Staff Picks
Jazz Appreciation Month: Women in Jazz
- Chantal W.
- Monday, April 05, 2021
Collection
Jazz is a male dominated field, but women have contributed significantly since it began. Most of the women of Jazz that are well known to most of us (especially those of us who are not aficionados of the genre) do tend to be the vocalists, rather than the instrumentalists. Here is a list of books, music and film to help you learn more about both.
Dianne Reeves
The Early Years.
Published in 2008
This jazz vocalist was featured in 2 programs that originally appeared in 1981 on the television series "Ad Lib."
Etta James
Live at Montreux, 1993
Published in 2012
Etta James made many appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival from her first concert in 1975 through to her last in 2008. Focuses on her concert of July 15, 1993, with bonus performances from earlier appearances at the festival.
The Girls in the Band
Published in 2014
The award-winning documentary film tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, history-making journeys from the late 30s to the present day. The many first-hand accounts of the challenges faced by these talented women provide a glimpse into decades of racism and sexism that have existed in America.
The Girls in the Band - Female Jazz Musicians.
Published in 2016
The award-winning documentary film THE GIRLS IN THE BAND tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, history-making journeys from the late 30s to the present day. The many first-hand accounts of the challenges faced by these talented women provide a glimpse into decades of racism and sexism that have existed in America.. They wiggled, they jiggled, they wore low cut gowns and short shorts, they kowtowed to the club owners and smiled at the customers?and they did it all just to play the music they loved. In the thirties and forties, hundreds of women musicians toured the country in glamorous All-Girl Bands, while others played side by side with their male counterparts. Yet, by the mid-fifties, female jazz musicians had literally disappeared from the workplace, their names and their contributions to music completely forgotten. Today, there is a new breed of gifted young women taking their rightful place in the world of jazz, which can no longer deny their talents.. The film has been of great interest to the general public and has garnered multiple awards and terrific reviews (including a Critics? Pick from The New York Times). Because these incredibly talented women overcame sexism and racism and flourished in the midst of diminished opportunities for decades, THE GIRLS IN THE BAND is the perfect film to highlight Women?s History Month, African American History Month, and Jazz Appreciation Month!. “THE GIRLS IN THE BAND is a film that we all can learn from. It?s an invaluable resource for music teachers; however, its reach is much broader. It can be used to open up discussions about racism, sexism, and several other related topics. Above all it is a story about courage, stamina, and the capacity of people to realize their talents and dreams.”? Judith Gold, Bank Street College of Education.
Great Women Singers of the 20th Century. Abbey Lincoln
Published in 2005
Biography of a great female singer, Abbey Lincoln.
How It Feels to Be Free
Published in 2021
Take an unprecedented look at the intersection of African American women artists, politics and entertainment and hear the story of how six trailblazing performers - Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll, Nina Simone, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier - changed American culture through their films, fashion, music, and politics.
International Sweethearts of Rhythm.
Published in 2015
From the Piney Woods School in the Mississippi Delta to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City, this toe-tapping music film tells the story of the swinging, multi-racial all-women jazz band of the 1940s. A 16 piece band with a strong brass section, heavy percussion, and a deep rhythmic sense, the Sweethearts were not just a novelty but featured many of the best female musicians of the day. Starring Anna Mae Winburn, Ernestine "Tiny" Davis, Vi Burnside, Roz Cron, Evelyn McGee Stone, Helen Jones, Helen Saine, and Pauline Brady, of whom drummer Panama Francis says, "She played drums like a man!" Produced and directed by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss. Produced in association with Channel 4 (UK) "Makes you glad documentaries were invented!"-; Atlanta Journal and Constitution "Each film is excellent in its own way. They serve as powerful testaments to survival and affirmation."-; American Historical Review. "Using cool classic photographs and vintage newsreel footage, these films are deep, informative, and highly entertaining."-; L.A. Weekly "A delightful thirty minute trip down memory lane." -- The New York Times Awards and Screenings First Prize, Festival de Films de Femmes, Paris Prize of International Jury, Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Germany Jury Prize, Leipzig International Documentary Festival, Germany 1986 New York Film Festival, USA Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival, USA Silver Award, Philadelphia Film Festival
Lady Day
The Many Faces of Billie Holiday
Published in 2009
Most presentations feature Lady Day as the sad victim of hard times and drugs. Mining a treasure trove of new information, the producers set the record straight - and beautifully. In a voice that is Billie-like in its rasping wiseness and its ring, stage and screen star Ruby Dee reads from Holiday's autobiography, Lady sings the blues.
