Home » Jazz Articles » Under the Radar » Women in Jazz, Pt. 2: The Girls From Piney Woods
Women in Jazz, Pt. 2: The Girls From Piney Woods
The musicians wanted permission to go backstage and see what boy’s band was back there playing, see how this thing was done. ‘It was pantomime, they got to have a band back there,’ they said. ‘Ain't no girls can play like that.’
—Eddie Durham
One hundred years after
Lil Hardin Armstrong
piano1898 - 1971
Louis Armstrong
trumpet and vocals1901 - 1971
Tia Fuller
saxophone
Esperanza Spalding
bassb.1984
Dianne Reeves
vocalsb.1956
Geri Allen
piano1957 - 2017
Dave Holland
bassb.1946
Adam Rogers
guitarb.1965
Bill Stewart
drumsb.1966
Jack DeJohnette
drumsb.1942
Terri Lyne Carrington
drumsb.1965
Fred Hersch
pianob.1955
Brad Mehldau
pianob.1970
Joshua Redman
saxophoneb.1969
Wayne Shorter
saxophone1933 - 2023
On the day of the awards Fuller wrote an opinion piece 2019 Grammy Awards: Why I'm Using My Nomination to Speak Out About Sexism in the World of Jazz, for NBC (www.nbc.com, February 10, 2019). Fuller emphasizes the obvious slights while putting a face on the discrimination and sexism she has personally experienced. The examples are nuanced but they are actions reserved for the "other," the outsider. She talks of suggestions she should "smile more" when performing. It's unlikely anyone would have said that to
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
International Sweethearts of Rhythm
The Swing Era that dominated the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s represented the only time in the history of jazz when the genre and "popular music" were synonymous. But, like all the stylistic periods of jazz, it was relatively short-lived. The music piggy-backed on the earlier dance band music of the 1920s and early 1930s and evolved to reflect the energetic rhythms and blues influences made popular by black territory bands. Like dance bands, swing was heavily reliant on dancehall venues but thanks to the growth and affordability of radio, swing survived the Great Depression and thrived into the post-World War II years.The rural, south-central Mississippi community of Piney Woods was established on land that had been the Choctaw Nation before their people's forced removal to Oklahoma. Known as an underdeveloped and lawless area, the Piney Woods were sparingly used by sheep and cattle herders but was not well-suited to agriculture. Representatives from Piney Woods voted to secede from the Confederacy in 1861 and launched guerilla-style attacks on the Southern troops. In retribution, the Confederate Army raided subsistence farmers and confiscated livestock, depleting the few resources in the community. The poor region in the poorest state in the U.S. became more impoverished as farmland opened to the north in Mississippi and the small population dwindled further. In 1938, near the end of the depression, the Piney Woods Country Life School opened. Despite the institution's idyllic name, it was an orphanage and school for poor black and white children. The Piney Woods School was an unlikely starting point for the most famous "all-girl" jazz band in jazz history.
Laurence Clifton Jones came from of family of educators and upon graduating from the University of Iowa in 1908 he was offered—but refused—an offer to teach at the prestigious Tuskegee Institute. Dr. Jones had a higher calling. Learning that Rankin County, Mississippi, had an eighty percent illiteracy rate, he started the Piney Woods School with two dollars and three students in a sheep shed on land donated to him by a freed slave. In 1912 Jones and his wife Grace, who had previously founded her own school, were given lumber from a white sawmill owner, food, money and more land from other donors. Grace Jones was a tireless fundraiser and a teacher at Piney Woods. The couple's dedication to educating their students became local legend, so much so that when a white lynch mob attempted to hang Jones (simply because he was black) in 1918, they relented because of his reputation. The famed author and motivational speaker Dale Carnegie reported that the lynch mob actually donated money to the school. The most effective fundraising tool that the school developed was an all-girl jazz orchestra whose performances brought in much-needed donations.
Dr. Jones and Grace Jones had originated several all-girl groups, some vocal and others instrumental. Probably called the Piney Woods School Band at their inception, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm were inspired by Jones' affinity for the Ina Ray Hutton's Melodears. Hutton was born Odessa Cowan in 1916, on Chicago's South Side in a predominantly black area. Census records indicate that she was black but she was perceived as being white as evidenced by her nickname, "the Blond Bombshell of Rhythm." Jazz promoter Irving Mills assembled an all-female band—the Melodears—changed Cowan's name and made her the band leader. Though she was only eighteen, she had won great reviews performing on Broadway at fourteen. She led the group through the 1930s touring regularly, appearing in films, and in 1950, on television with own Emmy-winning program. She recorded little, did very few interviews and her name faded into obscurity.
