Lil’ Hardin was a pianist in King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. Lil’ Hardin also led her own bands. Hardin was one of the most sought after pianist. Louis Armstrong would eventually join King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. They would ultimately get married. Hardin “encouraged Armstrong to embark on a solo career” (Howze, n.d., para 5). Lil’ Hardin was however already popular before her marriage to Louis Armstrong. “Memphis-born, Chicago-based pianist Lil’ Hardin, for instance, already had made a name for herself as a South Side song plugger and jazz-band piano player long before she married trumpeter Louis Armstrong in 1924” (Reich, 1994).