Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc. Newsletter In This Issue Jazz Women Blues Women Quick Links Newsletter Archive Related Topics More On Us IN PURSUIT OF A MELODY by Joan Cartwright Also, available online Get the whole story of how WOMEN IN JAZZ brought jazz music to the world. Cartwright's book chronicles the lives of several women who were notable singers and instrumentalists in America and around the world. Help Joan launch her book on April 19, 2007 * * * * * Cynthia Strachan Saunders Performance/Presentation Schedule www.jussent.com Celebrating Women's Month March 21 2007 Carver Ranches Library 4735 SW 18 Street West Park, FL  33023      954-985-1945   Pan African Book Festival, Living Histories April 21, 2007 African American Research Library and Cultural Center 2650 Sistrunk Blvd. Ft. Lauderdale, FL  33311    954-625-2800   Mother's Day Celebration Sunday, May 13, 2007 The Chef's Table St. Thomas, US Virgin Island Aikeem Harris 340-776-6120       Gloria Lynne and her Quintet with Greg Skaff, John DiMartino, Leon Dorsey, and Vincent Ector Sing Into Spring Festival Wed-Sun Mar 21-25, 2007 Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola 33 West 60th St., Fl. 11 New York, NY 10023   ****** D A V I S A N D D O W www.davisanddow.com watch our new YouTube video! Thursday March 15 @ 7-10pm @ Flower's, 2345 Wilton Drive, 954-563-7752 Join our list March/2007  Dear Subscriber, This third issue features jazz singer extraordinaire Gloria Lynne and the  "Empress of the Blues" Bessie Smith. This month, we incorporated our non-profit organization, Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc., to promote women who write and perform music, specifically, jazz and blues. I am traveling to China, from March 20 to April 9, to garner support for a jazz festival and music conference that will begin in Beijing and Tianjin, China, in September 2007 and circle the globe by 2009. We hope you will enjoy this edition and we welcome your thoughts, ideas, suggestions and submissions for future issues. CLICK HERE TO READ OUR FIRST NEWSLETTER Visit our sites: http://myspace.com/womeninjazz http://myspace.com/jazzgiants http://www.yicomminc.com/jazzwomen/wij/wijframe.htm http://www.yicomminc.com/jazzmen/jazzmennames.htm Love and music, Diva JC Publisher JAZZ WOMEN   MS. GLORIA LYNNE Born Gloria Alleyne November 23, 1931, in New York City, Gloria Lynne is an American vocalist on several rhythm and blues hits in the 1950s and 1960s. Lynne grew up in Harlem and won first prize at the "Amateur Night" at the Apollo Theater. She recorded as part of groups The Enchanters and The Dell-Tones, in the 1950s. She recorded a a soloist under her birth name, though most of her work was released under her stage name on the Everest Records and Fontana Records labels. In the 1960s she had several hits including "June Night," "Love I Found You," and "I Wish You Love" (1964), which became her signature song. Lynne then toured with Charles, Billy Eckstine and Ella Fitzgerald. Lynne moved into jazz in her later career and performed with many of the jazz greats, including Quincy Jones, Bobby Timmons, Philly Joe Jones, Harry "Sweets" Edison. She was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1997. BLUES WOMEN   Bessie Smith (top: 3rd from left) Born on April 15, 1894, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Bessie Smith was one of ten children. Both of her parents had died by her eighth birthday, and she was raised by her older sister Viola and encouraged to sing and dance by her oldest brother Clarence. He soon joined the Moses Stokes traveling show, leaving Smith and their brother Andrew to sing for pennies on Chattanooga street corners. Clarence later arranged an audition for Smith with the Moses Stokes Company and she was hired as a dancer in 1912. She became friends with an older Moses Stokes veteran, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, who was called the Mother of the Blues and likely exercised some influence over the young singer. Smith had her own voice, however, and owed her success to no one. Her heavy, throaty vocals were balanced by a delightful sense of timing. Her live shows were a blend of comedy and drama in song. Smith was popular in Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore, but she was beloved in the South. In 1923, her vaudeville touring led her to Memphis, where she played packed houses at the Palace Theater on Beale Street. On February 16, 1923, Smith recorded "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Down Hearted Blues," accompanied by Clarence Williams on piano. Although recorded by Memphis singer Alberta Hunter a year before, Smith's "Down Hearted Blues" sold more than 780,000 copies in six months. Her sales made her a blues star on par with Mamie Smith (no relation), a vaudeville singer who had ignited the race records market with her 1920 recording "Crazy Blues." Although Smith recorded extensively for Columbia - nearly 160 songs between 1923 and her last session in 1933 - her live performances were equally successful. During the 1920s she commanded fees of $2,000 a week and played sold-out theaters across the South, North, and Midwest. Her stage success influenced women blues singers like Memphis Minnie, but male blues singers like Leadbelly, who only heard her on record, emulated her too. She recorded with the best jazz sidemen, including pianists Fletcher Henderson and James P. Johnson, clarinetists Benny Goodman and Buster Bailey, guitarist Eddie Lang, saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Don Redman, and cornetist Louis Armstrong. In May 1925, she made the first electronically recorded record, "Cake Walking Babies," by singing into the newly invented microphone. During the Depression of the 1930s, Smith's drawing power in the large cities of the North and Midwest began to wane, but she remained popular in small towns and throughout the South. Furry Lewis proudly recalled playing with Smith in Chicago during the 1930s. She even made an early movie when W. C. Handy asked her to play the lead in a short film called "St. Louis Blues" loosely based on his song. On Sept. 26, 1937, after finishing a performance in Memphis, Smith and her manager were driving south on Highway 61, north of the Crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi, when their car struck an oncoming truck. The crash nearly severed Smith's right arm. She was taken to G. T. Thomas Hospital (now the Riverside Hotel) in Clarksdale where she died the following morning. Bessie Smith died on September 26, 1937, and is buried in Mount Lawn Cemetery in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania. Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc.  is a non-profit organization with the mission of promoting Women in Jazz through contacts, books, articles,  interviews, workshops, lectures, history, recordings, performance and recognition. Sincerely, Joan Cartwright Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc.