Contact: Kit Lipps, University of New Orleans 504-280-6232Amy B. Ferguson, Keating Magee Public Relations 504-299-7175
HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!
Armstrong Conference Celebrates Satchmo's 100th Birthday
NEW ORLEANS, LA, May, 2001 - Jazz legend Louis Armstrong learned to play, and 'play right', from his musician mentors in New Orleans - the city of his birth. To celebrate the art and artistry of America's greatest music legend, and to honor the musical mentors that are a part of New Orleans' musical heritage, the University of New Orleans is hosting the Louis Armstrong Centennial Conference, August 2 -4, 2001 at the Louisiana State Museum, Old U.S. Mint in New Orleans' famed French Quarter.
The conference offers a combination of rigorous scholarship and mainstream cultural education, featuring illustrious jazz scholars, Armstrong biographers and musicians from around the world. Sessions range from "Louis Armstrong: American Icon" to "Jazz and the Sound of Freedom: Louis Armstrong Blows Up the World." Armstrong contemporaries, musicians and friends will share memories of the trumpet great and biographers will discuss the historic facts of his life.
"Of the dozens of Louis Armstrong observances underway all over the world, the celebration in New Orleans promises to be the most exciting," says Michael Cogswell, director of the Louis Armstrong House and Archives at Queens College, New York, and a conference presenter. The conference kicks off a whole weekend of related events and activities taking place in New Orleans August 2 - 5. These events include the Satchmo to Marsalis: A Tribute to the Fathers of Jazz benefit concert on Saturday, August 4, 2001 and Satchmo Summerfest, a festival of food, music and fun in the French Quarter.
The Louis Armstrong Centennial Conference is being sponsored by the University of New Orleans with support from the Louis Armstrong Foundation and the Florence Gould Foundation.
A comprehensive metropolitan university, the University of New Orleans offers extensive learning experiences and academic training at both the undergraduate and graduate level to over 16,000 students in more than 100 degree programs. Since the first graduating class of 115 in 1962, the university has conferred more than 45,000 degrees, nearly one-quarter of those at the master's or doctoral levels. University of New Orleans sets itself apart by offering specialized majors such as Jazz Studies; Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Administration; and Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. A member of the Louisiana State University System, the University of New Orleans is ranked as a Carnegie Research University II, one of only two public universities in Louisiana to receive this distinction. University of New Orleans was founded in 1956 as Louisiana State University in New Orleans and opened its doors Sept. 5, 1958.
Editors - please contact Amy B. Ferguson at Keating Magee Marketing Advertising & Public Relations, 504-299-7175, OR, Kit Lipps at the University of New Orleans, 504-280-6232, for media information.
For information on conference registration, please contact University of New Orleans Conference Services, 504-280-6680 or visit www.satchmo.com.
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