Lil Hardin Armstrong (1898-1971) deserves better from jazz history. While she remains famous for being Louis Armstrong’s second wife, and the pianist with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and Armstrong’s Hot Five and Seven in the 1920s, her life and career did not end in 1930. She was a skilled songwriter, an underrated singer, and a fine pianist. During 1936-38 Armstrong led bands on five record dates that resulted in 22 selections all of which have her vocals and most of which she composed. Best known of the songs is “Just For A Thrill” since it would be a hit for Ray Charles more than two decades later.
Pianist Calil O’Doherty’s Bluer Than Blue celebrates Lil Hardin Armstrong’s musical legacy, at least part of it. This is a project that is mostly a modern look at some of Armstrong’s compositions. Three of the songs (“Struttin’ With Some Barbecue,” “Two Deuces,” and “Just For A Thrill”) are well known, “Clip Joint” is a forgotten tune from 1961, and the other five songs (all obscure) are from the 1936-38 sessions. Other than a solo stride piano version of “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue,” Ms. O’Doherty plays in a more modern style as do her musicians which include bassist Tamir Shmerling, drummer Cory Cox, and tenor-saxophonist Nicole Glover.
Michael Mayo takes the vocal on the opening “Let’s Call It Love,” a melody that is partly reminiscent of “Penthouse Serenade.” He has a distinctive light voice and a floating style that makes this vintage sound like it was composed recently. It is a surprise that the one tune is his only appearance on this set. Five other songs feature Tahira Clayton’s singing. While the accompaniment is a bit modernized, her vocalizing could fit very well into the 1930s. As she shows on the mournful “Bluer Than Blue” and “Just For A Thrill,” she is an excellent ballad singer. Clayton also swings well on “Happy Today, Sad Tomorrow” on an arrangement that has a stop-time chorus for her and each of the other soloists.
While I wish that the musicians played a bit more in the 1930s swing style (saxophonist Glover on “Let’s Get Happy Together” and a high-powered “Riffin’ The Blues” is much more modern than the songs), Bluer Than Blue casts some welcome light on the songwriting talents of Lil Hardin Armstrong.
Calil O’Doherty • Bluer Than Blue
Outside In Music OiM2412
www.outsideinmusic.com
Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings.
Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.
