A Feminist Perspective on New Orleans Jazzwomen
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A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON NEW ORLEANS JAZZWOMEN Sherrie Tucker Principal Investigator Submitted by Center for Research University of Kansas 2385 Irving Hill Road Lawrence, KS 66045-7563 September 30, 2004 In Partial Fulfillment of #P5705010381 Submitted to New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park National Park Service 419 Rue Decatur New Orleans, LA 70130 This is a study of women in New Orleans jazz, contracted by the National Park Service, completed between 2001 and 2004. Women have participated in numerous ways, and in a variety of complex cultural contexts, throughout the history of jazz in New Orleans. While we do see traces of women’s participation in extant New Orleans jazz histories, we seldom see women presented as central to jazz culture. Therefore, they tend to appear to occupy minor or supporting roles, if they appear at all. This Research Study uses a feminist perspective to increase our knowledge of women and gender in New Orleans jazz history, roughly between 1880 and 1980, with an emphasis on the earlier years. A Feminist Perspective on New Orleans Jazzwomen: A NOJNHP Research Study by Sherrie Tucker, University of Kansas New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park Research Study A Feminist Perspective on New Orleans Jazz Women Sherrie Tucker, University of Kansas September 30, 2004 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................ iii Introduction ...........................................................................................................1 Why Study Women in Jazz?.........................................................................1 Congo Square, a case study ........................................................................3 What does it mean to study Gender? ...........................................................6 Goals of this Research Study .....................................................................12 PART I: HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT ................................................21 Time-line: New Orleans Jazzwomen: 1890-1990................................................22 Historical Overview..............................................................................................36 Pre-Jazz New Orleans................................................................................37 1890s: Emergence of Jazz .........................................................................48 Redistricting of Storyville ............................................................................58 Gender and instruments .............................................................................61 Women and piano in early jazz bands ........................................................63 Jazz funerals ..............................................................................................72 Religion, women, and jazz..........................................................................79 Great Migration...........................................................................................83 Cabarets and theaters ................................................................................88 All-woman bands ........................................................................................90 Educators ...................................................................................................92 New Orleans Revival ..................................................................................94 Conclusion..................................................................................................99 Bibliography ......................................................................................................110 PART II: SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL ENTRIES ............................................115 Dolly Marie Douroux Adams .....................................................................116 Lil[lian] Hardin Armstrong .........................................................................124 Love Austin...............................................................................................139 A Feminist Perspective on New Orleans Jazzwomen: A NOJNHP Research Study by Sherrie Tucker, University of Kansas Louisa “Blue Lu” Barker ............................................................................158 Emma “Sweet Emma” Barrett...................................................................168 Wilhelmina Bart de Rouen ........................................................................187 Connie [Connee] Boswell .........................................................................191 Neliska “Baby” Briscoe .............................................................................202 Ann Cook (Johnson) .................................................................................215 Olivia “Lady Charlotte” Cook.....................................................................222 Ann Cooper ..............................................................................................228 Mamie Desdunes......................................................................................236 Yvonne (Miss Dixie) Marther Fasnacht.....................................................245 Mercedes (Garman) Fields .......................................................................254 Edna (Mitchell) Francis .............................................................................262 Bertha Gonsoulin (Bookman) ...................................................................265 Antonia P. Gonzales.................................................................................274 Edna Goodson (Johnson).........................................................................283 Ida Goodson .............................................................................................286 Sadie Goodson (Foster, Peterson, Colar).................................................290 Edna (Landreaux) Hicks ...........................................................................296 Rosalind Johnson .....................................................................................299 Jeanette Salvant Kimball ..........................................................................302 Margaret (A. V. Marshall Maurice) Kimble ................................................314 Lizzie (Landreaux) Miles (Pajaud) ............................................................320 Camille Lucie Nickerson ...........................................................................332 Billie (Goodson) Pierce .............................................................................337 Olivia L’Ange Porter Shipp........................................................................349 Camilla Todd (Haynes) .............................................................................357 More Women in New Orleans Jazz...................................................................361 CONTACTS for fees/permissions .....................................................................364 ii A Feminist Perspective on New Orleans Jazzwomen: A NOJNHP Research Study by Sherrie Tucker, University of Kansas Acknowledgments Numerous researchers, archivists, librarians, curators, musicians, and park rangers provided invaluable help with this Research Study. Most especially, I’d like to thank Tami Albin for being such an invaluable research associate, and the University of Kansas Libraries for releasing her to devote her time on this project for a significant portion of the summer of 2002. I am grateful to Tami for her continued generosity in sharing her research skills beyond that period and throughout the two-year span of this project. Special thanks to Julia Goodfox, my research assistant for the summer of 2002, who set up an incredibly efficient database and into it typed hundreds of entries into manageable form. Independent researcher Garnette Cadogan of New Orleans came to the rescue at numerous critical junctures. Roy Tucker brought a genealogist’s methodology to bear on this project, greatly enhancing the biographical data on little- known artists. Norman Vickers helped out with Pensacola research. Jazz researcher Maxine Gordon volunteered her assistance in New York. I owe a very special thanks to Kay D. Ray, who shared footage of interviews with New Orleans musicians from her forthcoming film project, Lady Be Good: Instrumental Women in Jazz. Kay’s film will go a long way toward correcting the omission of women from our historical knowledge of jazz–and she accurately recognizes the importance of New Orleans women throughout the history of jazz. iii A Feminist Perspective on New Orleans Jazzwomen: A NOJNHP Research Study by Sherrie Tucker, University of Kansas More numerous to name are the people who helped with information, finding, suggesting, and checking leads, recommending books, emailing me details and names, dates and ideas. An incomplete list includes: Lynn Abbott, Thomas Brothers, Mark Cantor, Charles Chamberlain, Dooky Chase, Dixie Fasnacht, Susan Fleet, Steven Forster, Lionel Ferbos, Mickey Gill, Tom Jacobsen, Benjamin and Sandra Jaffe, Karl Koenig, Jasmine Mir, Jon Newlin, George Patterson, Bruce Raeburn, Ione Golden Rasmussen, Tom Stagg, Janna Karen Saslaw, Shirley Thompson, Norman Vickers, and many others. Debra Mouton and Avon Howse were tremendously helpful in providing information about their mother, Neliska “Baby” Briscoe. I’d like to thank Peter Hanley for making his amazing research of New Orleans jazz musicians