Thelma Terry

Thelma Terry (actually Thelma Combes ; born September 30, 1901 in Bangor , Michigan ; † May 30, 1966 ) was an American jazz musician (bassist and band leader, also singer) of the 1920s, whose recordings, according to Allmusic, are outstanding examples of classic Chicago jazz apply.

Live and act

Combes had moved to Chicago with her mother after her divorce. The mother worked as a housekeeper in a wealthy family who worked in the music business. Thelma attended Austin High School (from which the Austin High Gang descended, a group of later well-known jazz musicians) and was a member of the Chicago Women's Symphony Orchestra as a double bassist when she was 18 . In jazz she played the double bass in the style of Steve Brown (her main influence) and Wellman Braud . She performed with an all-girl band (Thelma Combes and her Volcanic Orchestra) in the early 1920s and worked in the Colosimo's Orchestra in 1925 (the club of the same name was run by the well-known mobster Jim Colosimo ; it belonged to Al Capone ), and in 1926 in Café Vanity Fair at Howard Osborne. In 1927 the Music Corporation of America had a band put together for Combes, with whom they performed in Chicago at The Golden Pumpkin in the West Madison district. MCA chose the pen name Thelma Terry and advertised her as "The Beautiful Blonde Siren of Syncopation" , "The Jazz Princess" and "The Female Paul Whiteman " .

Thelma Terry and Her Playboys was a nine to ten-member ensemble, which u. a. at times Floyd O'Brian , Bud Jacobson , Bud Freeman , Gene Krupa , Charles Dornberger and Bob Zurke belonged. Terry recorded six tracks in two sessions for Columbia Records in 1928 , including: a. Most popular daily hits like "Dusky Stevedore", "How Low Can You Go", "Lady of Havana", "Mama's Gone, Good Bye", "Starlight and Tulips", "The Voice of the Southland (Keeps Callin 'Me Home) "And" When Sweet Susie Goes Steppin 'By ". Also in 1928, Terry recorded with Cliff Edwards ("Good Little, Bad Little You"). Columbia planned to issue Terry as a film actress, and had her in the 1929 sound film Broadway Scandals (directed by George Archainbaud) in a supporting role; an international tour was also planned with the band, which was to begin in Berlin in 1929.

The cooperation with the exclusively male band colleagues turned out to be extremely difficult, as Terry did not meet the role expectations of her fellow musicians and they did not take her seriously in her role as band leader. A contemporary witness commented on the reasons for the membership of some men in the band:

"Only played in the band because they wanted to get into (Thelma's) pants."

"Only played in the band because they wanted to come in (Thelma's) panties."

Tired of touring, she spontaneously married Willie Haar, the owner of a winter sports resort where the band performed, while staying in Savannah . Thelma Terry then disbanded the band; their daughter Patti was born in 1931. The couple split in 1936 and Terry returned to Michigan to attempt a comeback , but failed. She lived in Miami from the early 1950s and returned to Michigan at the end of the decade. She died of throat cancer in 1966 .

In 1998 demo recordings were discovered for the 1928 sessions in which Terry interpreted a vocalese version of Bix Beiderbecke's solo in "Singin 'the Blues" (1927).

Appreciation

Scott Yanow pointed out in his book Jazz on Records Terry's exceptional situation in the (male-dominated) jazz scene of that time; In the 1920s, very few female musicians had the opportunity to record. Women usually played the piano or the violin; That a bassist (and a bassist at that) led a recording session was very unusual for the time. Brian Rust , who already referred explicitly to Thelma Terry and the Playboys in his monograph on dance bands , judged in his liner notes for the compilation The Chicago Hot Bands 1924–1928 :

“This band […] is certainly one of the most remarkable in the history of jazz and dance music for being led by a winning, attractive young lady. Nothing special, one might object; there were other bands led by similarly handsome girls ... but Thelma Terry wasn't a cuddly figurehead; she played the double bass most of all, and did so with the taste and confidence associated with male exponents of the instrument like Pops Foster , Joe Tarto , Steve Brown, John Kirby , Wellman Braud, Bill Johnson ... A look at the staff of this one two recording sessions shows that the big names of Chicago jazz were gathered here, who mainly played instrumental versions of popular themes of the era. "

Discographic notes

• The Chicago Hot Bands 1924–1928 ( Timeless Records )
• The Obscure and Neglected Chicagoans (IAJRC)
• How Low Can You Go: Anthology of the String Bass (1925–1941) (compilation, 2007), with Steve Brown, Thelma Terry, Wellman Braud, Pops Foster, Walter Page , Milt Hinton

Lexical entry

• Scott Yanow: Jazz on Record: The First Sixty Years . Backbeat Books 2003, ISBN 0-87930-755-2

Web links

• Portrait of Thelma Terry of the Combs family
• Portrait and discography at Red Hot Jazz
• Thelma Terry at Allmusic (English)
• Thelma Terry at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Thelma Terry at Allmusic (English)
2. ↑ Portrait at Solid! ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Portrait at Red Hot Jazz
4. ↑ Charles A. Sengstock: That Toddlin 'Town: Chicago's White Dance Bands and Orchestras, 1900-1950 . 2004, p. 167
5. ↑ The 19-year-old Krupa had his recording debut on March 29, 1928 with Terry's Playboys .
6. ↑ Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed November 21, 2014)
7. ^ Scott Yanow: Jazz on Record: The First Sixty Years . 2003, p. 71
8. ↑ cf. Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen. London: Quartet Books, 1984, p. 22
9. ↑ Portrait of Thelma Terry of the Combs family