When Phoebe Jacobs, longtime friend and associate of Louis Armstrong, says, “Don’t let anyone tell you Louis is dead because he’s not,” she’s not talking only about the continuing presence of his music all around the world. As the central force of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, Phoebe keeps providing grants to a range of projects fulfilling Louis’ wish “to give back to people some of the goodness I’ve had from them.” Particularly notable in its worldwide influence is the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine, based throughout New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center, from the intensive care unit to the treatment of children and adults with asthma and pulmonary disease.
And in June this year, the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine presented at Beth Israel the First International Musical Therapy and Trauma symposium, attended by therapists from across this country, South Africa, Ireland, et al. Dr. Joanne Loewy, director of this Armstrong Center, has also lectured on the findings of the music therapy part of Louis’ living legacy in European hospitals.
