Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Lauren Wood
Pawlak
MUS231 Sec. 1
28 March 2016
Presentation of Women in Jazz
In the October edition of Down Beat, Ted Toll wrote an article questioning the value of
female jazz singers. In the article, “Gal Yippers Have no Place in [Jazz] Bands”, Toll gives many
reasons for his argument stemming from his points that women are just there to “give the band
some much needed sex appeal” and they cannot “chirp a tune without causing the boys behind
them to wince as if being their ear-teeth were being yanked by the roots” (Toll). Although this
may be true, based on the other sources, it seems as if Toll’s viewpoint was starting to become a
In his article, Toll gives a definition of jazz similar to the one given in class. “Vocal jazz
was originally sounded in the form of the blues, which was, and still is a purely emotionally
inspired outpouring of words” (Toll). With this definition, Toll makes it very clear that women,
with the exception of few, such as Billie Holiday, do not have the ability to sing as well as men
because “they’ve been…preparing themselves either for the kitchen or the career” (Toll). With
this he is implying that if women were to focus all their energy on jazz, they could become as great
as the men who “have been under the influence of negro music the longest” (Toll). In the case of
Billie Holiday, a woman who is commended by Toll on her vocal ability, neither of these is true.
She started singing as a way to get a job because her and her mother were “so hungry they could
barely breathe” (Dexter). In other words, the vocals that Toll praises did not come about because
she was immersed in negro culture, she sang because it was a literal necessity to survive not
Although she did not start out having the goal of becoming one of the most successful jazz
vocalists, male or female, she did become immersed in the environment of jazz, which Toll says
is “the only [way to give] insight into what went into making good jazz” (Toll). This is evidenced
by the many male bandleaders with whom Holiday had worked, among them Count Basie, Artie
Shaw, and Benny Goodman. Working with these men, especially Artie Shaw, who was “jealous
of the applause [Holiday] got when [she] made one of [her] few appearances”, was not easy for
Holiday (Dexter). And based on her account of Artie Shaw, it seems as if he saw Holiday as a
threat to his stardom rather than a “beautiful pair of legs”, which contradicts Toll’s argument that
women were only there because of their looks, but even if Shaw did see Holiday this way, the
audience did not, based on the loud applause she would get after her performances (Dexter).
One of Toll’s main points is that women were on stage to look “awful cute” or because
“[women] have the ability to appear as if they were seducing the microphone, a technique which
is naturally going to appeal to the local yokel” and make him spend more money in the bar (Toll).
Even though in most cases this was, and still is true, I do not see how this could cause women to
be subpar jazz vocalists. The scenario above sounds similar to the way crooners were described
in class; a man who ‘crooned’ into the microphone in a way that would make the women in the
audience go crazy. Using Toll’s definition of a good jazz vocalist against him, one could argue
that the way women would seduce the microphone is a “purely emotional” reaction that is
“inspired” by the words being sung, making the reaction from both the singer and the audience
Women being used only as eye candy on a jazz stage seemed to be a viewpoint that was
slowing down toward the later parts of 1939. In one of the October volumes of Down Beat, many
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women were mentioned, some had articles written about them, and there were also many pictures
with captions mentioning their skills, not only looks. For example, a girl named Adrienne got a
rather large picture with part of the caption reading that Joe Sanders “…had a hard time convincing
this one that she should sing with his band. She’s also a pianist of no mean ability” (Down Beat).
Anita Boyer gets a mention, also with a picture, that mentions her education at Northwestern as
well that she was the “only girl singer Tommy [Dorsey] featured, making her job more than tough.
That she has succeeded is vouched for by Tommy himself-who declares Anita is set as long as she
wants the job”. Because her education background is mentioned, it shows that the editors of Down
Beat don’t think of female jazz vocalists as just a “pair of beautiful legs” and neither does Tommy
Dorsey, who vouched for her hard work (Down Beat). And Ella Fitzgerald is mentioned with the
simple caption “still the top favorite with musicians…in Down Beat’s poll” (Down Beat). They
don’t mention which musicians, or gender categories, just that she is a favorite among all
musicians, even beating out Billie Holiday. Pictures are shown of all the women mentioned above,
showing that looks do matter, but they are by no means the only reason women are on stage with
Whether people agreed or disagreed with Toll’s viewpoint on women, he presented his
argument in an organized, logical way that did have some valid, albeit fairly easy arguable, points.
As for the validity of his viewpoints, who am I to say whether or not they were valid? If he believes
that women should have no place as jazz vocalists, that is his prerogative. Whether I, or anyone
else agrees with him is the important thing. I’m sure there were many people then, just as I’m sure
there are many people today, who think women should not have a place as jazz vocalists, but there
are, and it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon.