International Sweethearts of Rhythm

International Sweethearts of Rhythm
Also known asSweethearts of Rhythm
OriginPiney Woods, Mississippi, U.S.
GenresJazz
Years active1937 (1937)–1949 (1949)
LabelsRosetta

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was an American jazz ensemble, believed to be the first racially-integrated all-female band in the United States.

During the 1940s, the band featured some of the best female musicians of the day.[1] They played swing and jazz on a national circuit that included the Apollo Theater in New York City, the Regal Theater in Chicago, and the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C.[2][3] After a performance in Chicago in 1943, the Chicago Defender announced the band was "one of the hottest stage shows that ever raised the roof of the theater!"[4] They have been labeled "the most prominent and probably best female aggregation of the Big Band era".[5] During feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s in America, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm became popular with feminist writers and musicologists who wanted to highlight previously-overlooked contributions from female musicians.

  1. ^ Sher, Liz (Spring 1987). "The International Sweethearts of Rhythm". Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women. 4 (1): 59–60. ISSN 0741-8639.
  2. ^ Berger, Jon (2000). "Remembering the Sweethearts of Rhythm". www.womanrock.com. Archived from the original on March 7, 2008. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  3. ^ Reitz, Rosetta (1990). "Sweethearts on Parade". In Hickok, Gloria Nando (ed.). The Helicon Nine Reader: A Celebration of Women in the Arts. Kansas City: Helicon Nine Editions. p. 325. ISBN 9780962746000. OCLC 24068468.
  4. ^ Daniels, Douglas Henry (2006). One O'clock Jump: The Unforgettable History of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press. p. 197. ISBN 9780807071366. OCLC 55800901.
  5. ^ Albertson, Chris (November–December 2000). "The Girls Could Swing, Too". The New Crisis. 107 (6): 48. ISSN 1559-1603.