International Sweethearts of Rhythm

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm were an American jazz orchestra and are regarded as the first racially integrated all-women big band in the United States. The first members met in 1938 at the Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi, a school for poor and Black children, where many pupils were orphans. The bandleader was at first the school's founder and director, Laurence C. Jones. In 1941 the women continued as a professional orchestra and broke with the school. They settled in Arlington, Virginia.

Music and breakthrough

The members came from varied backgrounds, including Latina, Asian, white, Black and Native American, and that gave the band its international name. Eddie Durham wrote the first arrangements, Jesse Stone took over in 1941 and brought in experienced musicians to help the younger players. The orchestra played swing and jazz in theatres such as the Apollo in New York, the Regal in Chicago and the Howard in Washington. In 1941 they set a box-office record at the Howard with thirty-five thousand visitors in a week. They also made short films for cinemas. Because of the racial laws of the South they lived partly on their bus.

Influence

In 1944 DownBeat magazine named them the best women's orchestra in America. Maurice King led the orchestra after Stone, and in 1948 they played together with Dizzy Gillespie. The band showed that women could lead a top-level big band, and was later rediscovered when Marian McPartland brought them to a festival of women jazz musicians in 1980.

Listening

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