Best known as the wife of jazz legend Louis Armstrong, Lil Hardin Armstrong was an exciting performer in her own right. This CD, a recording of a Chicago session in 1961, is an excellent example of her later work, featuring superb Dixieland-style jazz with Armstrong's exuberant piano. The Dixieland pieces (including Kid Ory's "Muskrat Ramble") are fast-paced and colorful, complemented by a few blues pieces performed with an attractive, smooth laziness. There are also some original pieces here: "Boogie Me," "Clip Joint" (featuring a spirited vocal performance by Armstrong that makes one wish more of her singing was available on record), and "Eastown Boogie".; A somewhat obscure recording that is nonetheless required listening. --Genevieve Williams
Chicago: The Living Legends,Lil Hardin Armstrong,Ojc,Classic Female Blues,Jazz,Jazz Music,Jazz Traditional,New Orleans Jazz,Pop,Swing
Jazz Music:
- Children of the Fire
- Chittlin Shout & the Mobb [Import]
- Cookin' [Import]
- Cool Notes: the Great Jazz Legends [Import]
- Down Home
- Down in the Village [Import]
- Dragonetti's Dream
- Expensive Fun
- Fables For A New Millennium
- Fickle Sonance [Import]
Jazz Music
Brahms: String Sextet No. 1; Theme and Variations in D minor
Conducts Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn & Tchaikovsky
Debussy: Children's Corner/Six Epigraphes Antiques/Ravel: Forlane/Le Tombeau De Couperin
Banjoman: a tribute to Derroll Adams
Dare / Love & Dancing [Original recording remastered]
Born to Be Blue [Import] [Original recording remastered]