[Dixielandjazz] Armstrong leaving Oliver, etc.

[confit at isp.com]

As Nancy queried...
"Did Louis leave King Oliver?s band because Lil pressured him to?"

"Is it fact or fiction that Lil used to listen to Louis improvise as he
casually whistled a tune, and one day asked him why he couldn?t do the same
kind of improv on the trumpet? (I read this in an interview about Lil.)"

Lil states, on I believe the Riverside Records interview recording, that
she did encourage him to leave Oliver's band, where he was playing a
"second fiddle" role to Joe. But it's also worth noting that "the times
they were a-changing" and I believe that Oliver's band, just prior to
Louis' leaving, was becoming more of a dance band-with-jazz solos outfit
rather than the free-wheeling, collectively improvised band it had been
when Louis joined. If that was case, it would make more sense for Louis to
go to work for one of the top black dance bands in the country, namely
Fletcher Henderson, rather than continue on with Oliver, who was in the
mid-1920s competing with a number of top black dance bands in Chicago (Doc
Cook, Sammy Stewart, et. al). Oliver also was not known for his great
financial generosity with his sideman, which undoubtedly led to the Dodds
Brothers, Honore Dutrey and Bill Johnson leaving. The financial benefits
of playing with Henderson would have undoubtedly been much greater than
Oliver.

I think by the time Louis was working in Oliver's band he could pretty
much play anything he could whistle, although this is my speculation ;-)

Cheers,
Chris



-----------------------------------------
Join ISP.COM today - $8.95 internet , less than 1/2 the cost of AOL
Try us out, http://www.isp.com/