Louis Armstrong House Museum — Corona, Queens, New York

Louis Armstrong lived at 34-56 107th Street in the Corona neighbourhood of Queens, New York, from 1943 until his death in 1971, and the house has been preserved as a National Historic Landmark and museum. Armstrong bought the modest red-brick house for his wife Lucille, who managed it while he toured for much of the year. The interior has been preserved exactly as it was at the time of his death — the mirrored bathroom Lucille chose, the reel-to-reel tape recorder Armstrong used obsessively to document conversations and music, the collages he made in his study — creating an intimate portrait of private life behind the public persona.

Armstrong's public persona — the handkerchief, the gravelly voice, the ear-to-ear grin — masked one of the most technically revolutionary musicians in the history of American music. His Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings of the mid-1920s invented the jazz solo as a vehicle for individual expression and established the template for jazz improvisation that every musician since has inherited. His trumpet playing redefined what was technically possible on the instrument; his vocal style influenced Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and through them virtually all of popular singing.

The Louis Armstrong House Museum offers guided tours of the fully preserved house and is one of the most intimate and rewarding music museums in America. Corona, Queens, is accessible by the 7 train from Midtown Manhattan. The neighbourhood around the house is a working-class immigrant community that Armstrong was genuinely part of during his decades of residence.