The 21-year-old Armstrong, on cornet, was a protégé of New Orleans fellow cornetist and band leader King Joe Oliver. On April 5, 1923, they went into a Richmond, Ind., studio for a two-day session.

The Brief Reign of King Oliver article by Karl Ackermann, published on June 12, 2025 at All About Jazz. Find more Backstories articles ...

If we were to take all the major trumpet players in jazz, line them up in chronological order, ask them who they listened to and were influenced by, then send them down the long dark chute of jazz ...

In 2018’s “Down the River Unto the Sea,” New York City PI Joe King Oliver slid into the space occupied in many readers’ hearts by Walter Mosley’s iconic Los Angeles hero, Easy Rawlins.