Tiny and Ruby
Hell Divin' Women.
Published in 2015
Profiling legendary jazz trumpeter Tiny Davis and her partner of over 40 years, drummer-pianist Ruby Lucas, Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women weaves together rare jazz recordings, live performances, vintage photographs, and narrative poetry by Cheryl Clarke. Tiny's contribution to jazz history is documented in an informal, intimate style in which the 78-year-old demonstrates that her chops and humor are both quite intact. Produced and directed by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss. Produced in association with Channel 4 (UK). Awards and Screenings Audience Favorite Award, San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival 1989 Best Documentary, Festival International de Films de Femmes Paris Silver Plaque Award, Chicago International Film Festival Finalist, American Film and Video Festival 1989 Berlin International Film Festival, Panorama Section
Irrepressible
The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham
Published in 2015
"Raised like a princess in one of the most powerful families in the American South, Henrietta was offered the helm of a publishing empire. Instead, she ripped through the Jazz Age like an F. Scott Fitzgerald character: intoxicating and intoxicated, selfish and shameful, seductive and brilliant, and often terribly troubled. In New York, Louisville, and London she drove men and women wild with desire, and her youth blazed with sex. But her lesbian love affairs made her the subject of derision and drove a doctor to try to cure her. After the speed and pleasure of her youth, the toxicity of judgment coupled with her own anxieties led to years of addiction and breakdowns,"--Novelist.
With Billie
Published in 2012
From Julia Blackburn, an author whose ability to conjure lives from other times and places is so vivid that one suspects she sees ghosts, here is a portrait of a woman whose voice continues to haunt anyone who hears it. Billie Holiday's life is inseparable from an account of her troubles, her addictions, her arrests, and the scandals that would repeatedly put her name in the tabloid headlines of the 1940s and 1950s. Those who knew her learned never to be surprised by what she might do. Her moods and faces were so various that she could seem to be a different woman from one moment to the next. Volatile, unpredictable, Billie Holiday remained, even to her friends, an elusive and perplexing figure. In With Billie , we hear the voices of those people--piano players and dancers, pimps and junkies, lovers and narcs, producers and critics, each recalling intimate stories of the Billie they knew. What emerges is a portrait of a complex, contradictory, enthralling woman, a woman who knew what really mattered to her. Reading With Billie , one is convinced that she has only just left the room but will return shortly.
With Billie
A New Look at the Unforgettable Lady Day.
Published in 2006
The voices of piano players and dancers, pimps and junkies, producers and critics, narcotics agents, friends, lovers, and fellow musicians provide a complete and complex picture of Billie Holiday.
Queen
The Life and Music of Dinah Washington
Published in 2004
"Queen is the biography of the brief, intensely lived life and soulful music of the great Dinah Washington." "A gospel star at fifteen, she was discovered by jazz great Lionel Hampton at eighteen, and for the rest of her life was on the road, playing clubs or singing in the studio - making music one way or another." "Dinah's tart and heartfelt voice quickly became her trademark; she was a distinctive stylist, crossing over from the "race" music category to the pop and the jazz charts. Known in her day as Queen of the Blues and Queen of the Juke Boxes, Dinah was regarded as that rare "first take" artist, her studio recordings reflecting the same passionate energy she brought to the stage. As Nadine Cohodas shows us, Dinah suffered her share of heartbreak in her personal life, but she thrived on the growing audience response that greeted her signature tunes: "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes," "Evil Gal Blues," and "Baby (You've Got What it Takes)," with Brook Benton. She made every song she sang her own." "Dinah lived large, with her seven marriages: her penchant for clothes, cars, furs, and diets: and her famously feisty personality - testy one moment and generous the next. This biography is the first to draw on extensive interviews with family members and newly discovered documents."--Jacket.
Shall We Play That One Together?
The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland
Published in 2012
Swing Sisters
The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
Published in 2015
The story of a group of African American orphans who played in their school's all-girl swing band and after leaving school made "it to the big-time in an era when integrated musical groups were practically unheard of. It wasn't always easy, and it wasn't always safe, but the talented Sweethearts of Rhythm ultimately became an international sensation"--Amazon.com.
