Biography
With female jazz musicians already uncommon, Anna Mae Winburn occupied an even scarcer position as the director of one of the few all-female ensembles in the music’s past. The Second World War created the opening by pulling large numbers of male players out of action, allowing women fresh professional chances that extended to jazz performance. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm emerged in this climate and quickly gained notice through arrangements supplied by Jesse Stone and Eddie Durham. The ensemble originated in 1939 at the Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi yet made its first public appearance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. Initially assembled on an amateur footing to benefit the Mississippi institution, the band later broke those ties, relocated northward, and recruited seasoned musicians to strengthen its sound. Winburn connected with the organization several years afterward and assumed leadership beginning in 1941. Earlier she had worked alongside Lloyd Hunter, the inventive Mississippi bandleader, arranger, and composer who periodically assembled all-female units. She had fronted the Lloyd Hunter Serenaders and participated in additional Hunter ventures.
Her background lay in Nebraska, where she ranked among the handful of women directing territory bands whose routes and followings stayed confined to neighboring states. In that setting she guided the Cotton Club Boys out of Omaha, a unit that once featured guitarist Charlie Christian. After becoming a Sweetheart she remained in the director’s chair until the group disbanded in the late 1940s. The roster comprised trumpeters Ernestine “Tiny” Davis, Ray Carter, Johnnie Mae Stansbury, and Edna Williams; saxophonists Marge Pettiford, Amy Garrison, Helen Saine, Grace Bayron, Willie Mae Wong, and Viola Burnside; trombonists Judy Bayron, Helen Jones, and Ina Bell Byrd; and a rhythm section of bassist Lucille Dixon, guitarist Roxanna Lucas, pianist Johnnie Mae Rice, and drummer Pauline Braddy. Evelyn McGee divided vocal duties with Winburn, who sometimes found herself occupied directing rather than singing. Upon first encountering the collective, Winburn reportedly remarked, “I don’t know whether or not I can get along with that many women or not.”
The band became the first racially integrated women’s orchestra and performed mainly for black listeners in theaters and ballrooms across the country. During one 1941 engagement at the Howard Theater it established a new box-office mark by drawing 35,000 patrons in a single week. Its achievements reached beyond attendance figures, however, uniting Latina, Asian, Caucasian, Black, Indian, and Puerto Rican musicians whose playing stood alongside the finest swing-era work. Fellow artists including Count Basie and Louis Armstrong held the group in high regard; Armstrong even attempted to recruit trumpeter Davis by offering ten times her current pay. Southern bookings proved limited because regional promoters favored all-white male orchestras, and white members of the Sweethearts applied blackface when touring below the Mason-Dixon line to avoid arrest on stage. The ensemble appeared in the 1946 film Jump Children. Decades later, interest persisted, yielding documentary films such as The International Sweethearts of Rhythm and Tiny and Ruby: Hell-Divin’ Women.
Her background lay in Nebraska, where she ranked among the handful of women directing territory bands whose routes and followings stayed confined to neighboring states. In that setting she guided the Cotton Club Boys out of Omaha, a unit that once featured guitarist Charlie Christian. After becoming a Sweetheart she remained in the director’s chair until the group disbanded in the late 1940s. The roster comprised trumpeters Ernestine “Tiny” Davis, Ray Carter, Johnnie Mae Stansbury, and Edna Williams; saxophonists Marge Pettiford, Amy Garrison, Helen Saine, Grace Bayron, Willie Mae Wong, and Viola Burnside; trombonists Judy Bayron, Helen Jones, and Ina Bell Byrd; and a rhythm section of bassist Lucille Dixon, guitarist Roxanna Lucas, pianist Johnnie Mae Rice, and drummer Pauline Braddy. Evelyn McGee divided vocal duties with Winburn, who sometimes found herself occupied directing rather than singing. Upon first encountering the collective, Winburn reportedly remarked, “I don’t know whether or not I can get along with that many women or not.”
The band became the first racially integrated women’s orchestra and performed mainly for black listeners in theaters and ballrooms across the country. During one 1941 engagement at the Howard Theater it established a new box-office mark by drawing 35,000 patrons in a single week. Its achievements reached beyond attendance figures, however, uniting Latina, Asian, Caucasian, Black, Indian, and Puerto Rican musicians whose playing stood alongside the finest swing-era work. Fellow artists including Count Basie and Louis Armstrong held the group in high regard; Armstrong even attempted to recruit trumpeter Davis by offering ten times her current pay. Southern bookings proved limited because regional promoters favored all-white male orchestras, and white members of the Sweethearts applied blackface when touring below the Mason-Dixon line to avoid arrest on stage. The ensemble appeared in the 1946 film Jump Children. Decades later, interest persisted, yielding documentary films such as The International Sweethearts of Rhythm and Tiny and Ruby: Hell-Divin’ Women.