In an all-white Mississippi orphanage, a young girl's race was determined to be black and she was required to leave that facility. The Jones family took her in at Piney Woods and adopted Helen Jones, who became a member of the school's multiple musical fundraising groups -the Cotton Blossom Singers, the Swinging Rays of Rhythm, and, at age eleven, she played trombone in their International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Touring through much of the eastern U.S. the Sweethearts developed a significant following and in 1943 they severed ties with the Piney Woods school. In his book One O'clock Jump: The Unforgettable History of The Oklahoma City Blue Devils (Beacon Press, 2006), D.H. Daniels quotes the legendary black newspaper, the Chicago Defender reacting to the band's 1943 performance at Chicago's Regal Theater, writing it was "One of the hottest stage shows that ever raised the roof of the theater!" Over four-thousand fans waited in line for a show at the Palace Theater in Memphis, Tennessee and in 1945 they performed for African American troops on a six-month tour in France and Germany. Among their fans were
Count Basie
piano1904 - 1984
Some of the most prominent members of International Sweethearts of Rhythm joined the group, post-Piney Woods. Among them was the bandleader and vocalist Anna Mae Winburn, who was hired in 1941 and remained with the group until it's end. The Sweethearts refined their skills with the guidance of
Eddie Durham
guitar1906 - 1987
Benny Moten
bass1916 - 1977
Glenn Miller
trombone1904 - 1944
Among the most notable players in the Sweethearts was saxophonist Violet May "Vi" Burnside. Like Winburn, Burnside joined the band in 1941 and remained for the duration. She toured Europe with the Sweethearts' USO concerts during World War II and post-Sweethearts became a leader, fronting Vi Burnside's All-Girl Band and Vi Burnside's All-Stars into the 1960s. In 1953 she briefly reunited with Winburn playing in Harlem. Burnside later became an official in a Washington, D.C. musicians' union. Trumpeter Tiny Davis (Ernestine Carroll) joined the Sweethearts in the early 1940s and remained until 1947. Known as "Queen of the Trumpet," Davis was frequently compared to Louis Armstrong for her playing. Upon leaving the group she formed an ensemble called the Hell Divers, presumably based on a class of WWII fighter plane. Signed to the Decca Records label, the group toured into the early 1950s. Their bassist, Ruby Lucas, became Davis' life partner and the two opened Ruby's Gay Spot, in Chicago where Davis was active in music into the 1980s. Willie Mae Wong had never played the saxophone when she was recruited into the band but achieved stardom on the baritone.
Tiny Davis wasn't the first player in the Sweethearts to be dubbed "Queen." That honor went to the drummer who joined the group in 1939. Writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1984, the noted critic Francis Davis observed the band was "Powered by Pauline Braddy's drumming..." Boston native and the Sweethearts' alto saxophonist Rosalind "Roz" Cron grew up in unanticipated ways while with the band. Joining while still in her teens, and being only the second white musician in the band, Cron experienced the discrimination that her bandmates lived with. She was arrested in Texas for breaching the segregation law that forbade racial mixing of bands but that incident only strengthened the bonds within the group. Cron, now in her nineties, recalled the Sweethearts breaking box-office records at the Howard Theater and audiences dancing in the aisles at the Apollo. The members of the Sweethearts have had incredible longevity: Helen Jones became a nurse and, like Cron, is in her nineties; drummer Viola Smith is still living at one-hundred-six. Cron, Davis, Burnside and several other members of the ensemble remained active in music following the demise of the band. In some cases, the musicians became part of spinoff groups. But, without a substantial discography, and with little insightful press coverage, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm faded from memory after the 1940s. They may have completely disappeared from jazz history were it not for
Marian McPartland
piano1918 - 2013
Marian McPartland
She was born in 1918, west of London in Slough, England but few artists were more a part of American jazz than pianist and long-time radio host, Marian McPartland (née Turner). Her mother, always mindful of the family's proper English social position, insisted on McPartland's playing the violin. However, at a very young age she began playing piano publicly; from grade school to vaudeville, she entertained World War II troops stationed in England. One of them was American clarinetist Jimmy McPartland, a pioneer in 1920s Chicago jazz whom she met while both were playing in Belgium. In 1945 they married and returned to the U.S. when the war ended. McPartland did not have an easy time establishing herself in the states. In New York, she sought out and befriended
Mary Lou Williams
piano1910 - 1981
Composer, musician, producer, radio host and writer Leonard Feather was known as the "Dean" of jazz critics; in that role, he could have substantial influence over the success or failure of less-established artists. The London-born critic was not without his biases and a self-serving agenda. In the latter case Feather wrote breathlessly positive press releases and reviews for his own compositions and recordings, while insinuating a high degree of objectivity in his analysis. As to his biases, McPartland was on the receiving end of his blunt and dismissive attitude toward women in jazz. According to the journalist Matt Schudel (Washington Post, January 12, 2013) "For years, Marian McPartland was defined by an offhand comment that critic Leonard Feather made in the jazz magazine Down Beat in 1951. McPartland, wrote the British-born Feather, had 'three hopeless strikes against her: She was British, white and female.'"
