Women in jazz

Women in jazz throw contributed throughout the many eras of jazz history, both as performers in addition to as composers, songwriters together with bandleaders. While women such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald were famous for their jazz singing, women name achieved much less recognition for their contributions as composers, bandleaders and instrumental performers. Other notable jazz women include piano player Lil Hardin Armstrong and jazz songwriters Irene Higginbotham and Dorothy Fields.

History

With women’s suffrage at its peak with a ratification of the United States Nineteenth Amendment on 18 August 1920 and the development of the liberated flapper persona, women began to make a sum within society. In the "Jazz Age", women took a greater element in the workforce after the end of the First World War, giving them more independence. In the Jazz Age and during the 1930s, "all-girl" bands such(a) as the Blue Belles, the Parisian Redheads later the Bricktops, Lil-Hardin's All-Girl Band, the Ingenues, the Harlem Playgirls led by the likes of Neliska Ann Briscoe and Eddie Crump, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Phil Spitalny's Musical Sweethearts, "Helen Lewis and Her All-Girl Jazz Syncopators" as well as "Helen Lewis and her Rhythm Queens were popular. There were numerous more possibilities for women in terms of social life and entertainment. Ideas such as equality and freer sexuality began to spread and women took on new roles. The 1920s saw the emergence of numerous famous women musicians including African-American blues singer Bessie Smith 1894–1937, who inspired singers from later eras, including Billie Holiday 1915–1959 and Janis Joplin 1943–1970. In the 1920s, women singing jazz music were not many, but women playing instruments in jazz music were even less common. Mary Lou Williams, so-called for her talent as a piano player, is deemed as one of the 'mothers of jazz' due to her singing while playing the piano at the same time.

Lovie Austin 1887–1972 was a piano player and bandleader. Pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong 1898–1971 was originally a point of King Oliver's band with Louis Armstrong and went on to play piano in Armstrong's band the Hot Five and then his next group, the Hot Seven. Valaida Snow 1904–1956 became so famous as a trumpet player that she was requested as "Little Louis".

It was non until the 1930s and 1940s that many women jazz singers such as Billie Holiday were recognized as successful artists in the music world. Billie Holiday’s music rose to fame coming after or as a calculation of. the Great Depression. She, along with several male artists, added a new flavor to the sounds of jazz that become known as swing music. This music brought in heavier usage of a band of instruments as well as many artists then began playing music in addition to already singing. These women were persistent in striving to make their names known in the music industry and lead the way for many more women artists to come.

While jazz songwriting has long been a male-dominated field, there have been a few notable women jazz songwriters. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?". I Can't give You Anything but Love, Baby".

Don't Explain" with Arthur Herzog, Jr. and she penned the blues song "Fine and Mellow".

Besides earlier singers like Miriam Makeba or Dorothy Masuka, women in innovative South African jazz are trombone player Siya Makuzeni, pianist and vocalist Thandi Ntuli, or pianists Lindi Ngonelo and Lindi Ngonelo.