[Dixielandjazz] Now A Black Female Orchestra? 'not really

[Marek Boym]

Wow,
All that interest in all-girl orchestras all of sudden!
Some time ago, Hans Koert in his Swing Blog recommended "Take-off," a
book on American All-Girl Bands During WWII.  I've bough the book
(have not yet read it in full), and it clearly states that the
International Sweethearts of Rhythm was a racially mixed group.  Last
Thursday, our host put on videos by Ina Ray Hutton's Melodears, The
International Sweethearts of Rhythm (which clearly showed both black
and white players), and another pretty good band the name of which I
cannot recall.  The Sweethearts were by far the best of the bands
represented.
The book comes with a CD featuring Ina Ray Hutton, Valaida Snow and
the Sweethearts.  While the sound on some numbers is pretty awful, the
music is of very high quality.
Cheers
On 5 February 2011 01:14, Bert Brandsma <mister_bertje at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> There has been a TV documantary many years ago about the Sweethearts that I happened to tape on video.
> Not in the beginning but in later years there were also white female musicians in that band. One of them was interviewed in that program and told about the tensions that gave.
> They did one tour to Europe and that band was mixed, includin whites.
>
> >From Wikipedia :
>
> The International Sweethearts of Rhythm made two coast-to-coast tours in their bus. As a racially mixed band, they defied the Jim Crow laws of the South. The white women in the band wore dark makeup on stage to avoid arrest.[12][13] Despite being stars around the country, when the band traveled in the South all of the members ate and slept in the bus because of the segregation laws that prevented them from using restaurants and hotels. (Unquote)
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Bert Bandsma
>
>> From: bhaesler at bigpond.net.au
>> Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 09:47:30 +1100
>> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Now A Black Female Orchestra? 'not really
>> CC: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>> To: mister_bertje at hotmail.com
>>
>> Dear listmates,
>> I have been taken to task, Off Line, by Dixiejazzdata for supporting Bert Brandsma.
>> > There are many HIGH Yellow Black Americans as a result of mixed breeding in those days
>> > and even today. And in those days they would not be allowed to play in White Orchestras either.
>> >
>> > There are however other statements in publications that also claim Chinese and whites,
>> > however looking at the available youtubes and photographs I have been able to find,
>> > I am hard pressed to find an all White women in them. Certainly not impossible but
>> > highly improbable that white musicians of that era would work and travel with a Black band
>> > given the conditions to which they were subjected.
>>
>> So, once again, I should not have relied on my failing memory regarding a non-mouldy fig subject.
>> *>)
>> In checking Linda Dahl's 'Stormy Weather. The music and lives of a century of jazzmen) I found that
>> "The International Sweethearts of Rhythm got its start as a fund-raising for the Piney Woods School in Mississippi. Piney Woods was a boarding school for poor and orphaned children - mostly blacks but including other minorities.....'We had Mexicans, Chinese girls and others, so it was the "International" Sweethearts' emphasised Judy Bayron, an original member of the band......The increasing excellence of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm attracted not only good professional jazzwomen but also white players who wanted to work with this most prominent women's band. But integration brought the usual headaches; any obvious mixing of the races was virtually against the law in most of the South, where the band performed frequently."
>> 'Jazzwomen. 1900 to the present. Their words, lives and music' by Sally Placksin tells a similar story.
>> Kind regards,
>> Bill.
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