McPartland's enthusiasm for the art was never dampened by unsubstantiated critique. She founded her own trio in 1951 and while working at The Embers club on 54th Street in Manhattan, she played with legends such as
Roy Eldridge
trumpet1911 - 1989
Coleman Hawkins
saxophone, tenor1904 - 1969
Bill Evans
piano1929 - 1980
Dizzy Gillespie
trumpet1917 - 1993
Lionel Hampton
vibraphone1908 - 2002
Dave Brubeck
piano1920 - 2012
Paul Bley
piano1932 - 2016
Cecil Taylor
piano1929 - 2018
Keith Jarrett
pianob.1945
Randy Weston
piano1926 - 2018
Nellie McKay
vocals
Elvis Costello
vocalsb.1954
Steely Dan
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1972
Norah Jones
pianob.1979
Bruce Hornsby
piano and vocalsb.1954
Alice Coltrane
piano1937 - 2007
JoAnne Brackeen
pianob.1938
Anat Cohen
clarinetb.1975
Renee Rosnes
pianob.1962
Grace Kelly
saxophoneb.1992
Geri Allen
piano1957 - 2017
Esperanza Spalding
bassb.1984
Diane Schuur
vocalsb.1953
Myra Melford
pianob.1957
Carla Bley
piano1938 - 2023
Marilyn Crispell
pianob.1947
Regina Carter
violinb.1966
Hiromi
pianob.1979
Diana Krall
piano and vocalsb.1964
In 1977 Jazz radio producer Diane Gregg and singer Carol Comer hatched the idea for a Kansas City Women's Jazz Festival while returning to their homes in that city, after having attended The Wichita Jazz Festival. The festival debuted the following year, Gregg and Comer bringing in McPartland to perform and to recruit other women artists. Fortunately, McPartland was not one to burn bridges as the festival's emcee was none other than Leonard Feather. Feather had, by this time, come to appreciate McPartland's work and record other female artists as a producer. In 1980 McPartland, now a regular part of the festival's operations contacted the surviving members of The International Sweethearts of Rhythm to propose a festival reunion. Gregg and Comer made it known in advance that the Sweethearts, who had not played as unit in almost thirty years, were not invited to be put on display, or to perform, unless they wanted to jam. The invitation was meant only to honor their achievements, but to no one's surprise, many of the Sweethearts became musically involved, Pauline Braddy picking up the sticks for the first time in more than a decade. McPartland successfully enlisted Carline Ray, Evelyn McGee, Nancy Brown, Willie Mae Wong, Helen Saine, Roz Cron, Anna Mae Winburn and Jesse Stone. Stone—the only male besides Durham to be associated with the group—was their musical director for two years. He later wrote "Shake, Rattle and Roll" under a pseudonym. The earliest of the Kansas City Women's Jazz Festival's brought in many highly regarded artists including Mary Lou Williams and another major talent who had, for a time, walked away from performing,
Melba Liston
trombone1926 - 1999
Melba Liston
In 1933, at the age of seven, Kansas City, Missouri native Melba Liston acquired her first trombone when a traveling music store passed through the city. Liston didn't play the instrument nor did she anticipate the difficulty of learning it, but the next year she was playing solo on local radio programs. Her family moved to Los Angeles where, at sixteen, she joined the Lincoln Theatre's orchestra. Ten years later Liston was playing with
Gerald Wilson
composer / conductor1918 - 2014
John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
John Lewis
piano1920 - 2001
Billie Holiday
vocals1915 - 1959
Disillusioned, Liston gave up performing and took an administrative position with the Los Angeles Board of Education while continuing to write and arrange music and play small roles in several movies, including The Ten Commandments (Paramount, 1956). In 1956 Gillespie was recruited by U.S. State Department's Jazz Ambassadors program. He coaxed Liston back into music for tours of the Middle East and Asia and that experience set Liston off to most successful phase of her career. The following year she again joined Gillespie's band for a South American Jazz Ambassador tour, and—later that year—appeared with him at the Newport Jazz Festival. In 1958 Liston recorded Melba and Her 'Bones (Metrojazz, 1959), her only recording as a leader. She met pianist/composer Randy Weston that same year and that relationship led to a decades-long partnership and ten albums. In the 1960s she also worked with trumpeter
