Women of Jazz Piano
A featured collection of iconic women of played and composed jazz piano
I was recently looking at entering an old time piano competition. The criteria for the competition was to play music from before the 1940s, and to celebrate 100 years of women having the right to vote, at least one piece needed to be composed by a woman. I realized that I couldn't think of a single woman who was a composer, or even a piano player, from that era off the top of my head. So I started digging.
I ended up with a list of over 70 women who were composers and pianists in the styles of blues, boogie woogie, stride, ragtime, and all things jazz. This series is a celebration of women who left a mark on the jazz world. These snapshots of their careers are meant to highlight the ways that these women reimagined what the jazz space could be for the future. These musicians were teachers and mentors, they distributed mutual aid in their communities, told their own cultural stories, and showed up when it mattered.
Something that I learned while researching the stories of these women was that they were innovative about the work that they produced. These women created and maintained thriving careers by tapping into new markets. Several of these performers and composers got their start by accompanying silent movies, and when the ability to play sounds in movies was developed, many of the players pivoted to composing show tunes and scoring these new films. Many of these women also had thriving careers composing specifically for radio programming and for player piano rolls, reaching thousands of people within their homes in a variety of ways.
One of the most incredible parts of doing this research was reframing the language used to describe their work. So many descriptions centered around which men they studied from, who they played with, what venues they performed at, and how their career revolved around the work of their husbands, or ended when they had children. I dug deep, and found stories of these women developing brand new styles of music, leading the way in new styles of composition and recording, telling old stories about race and gender in new and loud ways, and forming mutual aid and community care organizations to help the people around them.
Peering into their careers in this way unearthed the huge contributions that they made to the jazz world, the music industry, and their immediate communities. Much of their work still shakes our perception of music and its influence today.
I put together a playlist to go with this series. I learned so much putting these resources together, and this is just the beginning. Please share this so other people can have a listen to the legacy of these wonderful women!
Brief histories of women who played jazz piano styles
Boogie Woogie & Blues
Lovie Austin - 1887-1972
Lovie Austin was a pianist, composer and big band leader based in Chicago. She played on records featuring Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Ethel Waters, and Alberta Hunter (pictured). She composed "Downhearted Blues," which was later made famous by Bessie Smith. Austin's career began during a time that could be considered pre-jazz. Her playing is rooted in blues, and her adaptations helped to shape jazz styles and harmonies in the genre's formative years.
Ida Goodson - 1909-2000
Ida Goodson, like many other blues pianists of her time, was trained to play gospel styles of music, and blues was forbidden in her family home. All six Goodson sisters played piano, and would often take turns playing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Ida often played for silent movies and dances. Her powerful solo album was released when she was 66.
Winifred Atwell - 1910-1983
When Winifred Atwell was playing piano at the air force base in her Trinidadian home, someone bet her that she couldn't play the new boogie woogie style. She went home and composed her first boogie woogie song, now known as the Five Finger Boogie. Committed to her vision, When recording her "Black and White Rag," she decided that the grand piano was the wrong sound, and had a honky tonk piano bought for the recording. That record took off, and solidified her standing as a favorite honky tonk player in the UK.
Hadda Brooks - 1916-2002
Hadda Brooks became a household player with her boogie woogie playing and compositions, but she most enjoyed playing ballads. She managed to balance her skill in both styles by lending rhythmic elements from boogie to her interpretation of ballads. She continued her career, still actively performing in her 80s, and she celebrated her eightieth birthday with a double set in Vegas.
Martha Davis - 1920-1960
Martha Davis played iconic left-hand dominant styles such as stride and boogie woogie at a blistering pace. She and her partner, a bassist, performed an iconic musical comedy routine that led to nation wide tours, night club residencies, and features in tv and movies.
Hazel Scott - 1920-1981
Hazel Scott played everything from classical to boogie woogie and jazz. Scott famously maintained firm boundaries around the way that her image and presence would be used. She negotiated high-paying contracts and final cut privileges in film and tv. She was once escorted out of the state of Texas by the Texas Rangers for refusing to play in a segregated venue. She is quoted as having said, "Why would anyone come to hear me play... and refuse to sit next to someone like me?"
Katie Webster 1936-1999
A performer of boogie, soul, and swamp blues, Katie Webster started her piano journey with gospel styles, and remained active in both gospel and blues in her solo career. Her playful style is featured in albums that are now considered standards for blues and soul lovers, ranging from artists including Lightnin' Slim, Otis Redding, and Bonnie Raitt.
Ragtime & Stride
Cora Folsom Salisbury - 1868-1916
Cora Folsom Salisbury composed and published ragtime pieces, and toured the vaudeville circuit. She was known for infusing humor into her work, and was the house pianist at a theatre when she wasn't touring. She dubbed herself a "pianologist." The term "pianologue" was her own invented word for a piano performance with comedic commentary sprinkled throughout.
Alma Sanders - 1882-1956
Alma Sanders composed music in popular styles, including ragtime and show tunes. Her writing eventually expandedg to include film scoring. She was a member of ASCAP, and put most of her prolific work out before signing her first exclusive contract. Her last project was a musical interpretation of a children's book.
Muriel Pollock - 1895-1971
Muriel Pollock began her career as an organ accompanist for silent movies. This work was a stepping stone into compositions for popular music and other shows. She worked for two music companies as a composer, arranger, and performer for piano rolls to be played in homes on the player piano. In addition to touring for live performances, Pollock regularly performed pieces that she composed exclusively for radio. She created a full radio program of children's music near the end of her career.
