MR. and MRS. ARMSTRONG, part three

PART THREE OF A FOUR PART SERIES

As our centennial celebration of Louis Armstrong’s arrival in Chicago ramps up this summer, we offer you a three part series on jazz starting pre-Louis through his profound impact on the art. No story on the Louis in Chicago could be complete without discussing the role of Lil Hardin Armstrong. A gifted and talented pianist and writer, she married Louis in Chicago and helped him develop into an international superstar. present suite that honors his roots and relatives

By Kent Richmond & Howard Mandel

During 1923, Louis Armstrong was content playing second cornet behind King Joe Oliver, his mentor, idol and leader of the Creole Jazz Band, which was drawing crowds to Lincoln Gardens. Armstrong thought the work was steady and the money okay. The band recorded for the Gennett, OKeh and Columbia labels, paid $30 per side per musician with a promise of later royalties.

Aside from King Oliver who was happily married, the other band members were single and had eyes -- especially Louis -- for their pianist Lil Hardin. But Lil was completely unimpressed with “Little Louis” until King Oliver confided to her that Louis was a better cornetist than he. Subsequently Lil coached Louis on his mannerisms and music reading skills. She encouraged him to step up in the bandstand while soloing, She cajoled him about his appearance, his second-hand suits, his weight and his hair, convincing him to cut his bangs.

Drummer Herman “Baby” Dodds was the first member of King Oliver’s Creol Jazz Band to purchase a car, a 1923 Oldsmobile. He had a penchant for driving fast which got him arrested on several occasions. Dodds would often offer rides to band members, which Lil and Louis would accept, she riding up front with Dodds and Louis in the back, leaning over the front seat to chat with her. Baby later claimed in his autobiography The Baby Dodds Story that Louis and Lil would not have married if they had not been riding with him in his car.

Lil was concerned that Oliver was taking advantage of Louis, who was in large part responsible for the CJB’s band’s continued popularity. She urged Louis to stand up for himself.

“Whenever Joe came to the house, you’d think God walked in,” said Lil (quoted in her biography Just for a Thrill: Lil Hardin Armstrong, First Lady of Jaz. “Louis never seemed to relax around him because he was so afraid of doing something that might upset him.

In those days it wasn’t unusual for an employer to hold money for employees, acting like a bank. This was particularly true of white employers handling black employees’ pay. So Joe treating Louis’ compensation in this manner upset Lil.

She broached the issue with Louis: “Where’s your money?“ Louis replied that Joe was keeping it for him.

Lil: “Well, Joe doesn’t keep your money, you keep your own money,”

Louis: “Mr. Joe looks out for me.”

Shortly afterwards Louis approached Joe for his funds. Joe angrily responded that Lil Harden was a spoiled kid and would spend it all.

“Yeah, I know,” Louis said.

Shortly afterwards, clarinetist Johnny Dodds (Baby’s older brother) found out that Oliver had been skimming $20 a week from what the club had been paying for the band. Joe shrugged. The band was also upset that no royalties had been paid for their many recording sessions, although this was not Oliver’s fault. Black musicians in that era rarely received their royalties.

But it was so unsettling that many of the band’s members quit in early January 1924. Johnny Dodds got a gig at Burt Kelly’s Stables on Rush Street. “Baby’ Dodds, Honore Dutrey and Bill Johnson went with him, and Freddie Keppard joined the group on trumpet. The band turnover had brought Louis and Lil closer together. They decided to get married. The problem was that they were both still legally married. Lil was in a problematic marriage with singer Jimmy Johnson. She didn’t live with him, but rather with her mother and step father in the 3300 block of South Giles.

Louis had married prostitute Daisy Parker in New Orleans in 1919, when he was 17 and she three years older, legalizing a physical relationship that Louis came to realize was a mistake. Soon after the marriage, Louis adopted Clarence, the child of his cousin Flora, who had died shortly after giving birth. In infancy, Clarence had suffered a fall, landing on his head, which left him mentally impaired. When Louis got the call from Joe Oliver to come to Chicago, he left Daisy behind, turning Clarence over to his mother Mayann. Lill arranged for the divorces for Louis as well as herself; they were finalized in December 1923. The couple was married on February 5,

1924. The wedding was announced in the Chicago Defender: Miss Lillian Hardin is Bride of Louis Armstrong

Mill Lillian Hardin, daughter of Mrs. Dempsey Miller, 3320 S. Giles Ave., was married to Louis Armstrong of New Orleans . . .The bride was beautifully attired in a Parisian gown of white crepe elaborately beaded in rhinestones and silver beads, and Miss Lucille Saunders, a lifelong chum of the bride who was her bridesmaid, wore orchid chiffon with silver trimming.

Oscar Young’s seven-piece orchestra furnished music for the occasion. Mr. and Mrs. are both members of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, who are recording for Gennett, OKeh and Columbia records.

In attendance were Mr. and Mrs. Joe Oliver, Johnny and Baby Dodds and others of the Creole Jazz Band. Louis had married the women everyone in the band wanted and Lil had married the most desirable Black bachelor in Chicago. The marriage of Louis and Lil produced the first and ultimate power couple of jazz.

For a honeymoon, Louis Armstrong and Lil Hardin Armstrong went on tour with the re-formed Creole Jazz Band, which concluded with a return to Lincoln Gardens. For their newly purchased house at 421 E. 44th Street, Louis gave Lil a Kimball baby grand piano.

Lil’s mother Dempsey, with whom she’d been living, moved in. Professing concerned for her son’s well-being, Mayann came to Chicago with Clarence in tow, also staying at the Armstrongs’ 44th Street residence.