The Lady Swings
Memoirs of a Jazz Drummer
Published in 2021
"Dottie Dodgion is a jazz drummer who played with the best. A survivor, she lived an entire lifetime before she was seventeen. Undeterred by hardships, she defied the odds and earned a seat as a woman in the exclusive men's club of jazz. Her dues-paying path as a musician took her from early work with Charles Mingus to being hired by Benny Goodman at Basin Street East on her first day in New York. From there she broke new ground as a woman who played a "man's instrument" in first-string, all-male New YorkCity jazz bands. Her inspiring memoir talks frankly about her music and the challenges she faced, and shines a light into the jazz world of the 1960s and 1970s. Vivid and always entertaining, The Lady Swings tells Dottie Dodgion's story with the same verve and straight-ahead honesty that powered her playing"-- Provided by publisher.
Ella Fitzgerald Live in '57 & '63
Published in 2006
Features Ella Fitzgerald in two distinct performances. The first is the earliest known complete concert of Ella to be captured on film.
The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums
Published in 2017
"Each of the fifty-seven albums discussed here captures the artist at a high point, if not at the expected moment, of her or his career. The individual cuts are evaluated, the sequencing explicated, the songs and songwriters heralded; anecdotes abound of how songs were born and how artists and producers collaborated. And in appraising each album, Friedwald balances his own opinions with those of musicians, listeners, and critics."--Dust jacket flap.
Stormy Weather
The Life of Lena Horne
Published in 2009
The first serious biography of entertainment legend Lena Horne, the star who became one of the first African-American icons. Gavin has gotten closer than any other writer to the celebrity, who has lived in reclusion since 1998. Incorporating insights from the likes of Ruby Dee, Tony Bennett, Diahann Carroll, Arthur Laurents, and several of Horne's fellow chorines from Harlem's Cotton Club, Stormy Weather offers a fascinating portrait of a complex, even tragic Horne--a stunning talent whose frustrations with racism, and with a tumultuous, rootless childhood, left wounds too deep to heal. The woman who emerged was as angry as she was luminous. From the Cotton Club's glory days and the backlots of Hollywood's biggest studios to the glitzy but bigoted hotels of Las Vegas's heyday, this behind-the-scenes look at an American icon is as much a story of the limits of the American dream as it is a groundbreaking biography.--From publisher description.
Is That All There Is?
The Strange Life of Peggy Lee
Published in 2014
"Including interviews with hundreds who knew Lee ... music journalist James Gavin offers the most revealing look yet at an artist of infinite contradictions and layers. Lee was a North Dakota prairie girl who became a temptress of enduring mystique. She was a singer-songwriter before the term existed. 'Lee had incredible confidence onstage, ' observed the Godfather of Punk, Iggy Pop; yet inner turmoil wracked her. She spun a romantic nirvana in her songs, but couldn't sustain one in reality; as she passed middle age, Lee dwelled increasingly in a bizarre dreamland"--Amazon.com.
Queen of Bebop
Published in 2017
Queen of Bebop brilliantly chronicles the life of jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, one of the most influential and innovative musicians of the twentieth century and a pioneer of women's and civil rights. Sarah Vaughan, a pivotal figure in the formation of bebop, influenced a broad array of singers who followed in her wake, yet the breadth and depth of her impact?not just as an artist, but also as an African-American woman?remain overlooked. Drawing from a wealth of sources as well as on exclusive interviews with Vaughan's friends and former colleagues, Queen of Bebop unravels the many myths and misunderstandings that have surrounded Vaughan while offering insights into this notoriously private woman, her creative process, and, ultimately, her genius. Hayes deftly traces the influence that Vaughan's singing had on the perception and appreciation of vocalists?not to mention women?in jazz. She reveals how, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Vaughan helped desegregate American airwaves, opening doors for future African-American artists seeking mainstream success, while also setting the stage for the civil rights activism of the 1960s and 1970s. She follows Vaughan from her hometown of Newark, New Jersey, and her first performances at the Apollo, to the Waldorf Astoria and on to the world stage, breathing life into a thrilling time in American music nearly lost to us today. Equal parts biography, criticism, and good old-fashioned American success story, Queen of Bebop is the definitive biography of a hugely influential artist. This absorbing and sensitive treatment of a singular personality updates and corrects the historical record on Vaughan and elevates her status as a jazz great.
