Billie Rogers
Billie Rogers , as Zelda Louise Smith (born May 31, 1917 in North Plains , Oregon , † January 18, 2014 ) was an American jazz trumpeter and singer of swing . With Valaida Snow, she was one of the first female jazz trumpeters. Her involvement with Woody Herman broke a barrier for female instrumentalists (as opposed to female singers) in big bands in the USA.
Rogers came from a family of musicians, grew up in Rainier (Washington) and attended high school in Renton (Washington) . She started on the piano and learned to trumpet when she was eight. Her older brother Les (Lester Smith 1913-1936) was also a musician who led the band at the University of Montana in Missoula, where Billie Rogers also studied and played. But he died of appendicitis as a student in 1936. In 1941 she married Guy C. Rogers. She played in vaudeville and dance orchestras. From 1941 to October 1943 she played with Woody Herman and His Orchestra . The contact came through her future husband Jack Archer (1919–1962, married in 1944 in Chicago, both had a daughter born in 1959), who was Woody Herman's road manager and who had heard her in an all-female band in Culver City , in the Rogers bridged the time to get her Los Angeles union license. In 1944 she led her own all-male big band ( Billie Herman Orchestra ) on the east coast, managed by Jack Archer, and was then with Jerry Wald until October 1945. She then led her own sextet. She also played with the Tommy Pederson big band at the Palladium in Hollywood in the 1940s .
She later retired from musical life in the 1950s. Her husband Jack Archer had his own agency in New York City and worked mainly for rhythm and blues after the big band era .
She recorded with her orchestra (1944) as well as with that of Herman, Pederson and Wald.
literature
- Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather , Limelight 1996
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rogers, Billie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Smith, Zelda Louise (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz trumpeter and swing singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 31, 1917 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | North Plains , Oregon |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 18, 2014 |