Chords for Lil Hardin Armstrong: The Early Years (PART 1/2)

Hi everyone, this week we're focusing on those very early days in the life of our
first lady of jazz, _ Lil Hardin Armstrong.
_ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ [A] Hi everybody, welcome back to Wild [Gb] Women of Song, great gal composers of the jazz era,
[G] I'm Pamela Rose.
[B] _
_ [E] I want to talk today about Lil Hardin [Em] Armstrong.
_ We know about [B] Lil Hardin mostly as a footnote [Ab] to her very famous husband, Louis Armstrong.
[D] _ _ [E] _
[B] And certainly much has been said about how important she [E] was to his career, but she [Em] in
and of herself deserves a [B] certain amount of respect as being one of those very [E] early women in jazz.
_ _ So she was born in [B] Memphis, her mother Dempsey, she had a very _ strong, church-going good [Ab] mother
who wanted nothing better than to elevate her daughter beyond the [Ebm] role of cook and domestic
[Em] service that she had to endure in her lifetime.
[N] _
Dempsey was unusual because she had been sent to school, knew how to read and write, made
sure that her daughter Lillian learned all those things. _
And Lillian right from the beginning loved music.
She played songs in the church, but she says that even early on that she had a little something
when she played those songs that would sometimes create quite a raised eyebrow from her mother. _ _ _
_ _ Perhaps she was putting just a little too much sauce on that sacred music. _
Her mother saved up a lot of money and sent her to Fisk _ University, which _ is a really
phenomenal institution that deserves its own chapter.
But I don't think that she stayed there very long and the history is a little muddy about that. _
Apparently, this was the first year of a new director at Fisk and she was big on rules
and Lillian, it [Gm] must be said, although she was a very good girl, _ did not love a lot of rules.
So she came back home _ and was home figuring out what to [E] do next _ [D] when her mother found
in her bedroom a copy of the sheet music, St.
Louis Blues.
[Gm] _ _ [A]
This was, [D] as far as her mother was concerned, [G] the devil's music.
And her mother [C] Dempsey was terrified [G] that Lillian was going to be [D] infected by [G] what Memphis
was at [F] that [C] time, which was, you know, [D] alive with music, but [G] also prostitution, cocaine,
whores, gambling.
[D] Dempsey was determined to move them out of Memphis.
She moved to Chicago [D] with her mother [G]
and happened into [C] Jones' [D] sheet music store.
[G] _ So Lillian, apparently, even though she had received [C] quite a whipping for that St.
Louis
Blues that her [D] mother had found in [G] the room, in fact, _ it's described as whipping with [D] a
broom handle many times in many [Eb] accounts, so this was [G] a very impressive punishment that
she got, _ _ [D] still loved this [Gm] music.
Went to Jones' sheet music store and [D] asked to hear what was new.
They used to have music demonstrators at these stores. _ _
The _ demonstrator [Gm] was supposed to show the prospective client this piece of music and,
of course, if they played it really well, that would ensure the sales. _ _ _
Lillian was so frustrated at the song demonstrator that she apparently just pulled the music
out of his hand and started playing.
_ And the story goes that not only was the demonstrator impressed, _ but so was the rest of the staff
and a couple of the clients came over and suddenly they wanted to buy that piece of music. _
_ And so they offered Lill a job.
Now they thought she was a schoolgirl.
_ She was 19 years old at the time.
She says she weighs about 85 pounds.
She was very youthful looking.
She wore these little school dresses.
They called her Little Old Thing.
They just loved her and everybody thought of her as a schoolgirl and I guess she just
thought, well, that's okay.
She wasn't going to [N] correct them on that behalf.
_ So she pretended that she had to wait till school was over every day to go work at the store.
She was working there for _ $3 a week _ _ and her mother had no idea where she was.
_ _ But Lillian was so happy because her feeling was that she could learn every single piece
of music in the store [Ab] and every piece of music that was new.
And in truth, that is what she did.
She really was continuing her [G] music education.
[Ab] _ _ _ _ [Eb] One day Jelly Roll [Cm] Morton came into the store.
[F] It was [Bbm] as if the crowds were going to part when they saw him walk in and he sat down
and people were so [Ab] excited he [G] was there.
[Eb] And sure enough, he sat down [Ab] and played about [Cm] four or five pieces of [G] music.
And when he was [Bbm] done, Lill said he sort of clapped his hands together [G] like this to [C] say,
_ [F] _
[Bb] that's how it's [Eb] done folks.
[Ab] She was [Eb] so impressed with the rhythmic [F] quality of his [Fm] playing and said that from [Bb] that moment
on she was inspired to [Eb] play like that.
_ _ [Cm] _
[B] She said that [Eb] she only weighed 85 [Ab] pounds, but from [Bb] that day on, [F] all 85 pounds [Bbm] of her
went into her playing.
And in fact, that's the [G] way that we think [C] of Lill Harden.
[F] In later [Db]
years, [Fm] people would comment about her, especially when she was backing [C] up Louis
[F] Armstrong _ and we heard her on [Cm] those recordings.
[Abm] _
[Bb] They would [Eb] comment about her that she was no Art Tatum and [Fm] certainly she wasn't.
She [C] wasn't that kind of a player.
[Fm] Lill Harden [Db] Armstrong was a [Eb] phenomenal [B] rhythm player.
[Eb] _
[Ab] And she felt the [Fm] rhythm [Ab] and she knew [Db] how important [Fm] it was to this [C] music.
And that was [F] a great contribution [Bbm] that she made.
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[Cm] _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _
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