Louis Armstrong’s daughter is subject of documentary shown at Wichita Jazz Festival

At a screening of his documentary “This is Love,” about Wichita native and R&B singer Rudy Love, a few years ago in St. Petersburg, Florida, Shawn Rhodes was approached by a woman named Sharon Preston-Folta.

The woman introduced herself and told her story.

“She expressed interest in making a film out of her book,” Rhodes recalled. “How often does the secret daughter of Louis Armstrong approach you and say, ‘Hey, I want you to make a film out of my book’?”

That film, “Little Satchmo,” will be screened this week at the Crown Uptown as part of the Wichita Jazz Festival. Preston-Folta will attend and take part in a Q&A following the screening on Thursday night.

The festival celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

Preston-Folta was the only child of Armstrong, a beloved jazz legend as both a trumpeter and vocalist, but was born to his mistress, Lucille “Sweets” Preston, a dancer at Harlem’s Cotton Club.

Armstrong acknowledged the paternity, his daughter said.

“In the early days when Mom was pregnant and I was first born, he did send out letters, one of which is in the Library of Congress,” Preston-Folta said in a joint Zoom interview with Wichita-based Rhodes. “It was not only about being a father and how cute I was, but how he impregnated my mother.”

Armstrong’s fourth wife was aware of the situation as well.

“Lucille Armstrong went along with it,” Preston-Folta said. “In the beginning she was the one sending us the checks, and then they started coming out of his booking office.”

The monthly checks, she said, were “financial support from my father that would give me a middle-class upbringing, with home and schools and activities.”

Her father would dote on her when she would see him. She and her mother accompanied Armstrong on several tours.

“I was always told he was on the road, he was working, and he would be with us as much as he could, but it was because of his work,” she said, “not because we were a family outside of his public life.”

Now 66, Preston-Folta was 10 years old when she realized her place in his legacy.

“At 10 years old, to have your world shattered — everything you’ve known was told to be basically a lie, a lie of omission, but still a lie – and no one is explaining or comforting you, that moment is pretty dramatic,” she said.

Armstrong died in 1971, but Preston-Folta and her mother were not allowed to attend his funeral.

“The emotional trauma of having to hold that secret as a child and having seen the relationship between my mother and father and how it deteriorated through the years and then seeing that final breakup and not having him in my life in those final years, and not being at his funeral — all of that was internalized,” she said.

Through therapy in her 20s, she was able to come to terms with the situation, she said.

“The older I got, and as I started to look at my heritage and my life and became resentful he wasn’t sharing in that,” she said. “I was not acknowledging his greatness in me.”

Preston-Folta wrote a book, “Little Satchmo,” in 2012, and had been looking for another avenue to tell her story.

“I was thankful to get the book published,” she said. “It was something I always felt could be turned into a film project or stage.”

The Wichita-based Rhodes, listed as an associate producer, said he felt like a great idea was dropped into his lap.

“We jumped at the opportunity because it’s an incredible story and once you meet Sharon, it’s like where are you going to get another chance to get an awesome opportunity to tell a great story about American history, especially music history?” he asked.

Preston-Folta works as a sales executive for an NPR station in Tampa, Florida, and hosts a weekly Saturday morning show on a community radio station, highlighting mostly female voices in blues and jazz.

“Little Satchmo” premiered in November in Greece and has played at 25-30 film festivals, as well as extended runs in Europe and New Orleans.

“Even now I’m finding out how famous Louis Armstrong was in the world, as a musician and how influential,” Rhodes said. When he asked young people in Italy, Greece and Croatia if they knew who Louis Armstrong was, “their answer in that language is usually something like, ‘Duh.’”

Rhodes said he was proud to be shining light on a story about an unknown chapter in the life of a musical icon.

“From a historic context, Louis Armstrong was probably one of the five most famous musicians of the last century, if not longer,” he said. “The fact that this secret was so hidden and hasn’t come to light to now is incredible. I mean, kudos to Sharon for sharing this. It needed to be out there, because if you look at the big picture of things it’s pretty monumental as American music goes.”

Preston-Folta is holding out hope that “Little Satchmo” will be dramatized.

“If this is the end of the line, I couldn’t be more happier. It’s exactly what I hoped my story could be,” she said. “It’s communicated so beautifully. The producers and the director just really took my story and my voice and translated it so well to film that I’m thoroughly pleased.”

Although Preston-Folta does play seven instruments, “I do have musical talent but I’m terrible at practicing.”

“I subconsciously felt I was never going to measure up to my father,” she said, although she continues to be a fan of his music. “It’s defined my musical taste and what I define as musical excellence.”

WICHITA JAZZ FESTIVAL

When: April 20-24

Where: Crown Uptown Theatre, 3207 E. Douglas, Wichita, and Bartlett Arboretum, Belle Plaine

Tickets: A five-day pass is $120 plus fees; tickets to individual events vary, from wichitajazzfestival.com or 612-7696

Schedule:

Wednesday, April 20: The Ad Astra Concert: Saxophonist Bobby Watson and The Delano Jazz Orchestra at 8 p.m.

Thursday, April 21: “Little Satchmo” screening, followed by Q&A with Sharon Preston-Folta, followed by music from the Bill Harshbarger Quintet, featuring vocalist Betti O.

Friday, April 22: Leap Day Trio performs at Wichita State’s Miller Concert Hall from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; at the Crown at 8.

Saturday April 23: The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, directed by Scotty Barnhart and featuring vocalist Carmen Bradford, a 2022 Grammy Award nominee

Sunday April 24: Daydream band, a 10-piece group from Wichita, at 4 p.m. at The Bartlett Arboretum.

This story was originally published April 17, 2022 at 2:37 AM with the headline "Louis Armstrong’s daughter is subject of documentary shown at Wichita Jazz Festival."