The Queens Library (New York City, New York) will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Louis Armstrong’s original recording of the iconic song “What a Wonderful World” through a series of events that will take place throughout May and June.
The program is organized in partnership with the Louis Armstrong House Museum and The Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College. It will include live music performances by David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band as well as concerts of such world musicians as Pan African percussion/vocal group Akoko Nante Ensemble and Indian guitarist/composer Prasanna.
“What a Wonderful World” was originally composed by George Douglas and George David Weiss as a love letter to Queens. Armstrong, who lived in Corona, Queens, for almost twenty-eight years, first recorded the song on August 16, 1967, and released it as a single on October 18, 1967. The recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
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