Lil Hardin Armstrong

Pianist + Composer + Singer

Female

Born Feb 3, 1898

Died Aug 27, 1971

Genres Jazz

Performed With Louis Armstrong +...

Lil Hardin Armstrong was a jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader, and the second wife of Louis Armstrong with whom she collaborated on many recordings in the 1920s. Hardin's compositions include "Struttin' With Some Barbecue", "Don… Read More

Romance

Check out the latest love interests for Lil Hardin Armstrong.

Louis Armstrong
Married 1924 - 1938

News + Updates

Browse recent news and stories about Lil Hardin Armstrong.

Eccentric Clan Stay In Tune The West Australian
Google News - Jun 15, 2011

In the early 50s he worked on Fleet Street where he interviewed stars such as Billie Holiday, Sidney Bechet, Lil Armstrong and Mary Lou Williams. Back in Sydney, he worked as a reporter and reviewer, and still broadcasts a fortnightly radio jazz
read full article
Huey Long, 105, Guitarist For Ink Spots
NYTimes - Jun 13, 2009

Frank Davis and his Louisiana Jazz Band were booked to play at the Rice Hotel in Houston in 1925. The banjo player never showed. For Huey Long, who shined shoes outside the hotel and occasionally got onstage to announce the bands, this was the unmistakable sound of opportunity knocking. Putting down his ukulele, he ran out to a music store, got a
read full article
Jonah Jones, 91, A Master Jazz Trumpeter
NYTimes - May 03, 2000

Jonah Jones, a jazz trumpeter who played with some of the great swing bands and sold a million copies of his versions of ''On the Street Where You Live'' and ''Baubles, Bangles and Beads,'' died on Sunday. He was 91 and lived in Manhattan. Mr. Jones, who was born in Louisville, Ky., learned to play the trumpet at a community center where he played
read full article
Doc Cheatham, Jazz Journeyman Who Blossomed Into A Star, Dies At 91
NYTimes - Jun 03, 1997

Doc Cheatham, a lyrical, elegant trumpet player whose career blossomed when he was in his 70's and who then became one of the jazz's best known stars, died yesterday at George Washington University Hospital in Washington. Mr. Cheatham, who would have turned 92 on June 13, lived in Manhattan. An indefatigable player, he performed last weekend at
read full article

Timeline

Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Lil Hardin Armstrong.

CHILDHOOD

1898 Birth Born in 1898.

TEENAGE

1917 19 Years Old It was at Fisk University, a college for African Americans located in downtown Nashville, that Hardin was taught a more acceptable approach to the instrument. Hardin stayed at the school for one year, returning to Memphis in 1917.

TWENTIES

1918 20 Years Old In August 1918, she moved to Chicago with her mother and stepfather. … Read More

1921 23 Years Old … She was with Oliver at the Dreamland in 1921, when an offer came for the orchestra to play a six-month engagement at San Francisco's Pergola Ballroom. … Read More

1922 24 Years Old In Chicago, Hardin went back to work at the Dreamland, as pianist in an orchestra for Mae Brady, a violinist and vaudeville stalwart. While there, she fell for Jimmie Johnson, a young singer from Washington, D.C., whom she married on August 22, 1922. … Read More

1924 26 Years Old 1 More Event

Hardin and Louis were married on February 4, 1924. … Read More

1925 27 Years Old Louis was gaining an impressive reputation when Richard M. Jones convinced Okeh Records to make a series of sessions under his name: the classic Armstrong "Hot Five" recordings. With Hardin at the piano, Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, and Johnny St. Cyr on banjo, this stellar group rehearsed at Louis and Hardin's residence on Chicago's East 41st Street and held its first session on November 15, 1925. … Read More

1926 28 Years Old Hardin had actually recorded five selections for Vocalion, leading the same group, in April and May 1926. … Read More

THIRTIES

1931 33 Years Old Louis and Hardin separated in 1931, when he had begun a liaison with Alpha Smith, who threatened to sue Armstrong for breach of promise, so he begged Hardin not to grant him a divorce. "I felt sorry for Louis", Hardin later recalled, "but he had two-timed me, so I gave him a divorce just to teach him a lesson—and I sued him, too." … Read More

LATE ADULTHOOD

1961 63 Years Old 1 More Event

… She would again appear on that label In 1961, participating in its "Chicago: The Living Legends" project as accompanist for Alberta Hunter and leader of her own hastily assembled big band.

1962 64 Years Old In 1962, Hardin began writing her autobiography, in collaboration with Albertson, but she had second thoughts when she realized that such a book could not be done properly without including material that might discomfit Louis Armstrong, so the project was shelved with only five chapters written.

1969 71 Years Old In 1969, Hardin told a University of Alabama professor that she wanted to work on the book alone and self-publish it.

1971 73 Years Old 1 More Event

Hardin first received piano instruction from her third grade teacher, Miss Violet White, then her mother enrolled her in Mrs. Hook's School of Music. "I later learned that they had taught me all the wrong things," Hardin recalled in 1971, "but they meant well."

Original Authors of this text are noted on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil_Hardin_Armstrong.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.