Back from their tour of probably two or three months, Louis and Lil agreed the traveling troupe wasn’t as talented as its previous incarnation. Unhappy that Joe wasn’t giving Louis proper recognition on the bandstand, Lil pressured Louis to quit the band.

Lil: I don’t want to be married to a second trumpet player. I want you to be first. Louis, I can’t play first. Joe’s playing first. Lil: That’s why you have to quit. Louis: I can’t quit Mr. Joe. Mr. Joe sent for me and I can’t quit him. Lil: Well, it’s Mr. Joe or me! -- Just for a Thrill

With that ultimatum, Louis quit the band. To Joe’s surprise, Lil showed up to work the next day.

King Oliver asked her why Louis had quit the band. Her response was “you’ll have to ask Louis.” She intended to keep working with the Creole Jazz Band for the steady income, while Louis looked for work. She felt that the best thing for Louis was to get away from Mr. Joe.

Keep in mind that the CJB was the apex of jazz bands of that era, which included such rivals as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, the Austin High gang, and Jelly Roll Morton. Lil assessed Louis’ talent and ability as on par with the other original KOCJB members but saw something in Louis that, with the possible exception of King Oliver, no one else had foreseen. Her diamond-in-the-rough became a more polished gem.

Although Armstrong had been a popular draw with King Oliver, he found it difficult to land a new job. He approached bandleader Sammy Stewart but was rejected, no because of his style or ability (though Louis didn’t know this at the time), but because his complexion was “too dark.” (Just for a Thrill)

Eventually, Louis joined Ollie Powers’ house band at the Dreamland Café at 3520 S. State Street on the Stroll, accompanying silent movies and playing during intermissions. Lil noticed Louis noticed Louis’s music expressing more passion and confidence.

In September of 1924, composer-arranger Fletcher Henderson asked Louis to join his Black Swan Troubadours, the premier dance band in New York City, in residence at Roseland Ballroom. Henderson had heard Louis in New Orleans in 1922 and offered him a job then, in his but Louis had turned the opportunity down because he wasn’t comfortable leaving New Orleans with people he didn’t know well.

Henderson was originally from Atlanta. He’d come north intending to study at Columbia University and earn a chemistry degree. He’d also studied classical music and the ways of polite white society. As sessions pianist for Black Swan Records, he’d waxed several sessions with singer Ethel Waters, enormously popular with Black and white audiences alike.

Henderson’s Troubadors was tops in New York City, but nowhere near the skill level of bands in Chicago. It was refined, educated, and boasted great readers of sheet music, but was awkward rhythmically and seldom swung. Initially looking down on Louis as a country bumpkin, these professionals -- band including already acclaimed Coleman Hawkins, Buster Bailey and Don Redman -- changed their minds when they heard Louis blow his horn. He was years ahead of everyone else. Hired as third trumpet, he nonetheless took most of the solos.

Louis broke the rules of ensemble playing. Instead of following the melody he’d play a counter melody. His tone, technique and timing were impeccable. Don Redman observed that Armstrong’s solos told stories. His interpretations on trumpet altered the sound and style of not only Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra, but the entire New York scene. Best examples of Armstrong dominating the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra is on recordings from 1924 and 1925 include “How Come You Do Me Like You Do”, “Albany Bound,” “Sugar Foot Stomp,” ”What-Cha-Call-Em-Blues” and “TNT.”

While in New York, Armstrong also recorded apart from Henderson, for instance with the Red Onion Jazz Babies featuring singer Alberta Hunter under the name of Josephine Beatty and New Orleans clarinetist Sidney Bechet. This was Armstrong’s very first meeting with Bechet, and also Bechet’s very first recording. Hear their “Cake Walking Babies From Home” with tenor saxophonist Buster Bailey, who Louis knew from Chicago, Lil Hardin Armstrong on piano and pianist-producer Clarence Williams, whose complicated career deserves an article of its own.

Armstrong’s sides from this time with blues singer Bessie Smith for Columbia Records are classics, The brassman provided fills to enhance the singer’s vocals, never stepping on them. Their combined genius and creativity throughout the session makes it hard to believe they’d just met in the studio. Sides such as” St.

Louis Blues,” “Reckless Blues,” “Cold In Hand Blues,” “Sobbin’ Hearted Blues” and “You’ve Been a Good Ole Wagon” inspired the later interplay between Billie Holiday and Lester Young, and remains a model for all such obbligato interactions.

Although Lil Hardin Armstrong was well known and respected for her musical abilities in Chicago, she was unknown in New York, where women didn’t play with men. Finding little work, she rotated back to Chicago and the Dreamland Cafe’ while Louis stayed with Henderson. By mid 1925, Louis had attained much acclaim playing with the best bands and on many recordings, though he hadn’t yet led a band or a session himself.

Lil wanted Louis back home. She was unhappy that he seemed content to be third trumpet for the Henderson band. She had already seen Louis idolize King Oliver and to be fine with being in the band as second coronet, not getting the credit he deserved for his dynamic performances. She expected much more from him.

How was Lil Hardin Armstrong going to convince her husband Louis to return to Chicago? What was here for him that he couldn’t get in New York City at the height of the Roaring ‘20s? Only Lil herself.

The primary sources for this article:

Louis Armstrong in His Own Words, Edited by Thomas Brothers This source was cited by most books

Just for a Thrill, Lil Hardin Armstrong, First Lady of Jazz, James L. Dickerson

The Baby Dodds Story, Larry Gara

Louis Armstrong, An Extravagant Life, Laurence Bergreen

Bessie Smith, The Complete Recordings Volume 2, Liner notes by Chris Albertson (Columbia Legacy)

Primary web sites:syncopatedtimes .comriverwalkjazz.stanford.edu