NRR Project: The International Sweethearts of Rhythm (1944-1946)

  

NRR Project: ‘Hottest Women’s Band of the 1940s’

Performed by the International Sweethearts of Rhythm

Recorded 1944-1946; released 1984

49:07

Wow! This is a real find.

This is the story of the first integrated all-female jazz band in the United States. And they were GOOD. Before you do anything else, listen to this recording – it swings like all get-out!

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm were formed at the Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi in 1941. This group of young (14 to 19-years-old) musicians came together for a specific purpose – to raise money for the school. This they did, until they broke away from the institution and went professional.

Composed of white, Black, Latina, Asian, Native American, and Puerto Rican members, the group toured and performed with a 17-member conplement. They faced the usual trouble working for Southern audiences; many times, the white players would have to “black up” to make their performing possible. They were refused service at hotels and restaurants. They were paid miserably.

The group only stuck together for a few years. Deaths, marriages, the rigors of traveling, and other factors contributed to the group’s demise. By 1949, the band had broken up.

Thanks to jazz historian and producer Rosetta Reitz, archival recordings of the band via such mechanisms as the Armed Forces Radio Service were uncovered and committed to vinyl in 1984. Eighteen tracks are all that survive of their output, but it is enough. They were outstanding.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Your Land’.