By: Jaclyn Breeze
Lillian Hardin Armstrong (called Lil) was a jazz pianist, composer, singer, and bandleader. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1898, and was taught many spirituals, hymns, and classical music on the piano. She later started learning pop and blues. Lil’s first piano teacher was her third-grade teacher, and was soon enrolled in Mrs. Hook’s School of Music by her mother. She went on to Study at Fisk University, where she got more advanced training and earned her diploma. In 1918 she moved to Chicago with her family and got a job as a sheet music demonstrator at a music store because she was so good at sight-reading music. The store paid her very badly, but she soon started receiving job offers from all kinds of different bands and theaters to play. After moving around a lot and playing for a few years, she enrolled in school again at the New York College of Music and earned her post-graduate degree.
After school, she moved back to Chicago and started working with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. Louis Armstrong soon joined the band as well, and they were married in 1924. She helped him foster his career and encouraged him to aim for better jobs than second cornet like he played with King Oliver. They divorced in 1938 after growing apart.
Lil started an “All Girl Orchestra” which was broadcast nationally over the radio. Later in her career she worked mostly as a soloist, singing and playing piano. Lil passed from a heart attack that she had while performing a memorial concert for Louis Armstrong on television.
Listen to some of her work here:
