To the Editor:
I enjoyed the “Profiles in Jazz” article on Lil Hardin Armstrong by Scott Yanow which appeared in the June 2024 issue of TST. It brought back good memories of my friendship with Lil back in the early 1960s. I was a special investigator with the US Government and Chicago was one of my 12 assignments in a 30-year career.
As a long-time jazz enthusiast (and a former drummer), I realized that the government putting me in Chicago was a gift. Among my haunts was Jazz Ltd., a small club near the Loop, where Franz Jackson (tenor sax) and the Original Jass All Stars had a regular gig. Playing piano part-time in this traditional jazz band was a nice lady named Lil Hardin Armstrong.
Lil and I got acquainted during breaks on a number of my visits to Jazz Ltd. She would sit with us at our table, and in the course of our visits she mentioned that she was writing her autobiography. That topic soon became predominant. Her working title was Memphis to Chicago on a Piano Stool. I offered to help her; not in writing the book but getting it published. I had a good friend who was high in the ranks at the publisher Rand McNally in Chicago. I continued to see Lil at Jazz Ltd., and when she appeared with Art Hodes at another location.
Sad to say, this story ends here. I was transferred to Oklahoma, aka Jazz Purgatory. However, eventually (and mercifully) I was sent east to New York. (Jazz and New York is another story.) I’m sorry to hear that Lil’s autobiography never got off the back burner.
John William Gahan
Perryville, MO
