LILLIAN HARDIN-ARMSTRONG

band members:

Lil Armstrong - piano, vocals, leader
unknown - bass, drum, electric guitar, saxophone

1. ROY MILTON
   R. M. Blues
2. CAMILLE HOWARD
   Groovy Blues
3. CAMILLE HOWARD
   When I Grow Too Old To Dream
4. CAMILLE HOWARD
   Sometime's I'm Happy
5. CAMILLE HOWARD
   Mr. Fine
6. DOROTHY DONEGAN
   If I Had You
7. ROY MILTON
   Milton's Boogie
8. LIL ARMSTRONG
   Rock It
9. DOROTHY DONEGAN
   The Piano Player's Blues
10. LIL ARMSTRONG
    Brown Gal
11. LIL ARMSTRONG
    Joogie Boogie
12. LIL ARMSTRONG
    Baby Daddy
13. LIL ARMSTRONG
    Baby Daddy (*)
14. LIL ARMSTRONG
    Rock It (*)

excerpt from the linernotes on this CD:

"....Our final artist is Lil Armstrong, pianist, composer, soloist, restaurant owner, dress designer and leader of big bands and jump combos and ex-wife of Louis Armstrong.
Born in Memphis in 1902 Lil Hardin (...) was a teenage star. She leamt piano as a child and upon moving to Chicago at the age of 15 she got a job at Jones' Music Store on State Street as a piano demonstrator, where she was billed as the "Jazz wonder child". At Jones she met Jelly Roll Morton. "One day he came in and started to play, beating out a double rhythm with his feet on the loud pedal. I was thrilled, amazed, and scared", she recalled.
Lil joined the New Orleans' Creole Jazz Band then King Oliver's with whom she made her first recordings, for Gennett in 1923. It was while she was with Oliver's Band that she met and married Louis Armstrong and it was Lil who encouraged Armstrong to leave Oliver in favour of forming his own band, which eventually he did after playing with Fletcher Henderson.
Although their marriage lasted just 7 years she cut over 50 sides with Armstrong between 1925 and 1927.
During the 30s she led two "all-girl bands", one called The Harlem Harlicans, and she led a male band during the depression years with Lil being billed as Mrs. Louis Armstrong". In 1936 she became house pianist at Decca and also recorded under her own name. One song eventually became her "theme", "Brown Gal", which she later recorded for Gotham on April 4th 1950. During the 40s Lil led her own small combo in Chicago as well as running a restaurant and dress design business.
Her four sides for Gotham were set up by J. Mayo Williams and more than likely were cut in Chicago, although who her Chicago Boys were is a mystery. Nevertheless, they are a tight, jumping combo.
These Gotham sides are reminiscent of Nellie Lutcher's recordings from this period, a mixture of blues ballads and uptempo jump numbers. "Brown Gal", her theme, is an anthem to black pride and similar in style to Clarence Palmer's "Tan Skin Lad".
The City of Chicago put on an outdoor concert in memory of Louis Armstrong in 1971, 6 months after his death. Lil was asked to perform at the concert and sadly, midway through one of her numbers, she collapsed and died of a heart  attack. She was 69 years old....."