During World War II, with thousands of men shipping off to war, half a dozen all-female, instrumental big bands toured around America. It was a rarity in a musical world dominated by men and, for the most part, their stories have been erased or minimized in jazz history.
Jazz Night in America host Christian McBride has spent years tracing the history of some of these bands and notes that during this flourishing time for all-women groups, the 17-piece International Sweethearts of Rhythm had the most formidable level of popularity.
"They were probably the first all-female band taken seriously," McBride says, explaining that the Sweethearts were boundary breakers in more ways than one. As an integrated ensemble, the Sweethearts often faced obstacles when touring the Deep South. McBride spoke with Rosalind Cron, a saxophonist in the Sweethearts, about the band's experiences on the road.
"I hadn't heard the Jim Crow laws," Crons remembered. "And we were on a trip going straight down to the Deep South. They told me I had to have a story if I was stopped — what my parents were like, where were you from and that sort of thing — and I made up a story that my father was white and my mother was black."
As McBride says, the most touching part of reliving these times with Cron was that none of her harrowing experiences made her bitter. "She feels like she went through that so these days could be better," he says.
The legacy of the Sweethearts, and other all-females acts like The Coquettes, lives on today with big bands led by women. McBride says the Sweethearts paved the way from the 1950s through the modern era to present-day bands like the DIVA Jazz Orchestra.
From YOUTUBE, here's a video of the band.
WIKIPEDIA offers:
The original members of the band had met at Piney Woods Country Life School, a school for poor and African American children, in Mississippi in 1938.[7] The majority who attended Piney Woods were orphaned children, including band member Helen Jones, who had been adopted by the school's principal and founder (also the Sweethearts' original bandleader), Dr. Laurence C. Jones.[8] During a 1980 Kansas City Women's Jazz Festival interview, band member Helen Jones explains that the very existence of International Sweethearts of Rhythm was the direct result of Dr. Jones's vision, who in the 1930s had been inspired by Ina Ray Hutton's Melodears to create an all-girl jazz band at Piney Woods.[7] Always having been an entrepreneur when it came to fundraising, in the early 1920s, Dr. Jones supported the school by sending an all-girl vocal group on the road. Following the fundraising successes of the all-girl vocal group and several other Piney Woods musical groups, in 1937 he formed the Swinging Rays of Rhythm, an all-girl band led by Consuela Carter. The band toured extensively throughout the East raising money for the school. According to the group's saxophonist and bandleader, Lou Holloway, the Swinging Rays of Rhythm took over as the new all-girl swing band in residence at Piney Woods after April 1941 when the Sweethearts began traveling cross-country.[9] Holloway also reveals that the Swinging Rays were understudies of the Sweethearts, and they would even go so far as to perform for the Sweethearts whenever the Sweethearts were forced to attend school because they had been missing too many classes.[10] Indeed, in 1941 several girls in the band fled the school's bus when they found out that some of them would not graduate because they had been touring with the band instead of sitting in class.[11]
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Wednesday, April 17, 2019. War Hawk Neera Tandem rounds up her fellow War Whores to defend her from journalism.
Neera Tanden is causing a stink yet again. She's Tweeted that her mother is a stupid idiot who doesn't understand either the press or how a phone works -- hanging up was not an option because her foreign mother is so stupid and NYT was just so evil to the old woman. That's what Neera says anyway. Neera's mother is no delicate flower and if she can handle the stink off Neera, she can handle anything. (By the way, non-stop phone calls saying, "She really does stink, doesn't she?" Yes, no joke, she does. And for people like myself who have a strong sense of smell, she's been offensive for years. Soap and water, Neera, daily.) And Neera's little War Hawk buddies from the Democratic Party are rushing to prop her up including the joke that is Paul Krugman. Paul, you are a joke.
Here's a typical Tweet. See the problem?
Neera Tanden is causing a stink yet again. She's Tweeted that her mother is a stupid idiot who doesn't understand either the press or how a phone works -- hanging up was not an option because her foreign mother is so stupid and NYT was just so evil to the old woman. That's what Neera says anyway. Neera's mother is no delicate flower and if she can handle the stink off Neera, she can handle anything. (By the way, non-stop phone calls saying, "She really does stink, doesn't she?" Yes, no joke, she does. And for people like myself who have a strong sense of smell, she's been offensive for years. Soap and water, Neera, daily.) And Neera's little War Hawk buddies from the Democratic Party are rushing to prop her up including the joke that is Paul Krugman. Paul, you are a joke.
Here's a typical Tweet. See the problem?
I thought the tone of the his story was weird because he was so clearly outraged for Bernie. Just as bad, if not worse, no one at the NYT edited or asked Vogel to rewrite it.
Ken Vogel once requested Chelsea Clinton’s school transcripts, using an FOIA form.
His story?
