In Oliver's pianist, Armstrong found his second of four wives, Lil Hardin. He resisted at first, but in 1924, when Fletcher Henderson, now leading a much-admired orchestra in New York, offered him a seat in the band, he accepted. The well-educated Memphis-born Lil Hardin encouraged Louis to leave Oliver and establish himself as a leader. In Oliver's band, Armstrong usually played second trumpet (or cornet), though he occasionally played lead, as on "Dippermouth Blues." If the trumpet breaks he harmonized with Oliver astonished musicians, the brilliance of his timbre was overwhelming. That summons arrived in August 1922, in the form of a wire inviting him to become a member of Oliver's Jazz Band at Lincoln Gardens, on Chicago's Southside.
But Armstrong resolved not to leave his hometown unless Joe Oliver himself sent for him. The celebrated New York singer and actress Ethel Waters toured New Orleans with her then little-known pianist, Fletcher Henderson, and attempted to lure him to New York. During this period, his reputation spread throughout the region. Partly for that reason, Armstrong quit in September 1921, and returned to Ory's band. One restriction of his riverboat job galled him: Marable refused to let him sing. Louis first experienced the world beyond Louisiana when he worked in Fate Marable's orchestra on the excursion boat S.S. In order to prove himself eighteen and thus legally responsible, he applied for a draft card, backdating his birth to 1900-July 4, 1900, a patriotic date that became famously associated with him, and the only birthday he ever acknowledged.Īrmstrong spent three years on riverboats operated by the Streckfus Steamboat Line, working under the leadership of Fate Marable, This was a decisive engagement on several counts: he greatly improved his ability to read a music score he learned to adapt the earthy music of New Orleans to written arrangements he absorbed a variety of songs beyond the New Orleans repertory he saw another part of the world and experienced a different kind of audience (exclusively white, except for the one night a week reserved for black customers) and he grew accustomed to the rigors of traveling from one engagement to another, establishing a lifelong pattern. A short time later, Louis was recruited to play on Mississippi riverboat excursions. When Oliver left for Chicago, he suggested that Louis replace him in the band he had co-led with trombonist Kid Ory. His career began in earnest in 1918 at the age of 17 with two jobs.
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