Born in 1980 in Toms River, New Jersey, Ricky Riccardi holds a B.A. degree in journalism from Rutgers University and an M.A. from the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers. He has lectured at the institute, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and the annual Satchmo SummerFest in New Orleans. He is author of a popular Armstrong blog and is himself a jazz musician, a pianist. Since 2009, he has served as project archivist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum.