American Women in Jazz

Book excerpt: Here, for the first time, is the rich and diverse history of women jazz musicians, from rural tent shows and local dance halls to urban theaters and the vaudeville stage, from the steamboats of St. Louis to wartime army bases, from big bands and small combos to the yearly Women's Jazz Festival in Kansas City and New York's Salute to Women in Jazz. Based on three years of extensive research and nearly seventy-five personal interviews, American Women in Jazz presents profiles of over sixty women, set in the context of the musical and social history of the times, many of whom have never before had a chance to tell their story or to speak as honestly, completely, and with such feeling as they do now.