Edited, and continuity written by ROBERT S. GREENE.

SIDE 1

Learning the piano;

Early life in Chicago;

With the New Orleans Creole Jazz Band;

King Oliver appears on the scene … with Louis;

First recording date;

Courtship.

SIDE 2

The young Louis;

Marriage;

First trumpet, at last;

With Fletcher Henderson in New York;

The Hot Five;

Return to New Orleans;

The end of a marriage;

Epilogue

This is an album that calls for very little in the way of explanatory notes. For the entire LP is itself a work of explanation and of living history.

It is the story of Lil Hardin, who became Lil Armstrong. It tells of the jazz world of Chicago in the 1920s – a robust, exciting, flavorful and highly important jazz era – in the words of a woman who was a vital part of that world. That was a period in which a girl – this girl – could get a job demonstrating sheet music in a store and have it lead to an impromptu lesson from Jelly Roll Morton; could become pianist for the greatest of all traditional bands; King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band; could marry the man destined to become the most celebrated of jazz musicians and help start him on the road to greatness.

Speaking freely and casually, Lil Armstrong tells of all this, not from the limited angle of the historian or critic peering in from the outside, but from the viewpoint of one who was in and of this story, to whom these figures of jazz legend were nothing more – and nothing less – than the human beings with whom she worked and lived.

This LP is unquestionably an important addition to the body of jazz lore. More than that, it is a warm, personal story that makes fascinating listening as a vivid recreation of a colorful and significant segment of the past of jazz.

A similar jazz document-on-record, covering more than three decades of men and music in the words of a major jazz artist, is –

COLEMAN HAWKINS: A Documentary (RLP 12-117/118)

The Creole Jazz Band can be heard on Riverside on –

LOUIS ARMSTRONG: 1923 – King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band (RLP 12-122)

The music of the many early jazz greats who figure in this documentary is featured on several albums in the Riverside “Jazz Archives” series of outstanding reissues.

The full series includes –

Young LOUIS ARMSTRONG (RLP 12-101)

NEW ORLEANS RHYTHM KINGS, with Jelly Roll Morton (RLP 12-102)

Young FATS WALLER: piano roll solos (RLP 12-103)

JOHNNY DODDS: New Orleans Clarinet (RLP 12-104)

JAMES P. JOHNSON: Rare Solos (RLP 12-105)

Giants of BOOGIE WOOGIE: Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson (RLP 12-106)

MUGGSY SPANIER: Kid Muggsy’s Jazz (RLP 12-107)

MA RAINEY: Classic Blues (RLP 12-108)

The Amazing MR. WALLER: piano organ and voice (RLP 12-109)

The Golden Age of RAGRIME (RLP 12-110)

JELLY ROLL MORTON: Classic Piano Solos (RLP 12-111)

HISTORY OF CLASSIC JAZZ (SDP-11; also available as five single LPs – RLPs 12-112 through 12-116)

NEW ORLEANS LEGENDS: Bunk Johnson, Kid Ory, Kid Rena (RLP 12-119)

GREAT BLUES SINGERS: Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, etc. (RLP 12-121)

BIX BEIDERBECKE and the Wolverines (RLP 12-123)

JIMMY YANCEY: Yancey’s Getaway (RLP 12-124)

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON (RLP 12-125)

RAGTIME Piano Roll CLASSICS (RLP 12-126)

ON-THE-ROAD JAZZ: Bix Beiderbecke, Wingy Manone, etc. (RLP 12-127)

The Incomparable JELLY ROLL MORTON: rarest recordings (RLP 12-128)

DUKE ELLINGTON and FLETCHER HENDERSON: The Birth of Big Band Jazz (RLP 12-129)

KING OLIVER: Back o’ Town (RLP 12-130)

A HIGH FIDELITY Recording (Audio compensation: RIAA Curve)

Narrated by BARRETT CLARK

Cover produced and designed by PAUL BACON – KEN BRAREN – HARRIS LEWINE

RIVERSIDE RECORDS are released by BILL GRAUER PRODUCTIONS

553 West 51st Street New York 19, N.Y.