Perhaps one of the most awe-inspiring facts about Ricky Riccardi, who directs research collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum Collection in Queens, is that he never argued with his parents. Not once. “Why would I fight with these people?” his wife, Margaret, remembers him saying on their first date. “They supported me. They give me everything. I wasn’t going to make their life hard!”

Riccardi was the youngest child in what he describes as a “big, loving Italian family,” in Tom’s River, New Jersey — coddled by parents who indulged his every whim. Thank goodness his whims led to a loving and careful exploration of the life and music of Louis Armstrong, who’s been his focus of study from the age of 15.