This album mixes brilliant original compositions by Scott with the accompaniment of the incomparable Jones/Lewis big band. Recommended album: Rhoda Scott in New York (with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra) Now residing in France, Rhoda continues to perform live with her female-majority band We Free Queens. She studied at Manhattan School of Music in New York, graduating in 1967 with a first class master’s degree, a grand prize and special mention.Ĭount Basie ‘discovered’ her and booked her at his jazz club in Harlem. Rhoda Scott is one of a small minority of jazz Hammond organ players to use their feet for bass even whilst playing fast swing (another notable example being Barbara Dennerlein) – most other players use left hand bass and rely on a guitarist for chordal support. This album is Melba Liston’s debut as a leader and features a standout track in What’s My Line Theme which is slowly swung and transposed down. Recommended album: Melba Liston and Her ‘Bones (1959) She later recorded with the legendary tenor saxophonist, as well as working with Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Billie Holliday, but gave up life on the road for a career in education – in part due to her despondency about the indifference of audiences. Primarily self-taught but encouraged by her guitarist grandfather, she played on a local radio station at the age of 8 before moving to LA where she was a classmate of Dexter Gordon. Melba Liston was the first woman trombonist to play in 1940s/50s big bands (aside from those all-female bands). This album features Williams’ trademark rhythmic juxtaposition, something which has been described as a hallmark of Monk’s playing too. Recommended album: Mary Lou Williams (1964) Read more about this iconic female pianist here. Looking back on her life, she commented “I did it, didn’t I? Through muck and mud.” She recorded more than a hundred records in her career and was a mentor to legends such as Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie. Williams is one of only three women to appear on Art Kane’s iconic photograph A Great Day In Harlem, the other two being Marian McPartland and Maxine Sullivan. The list of collaborators reads like a who’s who of jazz Jack Teagarden, Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gillespie, Hank Jones, Earl Hines, Benny Goodman… The following year she played with Duke Ellington in The Washingtonians. One of the first women to be successful in jazz, she began her professional career in 1922 at age 12. Of course, we could have picked many more than 10, but hopefully these will provide an interesting springboard to discover more great musicians.Ĭertainly nobody could argue that the provenance of these women is not equally as glittering as that of their male collaborators. Guest author: Pianist and singer Wendy Kirkland has been a mainstay of the UK Jazz scene since the late noughties and is part of the Women In Jazz Media network. Besides well-known jazz vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan, female instrumentalists have been there, pulling their weight, since Louis Armstrong’s wife Lil Harin graced the piano back in the 1920s.īut whilst these women in jazz didn’t necessarily need any accolades for doing their job, perhaps now it’s time to celebrate them and the part they played in shaping the music.
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