The International Sweethearts of Rhythm

(With a credit to the late Rosetta Reitz)

(Much of what we know about women in early 20th Century American music owes itself to the efforts of Rosetta Reitz.  From her Wikipedia bio:

 “Using $10,000 she borrowed from friends, Rosetta Records was established in 1979. She would search for lost music, most often from record collectors. The music that Reitz discovered was usually in the public domain, but she would try to determine if there were any current rights and ensure that royalties were paid to the artists.  Her music collections were built on old 78 rpm records of lesser-known performers including trumpeter and singer Valaida Snow, pianist-singer Georgia White, as well as others, such as Bessie Brown, Bertha Idaho and Maggie Jones. She also found long lost songs from better-known artists such as Ida Cox, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Mae West. Her collecting covered the period from the 1920s to the 1960s, with particular attention to the Blues queens of the 1920s.  She would remaster the recordings, research the background of the artists and write liner notes. She designed the graphics for album covers and included historic photographs.”)

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm (“the Sweethearts”) were founded in 1938 at a Mississippi boarding school for orphaned girls, initially as a way to channel them into something positive, and to teach them valuable skills.  The school’s founder, Laurence C. Jones, started up several musical ensembles over the years, some of which toured quite extensively and made a name for themselves.  Jones also adopted one of the girls at the school, and Helen Jones became the longest-serving member of the Sweethearts.

In 1941 the band went independent, and Anna Mae Winburn took over the role of bandleader, where she remained until they disbanded in 1949.  During that time they achieved a measure of fame and performed with some of the biggest male acts of the time including Dizzy Gillespie.  Winburn had previously led jazz ensembles that included men, one of whom was the legendary Charlie Christian.  When people wanted to compliment the Sweethearts, they said “they play like men”. 

The Sweethearts were far ahead of their time in being not only integrated, but multiracial—the band included Asian, Latina and Native American members.  That, of course, brought a host of challenges in dealing with racism.  In a bizarre reversal of roles, the white members of the band had to try to pass as mulatto in order for the band to avoid being arrested for breaking segregation laws.  Hotel restrictions meant they often lived out of their bus while touring.  While a lot of male musicians thought highly of them, the media world and label power-brokers did not treat them as seriously as they deserved.  This limited their recording opportunities, leaving us with unfortunately little material.

“She’s Crazy with the Heat” (1945)

A straight-up high-energy jazz number, with several short solos.  You can see that they could swing with any of the male bands of the time.  They would go on to start incorporating other styles into their playing, as you’ll see in the next two clips.

“I Left My Man!”

Anna Mae Winburn sings and conducts.  The lead melody of the main verse could well have been the inspiration, directly or indirectly, for many later blues and rock songs, including John Mayall’s “Dust my Blues”, Cream’s version of the old Robert Johnson classic “Crossroads”, and even Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll”. 

“Jump Children”

Starting at exactly 1:00 of this clip, there is a sequence that, for all intents and purposes, is full-blown rock and roll (including the lyrics “My baby rocks me…”), only missing the electric guitar.  It’s almost eerie.