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The Place:
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From Wikipedia: (
visit link) "MSY is owned by the city of New Orleans and is 11 miles (18 km) west of downtown New Orleans. A small portion of Runway 11/29 is in unincorporated St. Charles Parish. Armstrong International is the primary commercial airport for the New Orleans metropolitan area and southeast Louisiana.
MSY covers 1,500 acres (607 ha) of land. At an average of 4.5 feet (1.4 m) above sea level, MSY is the 2nd lowest-lying international airport in the world, behind only Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands, which is 11 feet (3.4 m) below sea level.
By the time the 1959 airport terminal building opened, the name Moisant International Airport was being used for the New Orleans facility. In 1961, the name was changed to New Orleans International Airport. In the summer of 2001, in commemoration of the centennial of Armstrong's birth (August 4, 1901), the airport was renamed Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
New terminal
Construction of the new terminal began January 2016, with Hunt-Gibbs-Boh-Metro listed as the contractor at-risk.The opening of the terminal was delayed four times. The original targeted completion date was May 2018, which would have been in time for New Orleans' 300th anniversary, but it was first delayed to October 2018. With the additional expansion the anticipated opening date was moved to February 2019 so that the entire complex could open at once. Due to a main sewer line issue, the opening of the new terminal was further pushed back to May 2019. In April 2019 the opening was further delayed until Fall 2019. The facility finally opened on November 6, 2019."
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The Person:
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From Wikipedia: (
visit link) "Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter, composer, vocalist, and actor who was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. Around 1922, he followed his mentor, Joe "King" Oliver, to Chicago to play in the Creole Jazz Band. In Chicago, he spent time with other popular jazz musicians, reconnecting with his friend Bix Beiderbecke and spending time with Hoagy Carmichael and Lil Hardin. He earned a reputation at "cutting contests", and relocated to New York in order to join Fletcher Henderson's band.
With his instantly recognizable rich, gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer and skillful improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song. He was also skilled at scat singing. Armstrong is renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice as well as his trumpet playing. By the end of Armstrong's career in the 1960s, his influence had spread to popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first popular African-American entertainers to "cross over" to wide popularity with white (and international) audiences. He rarely publicly politicized his race, to the dismay of fellow African Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation in the Little Rock crisis. He was able to access the upper echelons of American society at a time when this was difficult for black men.
Armstrong appeared in films such as High Society (1956) alongside Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra, and Hello, Dolly! (1969) starring Barbra Streisand. He received many accolades including three Grammy Award nominations and a win for his vocal performance of Hello, Dolly! in 1964."
We had the chance to discover the new terminal in January / February 2020, during our cruise departing from New Orleans.