Louis Armstrong & Lil Hardin Armstrong

The Lady and the Bumpkin

At first, Lil Hardin wasn’t impressed by Louis Armstrong - not musically, and not personally. Armstrong was a 226-pound bumpkin in an ill-fitting suit and thick-soled shoes. Hardin, educated at Fisk University and classically trained in music, was the arranger for Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and other bands, and an established jazz pianist.

"Girls wore garters on their stockings, so when I’d sit down to play I would roll my stocking down so the garter was below my knee. And he was looking, and I said: 'This guy’s got ideas he’d better not put into words.' "

But in the band’s first recording session, Armstrong had to back up fifteen feet from the acoustic recording horn to not drown out Oliver. That made Hardin listen more carefully. Soon she was badgering Armstrong to get out from under Oliver and make a name for himself as a first cornet. She also gave into his ideas that lacked words, and began dating him.

Armstrong’s business sense never matched his musical chops. It’s possible that he would never have gone as far without Hardin's encouragement and management, and her education in everything from making deals to dressing to arranging music. She also insisted on his learning many musical styles, so he could develop his own. She herself had come by her style the hard way; her mother used to beat her for playing "the devil’s music."

And it was for business reasons that Hardin Armstrong pushed her new husband to leave Oliver's band. Armstrong was dedicated to Oliver, his musical idol and personal mentor, and it took all of Hardin Armstrong’s will to get him to leave. "It’s Mr. Joe or me," she said.

There may have been more at work here than Hardin Armstrong’s wish to mold Armstrong into a success. Oliver’s band was notorious in several ways. The Dodds brothers left over a little matter of pay. Their share was $95 each, but Oliver was pocketing $20 and giving them only $75. In those days, $20 was high pay for a housekeeper’s work week, so this was not petty change. Johnny and Baby Dodds threatened to beat up Oliver. He came to work nights with a pistol in his cornet case. Eventually, the Dodds brothers walked out without a gunfight.

In Al Capone’s Chicago, pistols were freely carried, and more than one musician was involved (sometimes fatally) in shootouts while playing for a club or ballroom. Mobsters often ran and owned the clubs and were involved in all sorts of ways in the music business. Lil warned Louis not to use mob members as agents, but he didn’t listen.

Other tensions arose when Lil was asked to write and record some songs for Columbia. Since he was under contract to Okeh, Armstrong collaborated on writing three of the songs with Hardin Armstrong. When the records came out, the credits were printed "Louis Armstrong." Louis slapped Lil, accusing her of knowing about it and spending both shares of the composer’s fee.

Later, credits for some of the Hot Five recordings came into question. Tunes were attributed to “L. Armstrong”, which was assumed to be Louis. Hardin Armstrong claimed a number of them, and she had to endure a lawsuit to get the royalties.

The music world is always unfriendly to women instrumentalists and composers. Swing historian George T. Simon felt fully justified in writing, "Only God can make a tree...and only men can play good jazz."

In this hostile world, Lil Hardin Armstrong made a good living in a long career that most musicians would envy. Besides composing, she arranged, led bands, and had a stage career. In the 1930s, she recast herself as a swing vocalist, recording for Decca. After divorcing Armsrong, she earned teaching and postgraduate degrees. Until the 1960s, she recorded with New Orleans musicians and continued in music until the moment of her death: playing St. Louis Blues at a Louis Armstrong Memorial Concert.