Standing In The Shadows

You may never have heard of Lil Hardin. I hadn’t until I glanced through a book down at the coffee house. I was intrigued by what I read.

Back in the day, Lil was a talented jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader. We don’t hear much about her, because she decided to promote her husband’s career, instead of her own. She stood in the shadows of a man who became a legend — thanks to her.

Lil grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and learned to play piano at an early age. Although she was drawn to popular music, she had to play it on the sly. Her Momma thought that it was the Devil’s music. As a young girl, she landed a job demonstrating sheet music at a local music store. It happened that one day Jelly Roll Morton came into the store and sat down at the piano. Lil said, “the piano rocked, the floor shivered, the people swayed while he attacked the keyboard with his long skinny fingers, beating out a double rhythm with his feet on the loud pedal.” From that day forth, her style changed and she embarked on her career as a jazz pianist.

Lil was playing piano in King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, enjoying quite a bit of celebrity, when Oliver hired a young fellow as second cornetist.

She definitely wasn’t smitten at first sight.

He seemed, to the much more sophisticated Lil, to be something of a country bumpkin. But, he “had the chops.” That man could play trumpet better than King Oliver himself.

An unlikely romance blossomed between the two, and Lil began to do a make-over on her man. She got him a stylish haircut and fancy clothes. She encouraged him to further develop his distinctive style of playing the horn and to embark on a solo career. She began to promote that career. The two were married on February 4, 1924.

She envisioned her husband’s name in lights, and indeed that came to pass. You know who he was: Louis Armstrong, the Great Satchmo. But, you probably wouldn’t know him if Lil Hardin Armstrong hadn’t been on the scene. He was content just to get to play his horn.

Sadly, with the onset of his fame, their marriage grew apart. They divorced in 1931, though they remained friends throughout life. Lil Hardin Armstrong continued to play her music, but her name never became a household word. In interviews, she said that she often imagined herself, standing out of sight, at the bottom of a ladder, holding it steady for Louis as he rose to stardom. It’s a pity she didn’t climb a few of those rungs herself.

When Louis Armstrong died in 1971, Lil was devastated by it. A few months later, performing at a memorial concert for her famous ex-husband, Lil collapsed on stage and died an hour later.

[If you want to know more about this intriguing woman, there is a delightful website called Riverwalk Jazz that can satisfy your needs. You can even listen to audio clips of interviews with the Lil Hardin Armstrong.]

Other posts you might enjoy:

1. Denton Is Jazzin’ It Up!
2. Yes, We Can Can
3. Mama Said Not To Play With Your Food
4. Denton Jazz Fest Blues
5. Uncle Walt’s Band. I Thought They Would Always Be There.

Tagged as: Artsy Fartsy Stuff, History, Lil Hardin, Louis Armstrong, Music