Martin, Bogan & The Armstrongs

Violinist, raconteur, and thinker Howard Armstrong belonged to the singular African-American string band Martin, Bogan & the Armstrongs. Guitar and mandolin blues specialist Carl Martin, born in Virginia, guitarist Ted Bogan, and multi-instrumentalist Howard Armstrong kept the ensemble alive through several name changes that began in the 1930s with the Four Keys, continued as the Tennessee Chocolate Drops and the Wandering Troubadours, and finally settled on Martin, Bogan & the Armstrongs. Performing both solo and together, the musicians worked radio broadcasts, medicine shows, and rural jukes across the mid-South before relocating to Chicago in the late 1930s and 1940s, where they cut a handful of sides yet largely earned their keep by what Armstrong termed “pulling doors”—entering restaurants and bars to play for tips unless asked to leave. Their travels through assorted ethnic districts let Armstrong’s linguistic facility serve them well; the group acquired songs in multiple languages.

An acoustic string ensemble built around violin, guitar, mandolin, and bass, the trio moved freely among blues, jazz, pop, country, and foreign-language material, amassing an extensive songbook because they were willing to play whatever listeners requested. After a long separation the musicians reformed as Martin, Bogan & the Armstrongs in the early 1970s and received warm notice during the blues revival. Following Carl Martin’s death, Bogan and Armstrong performed on as a duo, recognized as the foremost living practitioners of the African-American string-band tradition and equally comfortable with blues, swing, jazz, ragtime, and earlier Black string-band repertoire. Armstrong, fluent in seven languages, received a National Heritage Award in 1990. Beyond the players’ vigor, polished execution, and affable wit, the trio’s lasting appeal lay in their demonstration that strong music ignores categories and that resourceful artists can draw from many sources at once.