Queen of Bebop
Published in 2017
Queen of Bebop brilliantly chronicles the life of jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, one of the most influential and innovative musicians of the twentieth century and a pioneer of women's and civil rights Sarah Vaughan, a pivotal figure in the formation of bebop, influenced a broad array of singers who followed in her wake, yet the breadth and depth of her impact?not just as an artist, but also as an African-American woman?remain overlooked. Drawing from a wealth of sources as well as on exclusive interviews with Vaughan's friends and former colleagues, Queen of Bebop unravels the many myths and misunderstandings that have surrounded Vaughan while offering insights into this notoriously private woman, her creative process, and, ultimately, her genius. Hayes deftly traces the influence that Vaughan's singing had on the perception and appreciation of vocalists?not to mention women?in jazz. She reveals how, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Vaughan helped desegregate American airwaves, opening doors for future African-American artists seeking mainstream success, while also setting the stage for the civil rights activism of the 1960s and 1970s. She follows Vaughan from her hometown of Newark, New Jersey, and her first performances at the Apollo, to the Waldorf Astoria and on to the world stage, breathing life into a thrilling time in American music nearly lost to us today. Equal parts biography, criticism, and good old-fashioned American success story, Queen of Bebop is the definitive biography of a hugely influential artist. This absorbing and sensitive treatment of a singular personality updates and corrects the historical record on Vaughan and elevates her status as a jazz great.
Queen of Bebop
The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan
Published in 2017
An account of the life of the influential jazz singer and civil rights advocate shares insights into her contributions as an African-American artist, drawing on inside sources to discuss her creative process and challenge misperceptions about her character.
Lady Sings the Blues the 50th Anniversary Edition
Published in 2011
With photos Originally released by Doubleday in 1956, Harlem Moon Classics celebrates the publication with the fiftieth-anniversary edition of Billie Holiday?s unforgettable and timeless memoir. Updated with an insightful introduction and a revised discography, both written by celebrated music writer David Ritz. Lady Sings the Blues is the fiercely honest, no-holds-barred autobiography of Billie Holiday, the legendary jazz, swing, and standards singing sensation. Taking the reader on a fast-moving journey from Holiday?s rough-and-tumble Baltimore childhood (where she ran errands at a whorehouse in exchange for the chance to listen to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith albums), to her emergence on Harlem?s club scene, to sold-out performances with the Count Basie Orchestra and with Artie Shaw and his band, this revelatory memoir is notable for its trenchant observations on the racism that darkened Billie?s life and the heroin addiction that ended it too soon. We are with her during the mesmerizing debut of “Strange Fruit”; with her as she rubs shoulders with the biggest movie stars and musicians of the day (Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Clark Gable, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and more); and with her through the scrapes with Jim Crow, spats with Sarah Vaughan, ignominious jailings, and tragic decline. All of this is told in Holiday?s tart, streetwise style and hip patois that makes it read as if it were written yesterday.
Last Chance Texaco
Chronicles of an American Troubadour
Published in 2021
"A tender and intimate memoir by one of the most remarkable, trailblazing, and tenacious women in music, the two-time Grammy Award-winning "premiere song-stylist and songwriter of her generation" (New Yorker), Rickie Lee Jones. Have you met Ms. Jones? One weekend night on primetime television, a then-unknown singer and vital part of the burgeoning Los Angeles jazz pop scene skyrocketed to fame overnight after a now- iconic performance on Saturday Night Live. The year was 1979, the song "Chuck E's in Love," and the singer, donning her trademark red beret, was the soon-to-be-pronounced "Duchess of Coolsville" (Time), Rickie Lee Jones. Last Chance Texaco is the first-ever no-holds-barred account of the life of one of rock's hardest working women, in her own words. With candor and lyricism Rickie Lee Jones takes us on the journey of her exceptional life: from her nomadic childhood as the granddaughter of vaudevillian performers, to her father's abandonment of the family and her years as a teenage runaway, her beginnings at LA's Troubadour club, to her tumultuous relationship with Tom Waits, her battle with drugs, and longevity as a woman in rock and roll. These are never-before-told stories of the girl in "the raspberry beret," a songwriter who has inspired American culture for decades"-- Provided by publisher.
