International Sweethearts of Rhythm
American all-female jazz band / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was an American jazz ensemble, believed to be the first racially-integrated all-female band in the United States.
International Sweethearts of Rhythm | |
---|---|
Also known as | Sweethearts of Rhythm |
Origin | Piney Woods, Mississippi, U.S. |
Genres | Jazz |
Years active | 1937 (1937)ā1949 (1949) |
Labels | Rosetta |
During the 1940s, the band featured some of the best female musicians of the day.[1] They played swing and jazz on a national circuit that included the Apollo Theater in New York City, the Regal Theater in Chicago, and the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C.[2][3] After a performance in Chicago in 1943, the Chicago Defender announced the band was "one of the hottest stage shows that ever raised the roof of the theater!"[4] They have been labeled "the most prominent and probably best female aggregation of the Big Band era".[5] During feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s in America, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm became popular with feminist writers and musicologists who wanted to highlight previously-overlooked contributions from female musicians.