Clark Terry
trumpet1920 - 2015
Charles Mingus
bass, acoustic1922 - 1979
Change
Back to Tia Fuller. In 2019, and in the company of four well-known male Grammy nominees on major labels, the odds were stacked against her. The eighty-five-year-old legend, Wayne Shorter won the category to no one's surprise. Fuller goes on; touring, teaching and, presumably, recording. And for women in jazz, the struggle also goes on. The well-publicized 2017 interview of
Robert Glasper
pianob.1978
Ethan Iverson
pianob.1973
Linda May Han Oh
bass, acousticb.1984
Selected Discography
Hot Licks: 1944-1946 The International Sweethearts of Rhythm (Rosetta, 1984)
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm recorded only four or five sides in the studio but their World War II performances on the Armed Forces Radio Service were captured on reel-to-reel tape. The second-wave of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s rekindled an interest in the group but not until 1984 did the Rosetta label release Hot Licks: 1944-1946: The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a vinyl collection of sixteen songs. The quality of the radio selections is spotty but it's all quite listenable. More important, the collection demonstrates with certainty that the Sweethearts were not a novelty band but a hard-charging swing ensemble. Several CD and digital versions of the album were released on different labels in the 2000s. Some of the same tunes appear on a release, Jubilee Sessions by Big Band Jazz Jubilee Sessions (Hindsight, 2013) featuring a variety of artists.
Marian McPartland: Piano Jazz with Mary Lou Williams (Concord, 2004)
McPartland's Piano Jazz series typically featured the host and her guest alone; an intimate setting with just enough discussion to be enlightening. Apparently unplanned, McPartland's old friend Mary Lou Williams was invited as the program's guest but arrived with bassist
Ronnie Boykins
bass, acousticb.1935
Melba Liston and Her 'Bones(Metrojazz, 1959)
Melba Liston's work as an arranger and composer overshadowed her brilliant trombone playing. Joined here by six other trombonists (seven, on the later CD reissues with bonus tracks), it takes some effort to isolate Liston's solos but having done so, her lyrical improvisations stand out. Players rotate through these compositions—four are Liston originals—and include
Slide Hampton
trombone1932 - 2021
Ray Bryant
piano1931 - 2011
Kenny Burrell
guitar, electricb.1931
Credits
- NBC News Tia Fuller
- Mississippi Encyclopedia
- Swing Shift: All-Girl Bands of the 1940s; Sherrie Tucker (Duke University Press, 2000)
- The Philadelphia Inquirer 14 Dec 1984, Page 110
- Washington Post, Matt Schudel, January 12, 2013
- New York Times, ( John S. Wilson, March 16, 1978
- Black Women in American Bands and Orchestras; D. Antoinette Handy (Scarecrow Press, 1998)
- American Women in Jazz; Sally Plackson (Wideview Books, 1982)
- One O'clock Jump: The Unforgettable History of The Oklahoma City Blue Devils; D.H. Daniels (Beacon Press, 2006)
Tags
Under the Radar
Karl Ackermann
Lil Hardin
Louis Armstrong
Tia Fuller
Esperanza Spalding
Dianne Reeves
Geri Allen
Dave Holland
Adam Rogers
Bill Stewart
Jack DeJohnette
Terri Lyne Carrington
Fred Hersch
brad mehldau
Joshua Redman
Wayne Shorter
Miles Davis
Count Basie
Jimmy Lunceford
Eddie Durham
Benny Moten
Glenn Miller
Marian McPartland
Mary Lou Williams
Roy Eldridge
Coleman Hawkins
Bill Evans
Dizzy Gillespie
Lionel Hampton
Dave Brubeck
Paul Bley
Cecil Taylor
Keith Jarrett
Randy Weston
Nellie McKay
Elvis Costello
steely dan
Norah Jones
Bruce Hornsby
Alice Coltrane
Joanne Brackeen
Anat Cohen
Renee Rosnes
grace kelly
Diane Schurr
Myra Melford
carla bley
Marilyn Crispell
Regina Carter
Hiromi
Diana Krall
Melba Liston
Gerald Wilson
John Coltrane
John Lewis
Billie Holiday
Clark Terry
Charles Mingus
Robert Glasper
Ethan Iverson
Linda Oh
Ronnie Boykins
Slide Hampton
Ray Bryant
Kenny Burrell
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