Influential Women in Jazz
By: Audrey Luecken
Since the
creation of Jazz music, it has been dominated by men. Rarely were women artists
even heard of until the 1920s and 30s. With the birth of women being able to
vote and countless other rights granted this lead to women having more confidence
to pursue their dreams. One way to help describe the role of women in jazz
would be to talk about the most famous women. Women like Mary Lou Williams,
Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald all had struggles growing up but were able
to achieve their dreams. All of these women are remember for their famous
voices and classic hits.
From a very
early age Mary Lou Williams played the piano. She grew up in Pittsburg as one
of eleven children. She took her talent and became a professional pianist in
the 1920s as a teenager and then served as the chief arranger and soloist for
Andy and Kirk’s great string orchestra. She can be defined as a triple threat;
she was a pianist, composer, and arranger. She did it all. Because of how
diverse she was it is extremely difficult to put her into particular style. In 1954
she took a break from music to pursue religious and charitable interests but
soon after went back to recording. After playing for many years she became a
piano teacher. Although she was influential while she was recording music, this
time in her life allowed her to reflect back. It allowed her to show others her
passion and why she did what she did. She showed women that they could hold
leadership positions in jazz. To quote Duke Ellington, “She is like soul on
soul.”
This is an
audio recording of Mary Lou Williams’s famous song Roll Em.
Another
influential woman is jazz was Billie Holiday. Interestingly enough, Billie
Holiday is not her real name; it is Eleanora Fagan Gough. She decided to change
it because of her affections for the film star Billie Dove. In her early days
Billie grew up in Baltimore with her mother singing in local clubs. “According
to her own story, she was recruited for a brothel and was eventually jailed
briefly for prostitution,” said PBS. Her mother then moved to New York when
Billie was in her teens and she decided to go with her. It was there that she
played along rising stars like Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong. In 1935 she
caught a big break when she recorded four sides. Her most famous hits were
“What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and “Miss Brown to You.” Those tracks helped
her to get a recording contract of her very own. She then started working with
Lester Young who gave her the famous nickname “Lady Day.” In the next two years
she worked with Count Basie and then Artie Shaw where she became one of the
first black women to work alongside a white orchestra. Throughout her later
years she traveled Europe and then made her final recording in March of 1959.
An impressive fact is that Billie never had any technical training for her
voice. She just started singing and was a very quick learner. She is mostly
remembered for her innovative techniques of singing and her emotional
performances. She truly is the greatest jazz singer of all time.
This is a video of Billie Holiday singing What a Little
Moonlight Can Do from 1958. This was one of her biggest hits and helped launch
her career.
“Dubbed ‘The
First Lady of Song,’ Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in
the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13
Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums,” according to her own website.
That alone is an astounding accomplishment but her story did not come without
troubles. When Ella was young her mother passed away from a car accident. She
took it very hard and ended up in a reform school. She hated it and managed to
escape but this was also during The Great Depression and luck was right around
the corner. “Ella’s name was pulled in a weekly drawing at the Apollo and she
won the opportunity to compete in Amateur Night,” according to her own website.
From then on her career skyrocketed and her first single was “Love and Kisses.”
When Ella was 21 she recorded a song for the famous nursery rhyme “A-Tisket,
A-Tasket;” that song sold over one million copies and stayed on the number one
on the pop charts for 17 weeks. Throughout her life she encountered
discrimination but was able to overcome it. She toured the world spreading joy
and music everywhere she went. Beside music, Ella had a passion for child
welfare and made numerous donations to organizations for disadvantaged
youth. She also started her own
foundation called, “The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation.” This
organization helped children to grow a love for reading as well as helping out
families financially in many ways. She had a true passion for music and that
helped carry her to achieve many other ideas she had later on in her life.
This is a video of Ella Fitzgerald’s cover of A-Tisket,
A-Tasket, most people would say this was her first big hit.
All of these
women were vital to the effort of making women better known in the world of
jazz. They each had their struggles but where able to overcome them and achieve
their dreams. Then they gave back to the community in whatever ways they could.
This is what makes them truly beautiful women, not only the fact that had
stunning musical voices but that they wanted to help change the world for
women.
Primary Sources
"Biography: First Lady of Song." The Official
Web Site of Ella Fitzgerald. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/about/biography.html>.
Lizama, Dominic, and Patrick Howard. "About Billie
Holiday." Billie Holiday: The Official Site of Lady Day.
Ed. Michael Nagel and Matt Graves.
CMG Solutions, 7 Apr. 2000. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.billieholiday.com/about/biography.htm>.
Placksin, Sally. American Women in Jazz: 1900 to the
Present : Their Words, Lives, and Music. New York:
Reich, Howard. "Celebrating the Most Influential Woman
in Jazz: Mary Lou Williams at 100." Chicago
Tribune. Chicago Tribune:
A&E, 02 Aug. 2010. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-08-02/entertainment/ct-live-0803-jazz-women-
20100802_1_mary-lou-williams-williams-contributions-pianist>.
The Kennedy Center. "Understanding Jazz: Women in
Jazz." Understanding Jazz: Women in Jazz.
The
Kennedy Center, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.vsarts.org/programs/jazz/ambassadors/Lesson8.html>.
Tucker, Sherrie. "Women in Jazz: History in the Key of
Jazz." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 13
Nov.2012.<http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_williams_mary_lou.htm>.
