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Swing Shift Sherrie Tucker

Swing Shift By Sherrie Tucker

Swing Shift by Sherrie Tucker


$6.88
Condition - Very Good
Out of stock

Summary

The story, based on extensive individual interviews, of the women's swing bands that toured extensively during World War II and after -- a kind of League of their Own for jazz.

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Swing Shift Summary

Swing Shift: All-Girl Bands of the 1940s by Sherrie Tucker

The forgotten history of the all-girl big bands of the World War II era takes center stage in Sherrie Tucker's Swing Shift. American demand for swing skyrocketed with the onslaught of war as millions-isolated from loved ones-sought diversion, comfort, and social contact through music and dance. Although all-female jazz and dance bands had existed since the 1920s, now hundreds of such groups, both African American and white, barnstormed ballrooms, theaters, dance halls, military installations, and makeshift USO stages on the home front and abroad.
Filled with firsthand accounts of more than a hundred women who performed during this era and complemented by thorough-and eye-opening-archival research, Swing Shift not only offers a history of this significant aspect of American society and culture but also examines how and why whole bands of dedicated and talented women musicians were dropped from-or never inducted into-our national memory. Tucker's nuanced presentation reveals who these remarkable women were, where and when they began to play music, and how they navigated a sometimes wild and bumpy road-including their experiences with gas and rubber rationing, travel restrictions designed to prioritize transportation for military needs, and Jim Crow laws and other prejudices. She explains how the expanded opportunities brought by the war, along with sudden increased publicity, created the illusion that all female musicians-no matter how experienced or talented-were Swing Shift Maisies, 1940s slang for the substitutes for the real workers (or musicians) who were away in combat. Comparing the working conditions and public representations of women musicians with figures such as Rosie the Riveter, WACs, USO hostesses, pin-ups, and movie stars, Tucker chronicles the careers of such bands as the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Phil Spitalny's Hours of Charm, The Darlings of Rhythm, and the Sharon Rogers All-Girl Band.

Swing Shift Reviews

Swing Shift is a long-overdue historical corrective and a compelling read-a thoroughly remarkable achievement.-David Hajdu, author of Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn
Swing Shift is the most original, thought-provoking jazz book written in the last thirty years. Sherrie Tucker's virtuoso performance not only tears down the bars of silence that have kept women musicians invisible, but she reveals how this silence works to uphold the race and gender mythologies that we know as the history of the 'swing era.' After prying open our eyes and ears, Tucker takes us on a funky, surprising, inspiring musical journey that will drive all jazzheads back to the woodshed. And if that's not enough, as a writer this 'girl' can swing off the page!-Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's Disfunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America
Sherrie Tucker's beautifully written and meticulously researched book on women jazz bands introduces us to a generation of awesome musicians, whose stories raise provocative questions about the impact of race, class, gender, and sexuality on dominant conceptions of jazz history. In suggesting new ways of thinking about the place of women jazz musicians in recent U.S. history, Swing Shift boldly challenges our contemporary understandings of the unruly politics of culture. -Angela Davis

About Sherrie Tucker

Sherrie Tucker is Assistant Professor of Women's Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. A longtime jazz fan, she has conducted oral histories for the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program, writes a column called Jazzwomen Jam for Jazz Now Magazine, and was formerly a jazz radio announcer in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't in the History Books

I Playing the Changes of World War II
1. Working the Swing Shift: Effects of World War II on All-Girl Bands
2. Hours of Charm with Phil Spitalny
3. Extracurricular Activities with the Prairie View Co-eds
II Road Hazards
4. Surveillance and Survival in the Jim Crow South
5. Internationalism and the Sweethearts of Rhythm
6. The Darlings of Rhythm: On the Road and Ready to Run
III USO-Camp Shows
7. Female Big Bands, Male Mass Audiences: Gendered Performances in a Theater of War
8. Battles of a Sophisticated Lady: Ada Leonard and the USO
9. And, Fellas, They're American Girls,: On the Road with the Sharon Rogers All-Girl Band
Conclusion: Post-War Changes, Familiar Refrains
Notes
Bibliography

Additional information

CIN0822324857VG
9780822324850
0822324857
Swing Shift: All-Girl Bands of the 1940s by Sherrie Tucker
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Duke University Press
20000606
424
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Swing Shift