The Forgotten JAZZ World

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The Forgotten JAZZ World

• By Tinisha Shaw Jennifer Nuñez

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Women of Jazz

• Women, especially African American women, are
  often not recognized for their contributions to
  the jazz.
• As singers, band leaders, instrumentalists,
  writers, and producers these women were a vital
  aspect of popularity and legacy of jazz.

The following are examples of the female key note
jazz during the early to mid 20th century.
(International Sweethearts of Rhythm)
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Ella FitzgeraldThe First Lady of Song

• The most popular female jazz singer in the United
  States for more than half a century.
• Born in Newport News, Virginia on April 25, 1917
  and grew up in Yonkers, New York.
• Her childhood is described as happy. Ella grew up
  in a mixed neighborhood and was a self-described
  tomboy.
• Her mother worked at a laundry mat and as a
  caterer. Her step-father dug ditches and as a
  part-time chauffeur.

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Ella FitzgeraldThe First Lady of Song

• As a teenager Ella would take the train into
  Harlem to the Apollo Theater and enter into
  Amateur Night at the Apollo.
• By 1934 Ella was able to compete as a dance act
  but when faced with boos she decided to sing.
• From then on she began entering every talent show
  she could find.

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Ella FitzgeraldThe First Lady of Song

• In January 1935 she won the chance to perform for
  a week with Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem
  Opera House.
• In mid 1936 Ella made her first recording Love
  and Kisses.
• By 1938 at the age of 21 Ella had hit number one
  on the pop charts for 17 weeks and sold one
  million copies with the album A-Tisket, A-Tasket.
  
• After this Ellas stardom grew.

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Ella FitzgeraldThe First Lady of Song

• Ella joined the Philharmonic tour and worked with
  Louis Armstrong
• From 1956-1964 she recorded covers for Cole
  Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Irving
  Berlin, and Rodgers and Hart.
• She was a favorite and frequent guest on The Bing
  Crosby Show, The Dinah Shore Show, The Ed
  Sullivan Show, and The Tonight Show.
• By her death at the age of 79 on June 15, 1996
  Ella had recorded over 200 albums, won 13 Grammy
  awards, and sold over 40 million albums.

Just One of Those Things
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Bessie SmithThe Empress of the Blues

• Described as the greatest of the classic Blues
  singers of the 1920s.
• Also described as a rough, crude, and violent
  woman who loved her Gin.
• Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 15
  sometime between the years of 1894 and 1900.
• She made her start as a street musician in
  Chattanooga until she was discovered by Blues
  singer Ma Rainey.

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Bessie SmithThe Empress of the Blues

• In 1912 she joined the Rabbit Foot Minstrels were
  she was mentored by Ma Rainey.
• In 1915 she left the show and joined the T.O.B.A
  vaudeville circuit (Theatre Owners Booking
  Association) where she built up a following
  throughout the south.
• Her first recording was Down Hearted Blues, in
  1923. The record sold more than 750,000 copies in
  a year.

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Bessie SmithThe Empress of the Blues

• Throughout the 1920s Bessie recorded with many of
  the great Jazz musicians of that era such as
  Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Don Redman,
  and Louis Armstrong.
• Her record St. Louis Blues with Louis Armstrong
  was considered one of the finest recordings of
  the 1920s
• Bessie Smith became one of the biggest
  African-American stars of the 1920s with all
  races.

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Bessie SmithThe Empress of the Blues

• Smith became the highest paid Black entertainer
  in the country during the 1920s making 1500 a
  week.
• However, by 1930 her career had faltered due to
  changing music tastes, mismanagement, and her
  heavy drinking.
• Her last New York appearance was in 1936. On
  September 27, 1937 she was killed in an
  automobile accident in Clarksdale, Mississippi
  traveling to Memphis, Tennessee.

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Bessie SmithThe Empress of the Blues

• Bessie Smith was known for her slow blues
  ballads.
• Her voice was described as huge, sweeping, and
  capable of strength and tenderness.
• She left behind over 160 recordings and huge
  legacy.

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Billie HolidayLady Day

• Described as the Greatest Female Jazz Vocalist of
  all time.
• Born Eleanora Fagan in 1915 in Baltimore, MD
• Her childhood was difficult and led to her
  dropping out of high school and moving in with
  her mother to Harlem.
• Desperate for money she auditions to be a singer
  at a speakeasy.
• This job leads to many other performances in
  Harlem clubs.
• Soon discovered by John Hammond she was given
  great exposure and worked with many great jazz
  names such as Duke Ellington and Lester Young.

