Ina Ray Hutton

Let us first salute the title, given by the publisher, and undoubtedly also by Jean-Paul Ricard and Jean Buzelin, co-responsible for this edition: Jazz Ladies, and not Women in Jazz as in the past, or even “girls » as was also the case. Not the “women” of jazz, a term that is used everywhere, but the “ladies”. We do say “ladies and gentlemen” after all. This time, the ladies are entitled to three CDs, one more than usual. The tenacity of Jean-Paul Ricard, a great specialist on the subject for years, collector of records and CDs, therefore produces its effect, and it is with pleasure and a certain amazement that we see the list of instrumentalists lengthening female who has practiced jazz. And again, the usual rights reasons limited the selection to the year 1962. We suspect that if we could go to the present day, we would need a good dozen cakes. Because, even if the figures do not seem to indicate a break in the famous “glass ceiling”, the presence of “ladies” is not weakening, and is even strengthening. Let us add that female singers are not included in this selection, except obviously the cases (not rare at all) of instrumentalists whom the producers pushed into singing, for financial reasons.

Back in the 1930's, band promoters started an all girl band called Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears. Their growing popularity inspired many other all girl bands to form during WWII, such as Rita Rio and Her Mistresses of Rhythm, and the Lorraine Page Orchestra. This documentary is a collection of the three all girl bands' performances.

Alois Maxwell "Al" Hirt (November 7, 1922 – April 27, 1999) was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million-selling recordings of "Java" and the accompanying album Honey in the Horn (1963), and for the theme song to The Green Hornet. His nicknames included "Jumbo" and "The Round Mound of Sound". Colin Escott, an author of musician biographies, wrote that RCA Victor Records, for which Hirt had recorded most of his best-selling recordings and for which he had spent much of his professional recording career, had dubbed him with another moniker: "The King." Hirt was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in November 2009.