Armstrong” graduate course at Queens College, in addition to a “Swing University” course on Armstrong at Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has co-produced numerous Armstrong reissues in recent years, including Satchmo at Symphony Hall 65th Anniversary: The Complete Concert, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong Cheek to Cheek: The Complete Duets, Pops is Tops: The Verve Studio Albums and two volumes of Decca Singles for Universal Music, in addition to Columbia and RCA Victor Live Recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars for Mosaic Records. He is also a working jazz pianist and received his Master’s in Jazz History and Research from Rutgers University. He lives in Toms River, New Jersey with his wife and their three daughters.
