[Dixielandjazz] In search of a non-tragic jazz hero

[Gary Lawrence Murphy]

Josephine Baker, now THERE was a true feminist, but I think the
schools may object to the banana skirt ;)  Lil Hardin featured
prominently in our Louis Armstrong show, especially the part where she
had the gumption to take on a cutting contest with Mr Jelly Roll
Morton (and lost, but graciously!)  We do make a point of underlining
the roles of women musicians because there is this nasty perception
out there among kids that "women don't play music" -- I personally
know a great many women who prove that false, and so it is important
to us that the girls at our shows don't go away thinking the best they
can be is a singer or a Lucille.  Valaida Snow is a good choice except
our only female trumpet (who's 13) good as she is, won't be up to the
task for a few years yet (although she is super keen and does both
have a decent instrument and dilligently applies herself to it)  Not
that we actually *play* the role of the character in our stories, just
that it would be nice if we talk about strong women in jazz, that we
have among us a strong jazz woman ;)

We'll get there :)

On 12/9/14, domitype . <domitype at gmail.com> wrote:
> How about some of the more famous women of early jazz - Mary Lou Williams,
> Lil Hardin, Josephine Baker, Blanche Calloway, Valaida Snow, I'm sure there
> are several others. They all had very interesting stories
> (especially Josephine Baker and Valaida Snow!)
>
> Dave Richoux
>
> On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 5:28 PM, Charles Suhor <csuhor at zebra.net> wrote:
>
>> Going back to your criteria below, it seems that you're looking to get
>> (a) the most educational mileage (vis a vis the history of jazz)
>> (b) a good story (some drama in it) that
>> (c) doesn't have basic negativity or a bad role model (alcoholism),
>> (d) with accessible charts for the live band to play as "illustrations."
>>
>> Louis was perfect for this, but a lot of great players don't fill the
>> bill
>> well for one or more of the criteria. As an educator, I'd be focused on
>> (a)
>> as a starting point. Since you've done Louis, maybe swing era figures
>> like
>> the Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, Goodman, or Duke Ellington would meet
>> all the standards. An interesting question--thanks for posting.
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>> On Dec 9, 2014, at 2:24 PM, Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote:
>>
>> > just to be clear, we're not *telling* them about jazz music, we
>> > *demonstrate* the music by playing it for them -- it is a musical
>> > show, so what we need to do is to bring together 15 or so tunes that
>> > can be strung together to tell the story.
>> >
>> > would be very hard to do a Bria Skolberg with myself cast in the lead
>> > role -- even youngsters can only suspend belief so far before it snaps
>> > ;)
>> >
>> > The Dorsey Brothers or even to build a show around Nat Shilkret or
>> > Goldman's band is maybe a workable idea, it binds together what was
>> > happening in the pre-war Chicago that is then channelled into the
>> > swing era by the youngsters in the band!
>>
>>
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