The Louis Armstrong House Museum has announced that it is making all of Armstrong’s Ambassador Series discs, a total of 16, available for sale online for the first time. Previously, these discs were only available for sale on site at the museum. They will remain unavailable elsewhere. The collection can be purchased at LouisArmstrongHouse.org as the museum launches its online museum shop .
The backstory, according a press release: “In 1990, Swedish collector Gösta Hägglöf founded Ambassador Records devoted to the legacy of Louis Armstrong and issued most of Armstrong’s Decca studio recordings along with one-of-a-kind treasures from his own private collection. In 2009, Hägglöf passed away and left his entire Armstrong collection to the Louis Armstrong House Museum. The museum is the only retailer in the world that sells these rare discs from Hägglöf’s private collection. Because the Ambassador discs are so rare, limited quantities are available.”
The numbered volumes 1 through 9 cover Armstrong’s complete Decca recordings from 1935 through 1949. Seven discs are separate from the 9-volume chronological series and capture Armstrong on stage in places like Carnegie Hall, the Cotton Club and the Blue Note in Chicago and in Decca’s recording studio.
Each disc retails for $14.95.
