History Through the 1920s -- Great Depression -- World War II -- Postwar Years -- 1960s & 70s -- 1980s-Present

• prior to the late 1800s, women typically studied the piano, harp, guitar, and voice; musical activities were non-professional and centered on the home
• the musical roots of jazz included work songs, spirituals, gospel, and blues -- forms in which African-American women were "active innovators and participants"
• in the early 1900s, both black and white females performed in ragtime and vaudeville bands as performers (primarily pianists) and composers; they also found work in family bands, circuses, carnivals and tent shows
• the "blues queens" (e.g., Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey) "starred on the recordings that launched the blues recording industry, thus providing settings for many of the earliest recorded jazz solos by such instrumentalists as Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, and Sidney Bechet."
• women served as pianists in early jazz bands in cities such as New Orleans (e.g., Sweet Emma Barrett, Jeanette Kimball) and Chicago (e.g., Lil Hardin Armstrong, Lovie Austin)
• in the black press in the 1920s, women instrumentalists (other than pianists) began to be recognized (e.g., Dyer and Dolly Jones)

Great Depression

• during the Great Depression of the 30s, women workers were fired to provide jobs for men
• a need for diversion in difficult times resulted in an alternate economic system provided by nightclubs and other venues for jazz musicians, both male and female
• women worked as pianists in men's jazz bands
  • in Kansas City, certain women (e.g., Mary Lou Williams, Margaret "Countess" Johnson) exerted their influence on swing music
• all-female groups, both black and white, became popular during this time
• some women led male bands (e.g., singer Blanche Calloway, clarinetist Ann Dupont)
• women were featured players of instruments associated with men, especially if they could provide more than one type of entertainment (e.g., singing and dancing as well as playing an instrument -- e.g., Valaida Snow, the "Queen of the Trumpet," sang and danced as well)

  "... women are never hired because of their ability as musicians, but as an attraction for the very reason that they are women, ... more of quote

World War II

• gender roles shifted because of the war
  • "You've got to play, that's all. They don't think of you as a woman if you can really play. I think some girls have an inferiority complex about it and this may hold them back. If they have talent, the men will be glad to help them along. [And] working with men, you get to think like a man when you play. You automatically become strong, though this doesn't mean you're not feminine."
    --Mary Lou Williams (Quoted from Stormy Weather, p.67)
    
• at the same time the men were drafted to war and leaving jazz bands, there was more demand for dance music
• women were employed in men's bands to fill the gaps
  • "When I was in my teens, I went with some friends to hear Woody Herman's band, and there, in the trumpet section, was a woman. We looked at Billie Rogers as if she had three heads and marveled that she could even finish a chorus."
    --Nat Hentoff, 1979 (Quoted from Stormy Weather, p.79)
• female big bands "acquired a new patriotic image and were even popular entertainers on USO shows"
• black troops launched letter-writing campaigns requesting the all-girl band "International Sweethearts of Rhythm" to travel to Germany under the aegis of the USO
• there were USO tours by white women groups as well (e.g., Ada Leonard's "All-American" Girls)

Postwar Years

• "I've never found it an advantage to be a girl. If a trumpet player is wanted for a job and somebody suggests me, they'll say 'What, a chick?' and put me down without even hearing me… I don't want to be a girl musician. I just want to be a musician."
  --Norma Carson, trumpeter, 1951 (Quoted from Stormy Weather, p.85)
  
• while men returned home to former jobs, women were expected to become full-time housewives and mothers
• many women moved into musical fields traditionally considered "appropriate" for women, such as music education or accompaniment -- some instrumentalists changed from reeds and brass to piano or organ
• postwar musical trend was toward smaller groups playing in nightclubs instead of ballrooms
• some women from all-women bands formed smaller groups that remained active
• some women (e.g., Clora Bryant) worked as freelance soloists in nightclubs
• television brought employment for some, especially white all-girl bands (e.g., Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears)
• women instrumentalists participated in jazz activities associated with the civil rights movement (e.g., Alice McLeod Coltrane, Amina Claudine Myers)

1960s & 70s ("Second Wave Women's Movement")

• women's consciousness is raised about the importance of documenting their lost history and cultural activities
  • "When I started out, I had the wish, the need, to compete with men. But I don't feel that way anymore. I take pride in being a woman."
    -- Marian McPartland, 1973 (Quoted from Stormy Weather, p.75
    
• new audience are created for women's jazz performances
• women's jazz festivals developed in the late 1970s
  • first Women's Jazz Festival was held in Kansas City in March 1978
• Stash Records released anthology of historical recordings and radio broadcasts featuring women in jazz
• all-woman groups and big bands returned to popularity in the 1970s (e.g., Sisters in Jazz, Maiden Voyage)
• negative attitudes persisted, even among male jazz musicians
  • "Jazz is a male language. It's a matter of speaking that language and women just can't do it." --Anonymous Male Jazz Pianist, 1973 (Quoted from Stormy Weather, p.3)
    

1980s - Present

• many well-respected female musicians keep on blazing the trail on brass, reeds, and drums, as well as instruments traditionally considered "feminine"; they also persist in raising eyebrows when they mount the bandstand
• still overwhelming evidence that women jazz musicians do not receive the same encouragement or opportunities as do men of comparative skill
• research into the history of women in jazz proliferates: numerous books were published in the 80s; Rosetta Reitz founded a record company dedicated to reissuing historical jazz and blues recordings by women; documentary films focused attention on the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
• International Women in Jazz Inc was founded in 1995 in New York
• "Sisters in Jazz" mentorship program is part of the International Association of Jazz Educators
• many Web sites focus on contemporary female jazz artists
  

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