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Billie HolidayLady Day

• Established a lifelong relationship with Lester
  Young "Prez who coined the nickname Lady Day.
• She began making her first recordings in 1935
  with Teddy Wilson.
• In 1938 she joined Artie Shaws band becoming one
  of the first black singers to be featured in a
  white orchestra.
• Due to the Jim Crow Laws in the South Lady Day
  found it difficult to tour the area when she was
  not given the respect to even enter the venues
  front door.
• She decided to leave and pursue a solo career.

Fun Fact She used the name "Billie Holiday"
because of her admiration for film star Billie
Dove.
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Billie HolidayLady Day

• In 1939 Strange Fruit was released and
  jumpstarted her solo career given her not only
  the respect she deserved, but also created a
  large fan base.
• Her career began to take off with the success of
  slow, melancholy songs of unreciprocated love
  such as Gloomy Sunday (1941) God Bless the Child
  and Lover Man (1944).
• These songs showed off her vocal skills and also
  revealed the pain that she suffered as her
  personal life deteriorated.
• Drugs, Alcohol, Abusive Men, and Cocaine/Heroine
  all took their tolls on her health and career.

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Billie HolidayLady Day

• Despite her personal problems Lady Day become
  one of the worlds most famous voices. She
  successfully broke race lines by being one of the
  few black artists to perform in all-white and
  interracial venues.
• Her influences live on still today through the
  works of modern jazz vocalists
• The lyrics from many of her songs revealed and
  made the general public aware of the turmoil
  and pain that many blacks suffered during the
  early to mid 20th century.

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International Sweethearts of Rhythm

• All-Girl Band that was active from 1937-1949.
• This band was unique in that it was both all
  female as well as a racially integrated group.
• Black, Asian, Latina, Indian, White, and Puerto
  Rican women came together and created music that
  more than held its own
• Hence the name International
• Admired by their peers, including Count Basie and
  Louis Armstrong.

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International Sweethearts of Rhythm

• Very popular among black/interracial audiences
  but faced a great amount of problems when touring
  the South.
• The South caused problems not only for the
  minority members, but also for the white members.
• Despite their struggles in dealing with a racist
  society, people could not overlook the great
  amount of talent that composed the Sweethearts.

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International Sweethearts of Rhythm

• The height of their careers came during WWII. As
  men were off fighting the war people began to
  focus their attention on women jazz performers
  who now had the responsibility continuing the
  development of jazz as well as entertaining the
  troops abroad.

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International Sweethearts of Rhythm

• USO TOUR
• The Sweethearts were so popular that they were
  invited to take a 6month European tour during
  WWII.
• Many of its members became the first women of
  their race to travel internationally with the
  USO.

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Remember

• Women, especially African American women
  contributed a great deal to the creation,
  development, and continuation of Jazz.
• They did so under the roles of vocalists,
  instrumentalists, band leaders, conductors, and
  much more.

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References

• All songs taken from The Smithsonian Collections
  of Classic Jazz. Sony Music Entertainment Inc.,
  1997.
• Dahl, Linda. Stormy Weather The Music and Lives
  of a Century of Jazzwomen. New York Pantheon
  Books, 1984. ML82 .D3 1984
• OMeally, Robert. Lady Day The Many Faces of
  Billie Holiday. De Capo Press, 2000. ML420.H58
  O4 1991  
• Tucker, Sherrie. Swing Shift All-Girl Bands of
  the 1940s. Durham, N.C. Duke University Press,
  2000. ML82 .T83 2000  
• Tucker, Sherrie. Nobody's Sweethearts Gender,
  Race, Jazz, and the Darlings of Rhythm.
  American Music, Vol. 16, No. 3. (Autumn, 1998),
  pp. 255-288. Online via JSTOR. http//links.jstor.
  org/sici?sici0734-43922819982329163A33C2553A
  NSGRJA3E2.0.CO3B2-Y (25 August 2005).
• Tucker, Sherrie. PBS Jazz a Film by Ken Burns
  Jazz in Time Women in Jazz. lt
  http//www.pbs.org/jazz/time/time_women.htmgt (25
  August 2005).