Valaida Snow

Valaida Snow also known as "Little Louis" and "The Queen of the Trumpet" has been compared to Louis Armstrong and was one of the pioneers for women jazz artists. Snow was born in 1904 in Chattanooga Tennessee and was taught by her mother to play multiple instruments including cello, bass, banjo, violin, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone. She ultimately became famous on vocals and trumpet. Valaida Snow toured and performed mostly in Asia and then Europe but did stay in the US in 1931 when she toured with Rhapsody in Black (with Pike Davis's Orchestra) and then in 1933 she joined Earl Hines' band in Chicago. She then moved on to front her own all female jazz band with the dancers the Berry Brothers. She had married Ananias Berry in 1929. For the next few years she jumped back and forth between the states and Europe (she was very successful in a production of Blackbirds in London). She also made a few films in Hollywood with her husband in the mid 30's. Her marriage with Ananias Berry came to an end when her previous husband claimed that she was still married to him (the marriage had only lasted a few months and the divorce had been finalized) and she was arrested for bigamy. The stress of the court proceedings and the disapproval of the public (Berry was quite a few years younger than her) took its toll on the the marriage. She then went back to Europe where she toured for a few years and appeared in a few French films.  In 1939 during a stay in Denmark she was arrested by the invading Germans and spent 18 months in a German prisoner of war camp at Wester-Faengle. She was ultimately released and returned to the United States where she remarried to Earl Edwards and continued performing until her death. She is not as well known in the states as in Europe due to the lack of recordings made of her in the US and also because she did not stay in the United States as long as she did in Europe. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage that occurred at the Palace Theater in New York in 1956 at 52 years old.
References:
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/J418900?q=valaida+snow&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

http://female-musician.blogspot.com/2010/04/valaida-snow-1930s-female-jazz-trumpet.html

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/subscriber/article/epm/26292?q=valaida+snow&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6e7ye-fiJA

Critical Listening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj2N18ZfZAY

‪Valaida Snow‪ - Caravan (Ellington), 1939‬

Valaida Snow is singing and plays trumpet. She is backed by a full jazz orchestra. The form in AABA with 12 bar phrases. The piece begins with an introduction by the orchestra then Snow enters with vocals. After singing through the song she enters with a solo on trumpet. The solo has an improvisational feel to it. The orchestra's part becomes freer as well and branches out from its repeated beat that backed Snow while she was singing. Toward the end you can here a few growled notes from Snow on the trumpet, and the notes become sharper, softer and more syncopated.