Billie Pierce - 1907-1974
Billie Pierce is known for her mastery of styles including ragtime, boogie-woogie, and barrelhouse- a word describing wild jazz improvisations over a two beat boogie feel. Like her sisters, including blues pianist Ida Goodson, Pierce learned how to play in the church environment, and blues and jazz styles were forbidden in their home. After playing with Bessie Smith and Ida Cox, she eventually settled in New Orleans, and fronted her own bands off and on.
Cleo Brown - 1907-1995
Cleo Brown learned early styles of boogie-woogie, quickly melding into stride as she played in the vaudeville circuit. By 1935, she replaced Fats Waller as the house pianist on the New York radio station WABC. Dave Brubeck played at her intermissions, and he eventually wrote the tune "Sweet Cleo Brown" as a tribute to her. In 1959, she began a career as a nurse, and was mistakenly reported as being deceased because she was no longer active in the music scene. She returned to playing piano on the radio under a different name, leaning towards ballads and slower music over boogie and stride.
Una Mae Carlisle - 1915-1956
Una Mae Carlisle is known to have influenced the playing of Fats Waller, which makes her one of the originators of stride piano playing. She was a songwriter for popular music of the day, cracking the Billboard chart and having her music covered by musicians including Cab Calloway and Peggy Lee. Carlisle managed a chronic illness while front running her own radio program and later, a tv show.
Dinah Washington - 1924-1963
Dinah Washington left a powerful legacy as a singer, so it is sometimes forgotten that she also played piano. She began as a pianist and singer in a gospel group. She was performing in clubs by the age of 15, and she shared venues with Billie Holiday. Like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, Washington wasn't afraid to push the envelope with her delivery of edgy blues tunes, including the murder ballads and dirty blues.
Soul, Swing, & Contemporary
Lil Hardin Armstrong - 1898-1971
A contemporary of Lovie Austin's, Hardin is known for elevating the careers of the men she played with. She formed her own big-band featuring men and women, but allegedly gave up work with her big band and solo career with the recognition that she would never be promoted by managers in the same way that the men in jazz were.
Mary Lou Williams - 1910-1981
One of Mary Lou Williams most unique impacts on the jazz world was her ability to grow with the evolution of jazz, and to contribute to the changing styles as a player and composer. When Williams started playing, blues and boogie woogie were emergent styles. In her lifetime, she played blues, boogie woogie, stride, swing, bop, and everything in between. The Zodiac Suite features Williams' iconic writing- composed in 1945 and dedicated to monumental friends and contemporaries. The harmonies in the suite are stark, even by today's standards. Mary Lou Williams started a mutual aid foundation called the Bel Canto Foundation to help musicians with addictions recover and move back to performing.
Dorothy Donegan - 1922-1998
Dorothy Donegan was a contemporary of Cleo Brown and Dinah Washington. Her education and early career were based in Chicago. She performed a concert in what is now known as the Symphony Center, where she opened with classical music from the Romantic era, and closed with swamp jazz. Her style of playing utilizes the full range of textures available on the piano, with high energy. She is remembered as having called out inequities in jazz, and for demanding pay equal to that of the men in the field.
Toshiko Akiyoshi - 1929-present
Toshiko Akiyoshi has a discography that gives Dolly Parton a run for her money- with a whopping 70+ albums. In addition to being a detailed pianist, Toshiko has added new textures to the jazz vernacular, inspired by Japanese themes, harmonies, and instruments. Toshiko wove together stories in her compositions, shedding new light to recent global histories. Her three-part suite "Hiroshima: Rising from the Abyss" was inspired not by recollections of destruction, but by a photo of a young woman emerging from a shelter with a slight smile.
Nina Simone - 1933-2003
Nina Simone's music defies the typical genre labels assigned to jazz. She dreamed of being a classical pianist. She began singing in order to maintain a career as a pianist, playing jazz at nightclubs. In her music, which is rooted in gospel and jazz sounds, you can hear baroque sounding piano solos and some of the most iconic examples of soul styles. Simone is one of the best examples of using music as a weapon against white supremacy. She described using her song "Mississippi Goddamn," "like throwing ten bullets back at them." The civil rights anthems she wrote in the 1960s and 70s are still resonating and making waves today.
Bertha Hope Booker - 1936-present
Bertha Hope Booker is known for her articulate playing, as well as her skill as a composer and arranger. She is a household name for pianists in New York, and is known for her live playing. She shines a light on players that are a part of her musical community. Her music stays rooted in tonal sounds, but stands out for utilizing innovative voicings and accompaniment styles.
Geri Allen - 1957-2017
Geri Allen is known for her ability to play a variety of styles, especially the hard-bop from her home town of Detroit. She left a legacy of exploratory improvisations, and collaborated with a variety of other musicians and composers. Allen mastered the skill of playing piano in a way that did not keep soloists tethered to a tonal place. She explored new harmonic ideas, while celebrating great Black women and composers before her.
Acknowledgements
This post was crafted on the traditional land of the Kiikaapoi people.
It's important to remember that many of these women, especially Black women and women of color, did not receive due credit or compensation for their work. Many creative contributions from women in jazz are still buried in histories and contracts negotiated by men.
Look and listen to these histories critically.
