How 'Bout That Jive
April 21, 2019 7:27 AM   Subscribe

Let's listen to Ernestine "Tiny" Davis and the integrated, all women's band the International Sweethearts of Rhythm tear it up with a body-positive love song from 1947, How 'Bout That Jive.

Davis and her partner of 40 years, Ruby Lucas, are the subject of the documentary Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women. Both accomplished musicians, they ran the bar Tiny and Ruby's Gay Spot in Chicago in the 1950s.
posted by jedicus (8 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
OMG! that two trumpet attack was awesome!
posted by evilDoug at 7:44 AM on April 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


It's not everyday that you get to discover something that you had absolutely no idea ever existed.

This is one of them.

What a find!
posted by growabrain at 7:57 AM on April 21, 2019


The documentary that the Ernestine "Tiny" Davis link is clipped from is available on Kanopy and features interviews with several of the band members.
posted by carsonb at 9:15 AM on April 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


The only good reason to ever wear blackface:

The Sweethearts didn't get as much exposure to mainstream audiences in the South as the all-white, male big bands of their day because of their racial make-up and the atmosphere of violent racism in that region. When they did tour the Deep South, the three or four white women in the group would paint their faces dark so the police would not remove them from the bandstand and arrest them.

This is incredible. The whole story.
posted by amanda at 10:33 AM on April 21, 2019


This is fantastic!

By the way, the link directs to immediately after How 'Bout That Jive ends... though the song queued up is also great, it's not the body-posi goodness that was promised. That starts at 11:10.
posted by polymath at 10:34 AM on April 21, 2019 [3 favorites]


Mod note: Fixed the timestamp, thanks.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 12:28 PM on April 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


NPR just did a story on them a few days ago, and it was pretty great!
posted by gryftir at 5:53 PM on April 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


YouTube helpfully recommended this video of the 2011 Smithsonian panel with five of the surviving Sweethearts that was mentioned in the Oxford American article.
posted by mubba at 1:39 PM on April 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


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