Harlem Playgirls

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Harlem Playgirls were an African-American women's band of the swing era that operated from 1935 to 1940.

history

The band was founded in 1935 by the drummer Sylvester Rice (1905-1984). She resorted to members of the Dixie Sweethearts . The Harlem Playgirls toured mostly in the Midwest ( TOBA Circle). In 1937 and 1938 they performed at the Apollo Theater and in 1938 they won a Battle of the Bands at the Savoy Ballroom in Chicago against the band of Johnny Long. The front women were initially Babe Briscoe (trumpet, vocals) and Eddie Crump. Brisco was from New Orleans and previously worked with Lil Hardin Armstrong and Joe Robichaux . Soloists were Ernestine "Tiny" Davis was 2nd trumpet (and solo trumpeter) and later with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm as well as the tenor saxophonist Vi Burnside. Also the trombonist Lela Julius, who led the band from 1938.

In 1938 the occupation was led by Habe Briscoe:

  • Trumpet: Alice Proctor, Marjorie Ross, Bessie Comeaux
  • Lelia Julius, trombone and guitar
  • Reeds (saxophone / clarinet): Harig Thompson, Margaret Backstrom (tenor saxophone), Violet Burnside (Vi Burnside, tenor saxophone)
  • Orvella Moore, piano
  • Jennie Byrd, drums
  • Gwen Trigg, bass

The musicians also included trombonist Elizabeth King, trumpet players Mary Shannin (1935) and Jean Ray Lee, bassist Mary Backstrom, violinist Pamela Moore, saxophonist Lula Edge and alto saxophonist Madge Fountain, drummer Henrietta Fountain.

The band existed until 1940. That year they went on a three-month tour in the southern states. Many of the members then went to other bands with colored musicians, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the Prairie View Coeds or the Darlings of Rhythm.

literature

  • Linda Dahl Stormy Weather , Limelight 1996, p. 53
  • Sherrie Tucker Swing Shift , Duke University Press 2000
  • Kristina A. McGee Some Like It Hot. Jazz Women in Film and Television 1928-1959 , Wesleyan University Press 2009, pp. 51-56

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the early 1940s she led a male band Dukes of Rhythm in New Orleans. After Frank Driggs , she also sang as Joan Lunceford with the Darlings of Rhythm in the 1940s, another black women's band. Sherrie Tucker Swing Shift , p. 211.Babe Briscoe moved to Cleveland in 1946 and died in 1994.
  2. ↑ Kristina McGee Some Like It Hot , p. 54, according to the cast list in the Chicago Defender