The Apollo Theatre, New York. The audience is on their feet, dancing to the unique rhythms that all-male, white big bands would later hire black arrangers to copy. Energy pulses and throbs as they swing through the moves this new dance form demands; vibrates the building. Louis Armstrong and Eddie Durham stand in the wings, smiling broadly as Ernestine "Tiny" Davis takes off in a riveting solo. The premier all-women big band, The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, push the fevered audience to new levels as Edna Williams, Willie Mae Wong, and Ruby Lucas up the ante on "Swing Shift".

In 1937, the Piney Woods Country Life School of Mississippi founded the 16-piece band known as The International Sweethearts of Rhythm. The purpose of the band was to financially support the school, which educated the poor and orphaned black children in that state. But in 1941, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm severed their ties with the Piney Woods Country Life School, moved to Virginia and recruited seasoned professionals to join their band. Included in this group of professional musicians were Anna Mae Winburn, who previously had been singing with and directing an all-male orchestra, singer/trumpeter Ernestine "Tiny" Davis, and alto saxophonist Roz Cron. They toured the United States extensively, with the high points of their tour being the Apollo Theatre in New York, the Regal Theatre in Chicago, and the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C., where their debut set a box office record of 35,000 patrons in one week.

This band was unique in that it was both all females as well as a racially integrated group. Latina, Asian, Caucasian, Black, Indian and Puerto Rican women came together and created music that more than held its own in the Swing Era: the musicians and the music they played was admired by their peers, including the likes of Count Basie and Louis Armstrong. Eventually, Armstrong tried (unsuccessfully) to lure trumpet player Tiny Davis away from the International Sweethearts of Rhythm by offering her ten times her salary.

The Sweethearts didn't get as much exposure to mainstream audiences in the South as the all-white, male big bands of their day because of their racial make-up and the atmosphere of violent racism in that region. When they did tour the deep South, the three or four white women in the group would paint their faces dark so the police would not remove them from the bandstand and arrest them. Once, someone told the police the Sweethearts had white people in their band, and the local sheriff came out to investigate. As he came in the front door of the bus, the white women slipped out the back of the bus. Anna Mae recalls, "We put them in a black cab. The driver was so frightened he didn’t even want to drive the girls." Roz Cron was one of the girls. "Nobody thought to take anything. We just ran out of the bus. The three of us had to lie on the floor of the cab and this poor little frightened cab driver raced across town and got us to the train station."

While their exposure to white audiences was somewhat limited, they were extremely popular with black audiences. They gained their highest notoriety during the war years and toured heavily until 1945, when the American male workforce returned and opportunities for women were again curtailed.

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm played big band jazz that cooks. "The Jubilee Sessions," originally recorded for radio broadcasts aimed toward America’s black soldiers serving during 1943 to 1946, provide a rare opportunity to hear these women play. You can hear their arrangements and performances of "Blue Lou," Tuxedo Junction," and "Swing Shift," with soloists Anna Mae Wilburn, Tiny Davis, Helen Saine (baritone sax), Vi Burnside (tenor sax), and drummer Pauline Braddy. It is available on Hindsight Records, P.O. Box 7114, Burbank, CA 91510. You can also hear them on Rosetta Records’ CD, "The International Sweethearts of Rhythm" (available through most major music retailers).

Two documentaries have been made to date on these outstanding women musicians. The first, simply titled "The International Sweethearts of Rhythm", is a collection of rare jazz recordings, live performances, vintage photographs and interviews with 78-year-old Tiny. The second, "Tiny and Ruby: Hell-Divin’ Women," is a portrait of Ernestine "Tiny" Davis, regarded by her contemporaries as a female Louis Armstrong, and her life-companion drummer/pianist Ruby Lucas. They are available through Amazon.com, Oxygen.com and The Cinema Guild (1697 Broadway, Suite 506, NYC 10019, phone: 212-246-5525, email: TheCinemaG@aol.com)

Sweethearts

Ernestine Davis was a member of the Sweethearts.