Community Spotlight: Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp
This summer, we awarded a series of Community Engagement Grants to 20 outstanding New Orleans leaders, creatives, activists, musicians and non-profit organizations. Stay tuned on Salon726.com as we tell their stories with the help of local writers and photographers.
Spotlight by Tyree C. Worthy
If someone said they were from New Orleans, “Jazz” or “Louis Armstrong” used to come to mind first. Unfortunately, more people today will think of Hurricane Katrina before they think of Satchmo. As the birthplace of such influential music and musicians, New Orleans and its culture is still resilient, striving to preserve what the world has loved about it for so long.
The Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp stands as a pillar of music education where the city’s youth can learn its heritage and build upon it. The camp prides itself as one of only a few programs that teaches all forms of jazz music and performance, with special attention to traditional jazz music. This is their way of helping students learn life fundamentals like leadership, teamwork, confidence, and problem-solving as they learn to play and perform.
This camp is dedicated to investing real time and energy into music education for inner-city kids. Leading the charge is camp Founder and Executive Director Jackie Harris, who has been doing the work of repositioning New Orleans as an entertainment mecca and maintaining its rich cultural legacy.
Jackie explained, “It takes a village, you know. Arts education needs support from the citizens, because now that they are not teaching it in the schools, we have foundations, community organizations, and nonprofits taking on that responsibility.”
In the 1990s, she said, the State of Louisiana took most of the arts education out of the curriculum. Now, keeping the legacy alive falls on the community.
“Cultural preservation is educating and training children at a young age to learn music, and to have access to arts education,” Jackie added. “It could be performing arts, or visual art, or it could be dance, but if young people are not exposed to art education at an early age, the culture of New Orleans will die.”
The Satchmo Jazz Camp was online this year due to COVID-19. With some help from Preservation Hall Foundation and other supporters, the camp was able to provide premium Zoom access, training for instructors, and online library access for all students.
Though local turnout was down, children and young adults across the country and the world got the chance to learn and experience traditional New Orleans music.
One student is Emmerson Sutton, a 13-year-old trumpeter from the Lewisham borough of London. Emmerson said this camp was his first time engaging with American students like him, and he appreciated the critiques of his teacher, Marlon Jordan.
“The teaching was incredible,” he said. “What was fun about working with [Marlon] was that he would tell you when you're doing something right, but he would also critique. Not critique you in terms of putting you down, but critique you in terms of giving you more things to work on and things that make it just that bit better, which I think was really nice.”
Emmerson is also a youth advisor for the Mayor of Lewisham, which will be celebrated as London’s Borough of Culture in 2022. He plans to highlight the works of Louis Armstrong as part of this yearlong celebration of cultural diversity.
Students like Emmerson and organizations like the Satchmo Jazz Camp are what cultural preservation is all about: spreading inspiration and embracing heritage through the arts.
Ways to support the camp include signing up for their newsletter; donating or offering resources; and parents investing in musical education for their children. With support, the camp will continue to build on the musical identity of New Orleans we love.