Elizabeth Williamson and Kenneth P. Vogel (NEW YORK TIMES) reported that story. Over the years in the US, we've come to expect that women's work is disappeared but if you ever think that's just done by men, grasp that women contribute as well -- women like Amy Mullen who write women like Elizabeth Williamson out the story.
I'm also not sure why Amy Mullen's is grasping the pearls over Kenneth Vogel asking fo Chelsea's transcripts. He's in his early forties so Chelsea was clearly an adult. It appears he requested that as Hillary was making her second run for president. That's perfectly fine and Amy Mullen is just a pathetic drama queen who's going to throw anything out there in her lust to protect her beloved Neera.
Faux feminism. If it weren't for faux feminists, the US might not have any at all. Faux feminists are just concerned that women get into spots that men hold. They're not concerned with real feminist issues. They're break the ceiling gals who want the status quo because they're too limited to imagine anything better.
Hold on though, we're not done with the stupid f**ks.
The NYT story on Neera Tanden should never have brought her mom into it. And whether you agree with Neera's views or not, her aggressiveness is one of her biggest strengths and would be lionized if she were a man.
Feminist Brian Fallon. Really, "Aggressiveness is one of her biggest strengths and would be lionized if she were a man"? Well he did work for Hillary so possibly that's where he learned that crap. But, no, Brian, aggressiveness is not admired in anyone. No one, in this day and age, says, "Thank goodness he's aggressive in the work force!" No one says that you stupid idiot.
Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, admitted to the NYT that she assaulted an editor at her own organization for posing a mild question about the Iraq War to Hillary Clinton. nytimes.com/2019/04/15/us/…
Brian, you know what you're really doing? You're making a lot of us want to explore your boy Mayor Pete whose racism is well known in the community he represented. So as his racist gentrification program becomes a story, remember you did your part to make it one by attacking a legitimate journalism article.
Good summary.
Oh, look, nutty Rosa Brooks. Well of course. Neera did send out that e-mail asking everyone to Tweet her defense and so we're seeing those who are compromised rush forward. Rosa, for those who've forgotten, proposed that journalists be registered. I'd settle for inoculated but Rosa has always been an Orwellian nightmare.
She's a War Whore who has gotten by on her mother's reputation because she has no accomplishments of her own. She's a cheap little whore who is either too much of a liar or too stupid to know history. "Would you run an article about a male . . ."
Oh, Rosa, you old dirty whore, stop pretending you are a feminist or that you know anything.
Rosa, we get it, you're an old whore who tires easily. But stop playing the 'woman' card because you're not a feminist and you have no grasp on history -- recent or otherwise. You're just a dirty whore who came forward to defend a dirty whore named Neera. May you both find an afterlife that is as destructive as what the two of you have done to the world.
Oh, look, disgusting Gwen Ifill's cousin pops up to defend Neera. Gwen, the dead closet case who made nice with Condi -- cooking with Condi, remember, will always be the ultimate media whore who laughed in real time when Iraqis were shot up by Blackwater, who made jokes about it on the air. You'd think that would be enough to make the whole family leave public life. But if you think that, you're giving more thought to it than that pathetic family ever did.
NEW: Last week, @AmProg reached out to reporters to pick apart @BernieSanders’ “Medicare for All” plan.
* @AmProg has its own plan, which, unlike Bernie’s, reserves a role for private insurance cos. (like those that have previously donated to @AmProg).
THANKS, MOM! @NeeraTanden says she’s not out to get @BERNIESANDERS & wants unity among Democrats.
Neera’s mom, OTOH, says her daughter believes Bernie “got a pass” in 2016, “but he’s not getting a pass this time.”
BACKSTORY: In 2008, @NeeraTanden set up what she thought would be an easy interview for @HillaryClinton with @Faiz Shakir, then editor of @ThinkProgress.
But Faiz asked about the Iraq War.
Later, Neera punched him & asked “Who the f— do you think you are?”
THE POLITICS: @BernieSanders’ broadsides against @AmProg seem designed to rally his base by casting the group as an avatar of the corrupt Democratic establishment that deprived him the 2016 nomination & to signal that he won't abide a repeat of 2016.
Aleppo’s recognized 1350-year-old Umayyad Mosque that was
almost completely destroyed by war in Syria was one of the oldest
historical mosques that got destroyed.
That's a more polite way of speaking about an issue that has touched off rage. WHen I saw the Tweets on Monday night I wondered about it. And then yesterday I heard what? US student after US student talking about the tragedy. And it is true that there had been no US attention and mourning for the things lost in the Middle East. That's in part because Americans aren't taught about those historic buildings. Mostly, we learn about them when they're destroyed, if we ever learn about them. Those in the Arab world who feel that Notre Dame gets in one hour more attention and sympathy than the destruction of a major mosque does in six months are correct.
The following sites updated:
