LIL HARDEN

Lillian Beatrice Hardin was born  in Memphis, Tennessee, on February 3, 1898. Her parents split when she was young and she lived with her mother and grandmother (who was born a slave) in a boarding home near the famous Beale St. Lil showed interest in music performance from a young age and, her mother recognizing that, purchased private lessons and enrolled her into a music school where she studied piano and organ and played at her grade school and church. She continued her music studies at Fisk Preparatory School in Nashville, now known as Fisk University, a Historically Black College & University (HBCU). She skipped her last year at Fisk, when her parents (her mother remarried) moved to Chicago in August 1918.

In 1921, she joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band which would be a pivotal moment in her music career because of the exposure and connections she would make. Lil and company often performed at a club located at 3520 S. State St in the heart of Bronzeville’s The Stroll. In 1924, she became Lil Hardin Armstrong after marrying the [not yet] legendary trumpeter Louis Armstong. Together they formed the Hot 5 orchestra where Lil played piano with Louis on the trumpet.

In 1928, she purchased a large greystone at 421 E. 44th St in Chicago. Lil bought the home entirely on her own, a major and rare accomplishment for a Black woman at the time. This structure which still stands, would host many famous artists and be a place where music would be created and recorded making it important to music history.

Also in 1928, Lil received a teaching diploma from the Chicago College of Music. In 1930, she went back to school again and earned her post graduate degree at the New York College of Music. In 1938 she divorced Louis Armstrong, winning a financial settlement and keeping her properties, as well as gaining rights to the songs that they had co-composed. In the 1940s she abandoned music to pursue her love of fashion design at a tailoring school in New York and she opened a restaurant in Chicago, "Lil Armstong's Swing Shack." She was persuaded and continued performing for the next two decades where she continued to record music and occasionally use her talents in fashion design until she passed August 27, 1971.

For more information about Lil Harden, please visit the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. And for more information about Lil’s home in Chicago, take a look at this article from WBEZ.

THE STROLL BEER - funkytown brewery

Funkytown Brewery in Chicago chose Lil Harden as their inspiration for their contribution to The Stroll beer collab. A Bronze Ale made with Progress Hops and Rice. 5% ABV.

The ingredients and connection: We used progress hops because of the strides Lil Harden took in her own life with her music education and composition, home ownership, business ownership, fashion design, living abroad all during Jim crow and volatile racial and mysogynistic environments. For someone born in 1898, she made progress that wasn't afforded to many Black people and influenced others in her community. We added malted rice to the recipe because of her connection to the New Orleans' Creole Jazz Band (later it became King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band), and the influence of New Orleans on the Chicago jazz scene back in the 1920s.