What a photo, right? Pretty sweet. It's just three members of a seventeen piece jazz band from the forties. Okay, so it's three women who happen to be in a jazz band. Novel, but no big deal. Get this: all seventeen band members were women. The topper? It was a mixed race band, and they toured through the South in the forties. When Jim Crow laws still existed. Oh yeah, one other thing: they kicked ass.
They're the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, and the term "international" is right. The band consisted of women who were Chinese, Hawaiian, Mexican, black, and white, and one member who was half black and half Navajo. Holy shit. How is it that I lived through one shitty inconsequential band after another, for decade after decade, without hearing about them? Their mere existence was consequential. An all-women mixed race band, in the forties, in the South. And they did it anyway. Beat that.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:International Sweethearts of Rhythm - Podcast profile mp3 at NPR
Video:
International Sweethearts of Rhythm - Four song clip at YouTube
International Sweethearts of Rhythm - Documentary trailer at YouTube
Visit:
International Sweethearts of Rhythm - Excellent profile at Oxford American
International Sweethearts of Rhythm at Wikipedia
International Sweethearts of Rhythm at NPR
International Sweethearts of Rhythm - Documentary site DVD for sale
No comments:
Post a Comment