Critics well versed in classic jazz history suggest that Jimmy Strong's moments of greatest musical fortitude took place when he was a member of the Louis Armstrong Ballroom Five in the '20s. Even a cursory glance at this artist's discography bears this out, dominated as it is by satchels of Satchmo. Biographical information concerning this reed player is as weak as the counting of sidemen in the aforementioned Armstrong quintet, which actually had seven members. Strong's last decades were spent in such obscurity that there have been many guesses that he died as early as 1940, a year during which he was in reality still leading his own group at the Blue Room Club in Jersey City, a gig that like many in New Jersey could be sort of like death. Strong came out of the Chicago jazz scene in the early '20s, backing female vocalists who led revues such as Lottie Hightower and Helen Dewey. In the mid-'20s he left these jobs to head for the West Coast, a destination for many players in his genre during this period. The California stay was short, however, and soon Strong was back in the Windy City, immersed in the sounds of the Clifford "Klarinet" King Big Band in addition to several outfits organized by Carroll Dickerson between 1927 and 1929. During the '30s Strong apparently had the strength to lead his own groups prior to signing on with Zinky Cohn in 1937. A couple of years later he played in the reed section of Jimmie Noone's Big Band before the final move to Jersey City. ~ Eugene Chadbourne