Soul on Soul
Published in 2020
First time in paperback and e-book! The jazz musician-composer-arranger Mary Lou Williams spent her sixty-year career working in?and stretching beyond?a dizzying range of musical styles. Her integration of classical music into her works helped expand jazz's compositional language. Her generosity made her a valued friend and mentor to the likes of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Her late-in-life flowering of faith saw her embrace a spiritual jazz oriented toward advancing the civil rights struggle and helping wounded souls. Tammy L. Kernodle details Williams's life in music against the backdrop of controversies over women's place in jazz and bitter arguments over the music's evolution. Williams repeatedly asserted her artistic and personal independence to carve out a place despite widespread bafflement that a woman exhibited such genius. Embracing Williams's contradictions and complexities, Kernodle also explores a personal life troubled by lukewarm professional acceptance, loneliness, relentless poverty, bad business deals, and difficult marriages. In-depth and epic in scope, Soul on Soul restores a pioneering African American woman to her rightful place in jazz history. | CoverTitleCopyrightContentsList of illustrationsAcknowledgmentsPrefae to the New EditionIntroduction1. I Dream a World2. Take Me to Froggy Bottom: The Early Musical Years3. From East Liberty (Pittsburgh) to Beale Street (Memphis) to Eighteenth and Vine (Kansas City)4. Until the Real Thing Comes Along: The Andy Kirk Years (1931? 42)5. How Do You Keep the Music Playing?6. Love on a Two-Way Street: Barney Josephson and Moe Asch7. Under the Signs of the Zodiac8. The Calm before the Storm9. The Crossroads10. The Long Journey Back Home11. What a Difference a Day Makes12. A Season of Change13. The Fruits of One's LaborNotesBibliographySelected DiscographyIndexBack cover| Tammy L. Kernodle is a professor of musicology at Miami University of Ohio. She served as associate editor of the three volume Encyclopedia of African American Music and as a senior editor for the revision of New Grove Dictionary of American Music .
Sweethearts of Rhythm
The Story of the Greatest All-girl Swing Band in the World
Published in 2009
A look at a 1940's all-female jazz band, that originated from a boarding school in Mississippi and found its way to the most famous ballrooms in the country, offering solace during the hard years of the war.
Ella Fitzgerald
The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa
Published in 2002
A brief recounting of the career of this jazz musician in the voice of "Scat Cat Monroe."
Little Melba and Her Big Trombone
Published in 2014
"A biography of African American musician Melba Doretta Liston, a virtuoso musician who played the trombone and composed and arranged music for many of the great jazz musicians of the twentieth century. Includes afterword, discography, and sources"-- Provided by publisher.
Red Hot Mama
The Life of Sophie Tucker
Published in 2018
The "First Lady of Show Business" and the "Last of the Red Hot Mamas," Sophie Tucker was a star in vaudeville, radio, film, and television. A gutsy, song-belting stage performer, she entertained audiences for sixty years and inspired a host of younger women, including Judy Garland, Carol Channing, and Bette Midler. Tucker was a woman who defied traditional expectations and achieved success on her own terms, becoming the first female president of the American Federation of Actors and winning many other honors usually bestowed on men. Dedicated to social justice, she advocated for African Americans in the entertainment industry and cultivated friendships with leading black activists and performers. Tucker was also one of the most generous philanthropists in show business, raising over four million dollars for the religious and racial causes she held dear.
Women Drummers
A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country
Published in 2014
"In 1942, drummer Viola Smith sent shock waves through the jazz world by claiming in Down Beat magazine that "hep girls" could sit in on any jam session and hold their own. In Women Drummers: A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country, Angela Smith takes Viola at her word, offering a comprehensive look at the world of professional drumming and the women who had the courage and chops to break the barriers of this all-too-male field. Combining archival research with personal interviews of more than fifty female drummers ... --Publisher description
Women in Jazz
The Women, The Legends & Their Fight.
Published in 2019
This book is about women in jazz. It charts their journeys, celebrates their presence, hears their voices, wonders at their prowess and revels in their being. These are their stories; their views of jazz and how they see the future.
Billie Holiday
The Musician and the Myth
Published in 2015
"Drawing on a vast amount of new material that has surfaced in the last decade, ... jazz writer John Szwed considers how [Holiday's] life inflected her art, her influences, her uncanny voice and rhythmic genius, a number of her signature songs, and her legacy"--Amazon.com.
Shout, Sister, Shout!
The Untold Story of Rock-and-roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Published in 2007