Features Clora’s great horn , voice and, oh yes, on piano, Roger Fleming, bassist Ben Tucker, and drummer Bruz Freeman, Walter Benton on tenor and trumpeter Normie Faye
She toured with Billie Holiday, and she is the only woman trumpet player who ever recorded with Dizzy Gillespie and played with Charlie Parker.
The ladies haven’t finished their work. It’s still hard for a young lady to be properly recognized for talent with an instrument. We have to mention male names for reference to the trumpet, don’t we? I’m being harsh because it’s common for musicians to mention with whom they played. It’s their resume.but these recordings show talent equal to Charlie and Dizzy. Where were her trips to Europe? To say ladies like Clora and Marian McPartland were breaking ground is an understatement. It was more like concrete. It still is.
if you came here looking for an Wiki on Clora Bryant, here it is.
There is another place where anyone should be proud to be as well, Old Dominion University did this exhibition on Women in Jazz
Another place she is showing up is
THE GIRLS IN THE BAND a film by One Step Productions tells the “poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 30′s to the present day.“
Here is an excellent article about Clora by Judy Tweet who has a new book called WOMEN WHO DARED
This is a very good interview with a great lady:
This sweet video shows the mentor:
Reasearch always turns up a surprise or two, like this poem for Clora by Professor McNair We like his panache whatever that it is. Did I say we? There I go again. There are just Tigger and me and these chickens.
We have decided, Tigger and I, that you want more music from more of the ladies in this blog starring women featured in THE GIRLS IN THE BAND.
The Girls in the Band Produced by Judy Chaikin, Michael Greene, Nancy Kissock. Executive producer, Greene. Co-producer, Hugh M. Hefner. Directed by Judy Chaikin. Written by Chaikin, Edward Osei-Gyimah
david michael jackson july 19,2012 editors@artvilla.com send caramel kisses