In late October at the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation‘s annual meeting, President Stanley Crouch named Jackie Harris as the organization’s Executive Director. In May, the LAEF lost longtime board member and standing Executive Vice President Phoebe Jacobs, who died at the age of 93. At the meeting, Crouch also appointed Jacob’s daughter Susan Devens to fill her mother’s seat on its board.

Jackie Harris

Harris was employed in concert booking by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, served as the Executive Director of the New Orleans Music Commission under Marc Morial, and also established the Louis “Satchmo”Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp in New Orleans that takes place every summer.The Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp was founded in 1995 with the support of the City of New Orleans.  The camp has grown from a one-week affair serving 35 youths to a three-week intensive program training 100 young people, ages 10-21, in music and dance.  Instructions in brass,  woodwinds, piano, acoustic and electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, music composition, swing dance and vocal music are offered.

In 1969, Louis Armstrong, seeking to give back to the world “some of the goodness he received,” founded and funded the LAEF. Since, the foundation has striven to carry on its founder’s purview globally by fostering jazz music programs and performance training, as well as hosting jazz history workshops and lectures.

The LAEF’s current officers include: President Stanley Crouch, Vice President Robin Bell-Stevens, Secretary and General Counsel Ed Berman, and Treasurer and Accountant Howard Schain. Its Board of Directors includes: David Chevan, Wynton Marsalis, Dan Morgenstern, Robert O’Meally, Jeffry Rosenstock, Susan Devens, George Wein, Licensing Agents Lisa Cohen and Oscar Cohen, Administrative Coordinator Gwendolyn DeLuca and Executive Director Jackie Harris. Visit www.louisarmstrongfoundation.org for more information.