The Jazz Wench
June 2001

The Jazz Wench
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By Teri Harllee

As I sit down to write this column on trumpeter Valaida Snow, I realize that it is the date of her birth: June 2. The coincidence seems natural, given the role coincidence, or fate, played in her personal life and career.

Some people say that fate conspired against Valaida; that had the events of her dramatic life not played out as they did she would be known today as one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century instead of being a figure little known outside of a small cult following. Nobody disputes that she was an extraordinary talent, a woman of perfect pitch, excellent technique and unusual arranging abilities. But rather than these attributes garnering her praise from her fellow jazz musicians, they served to brand her a mere curiosity in the highly sexist jazz world of the 30’s and 40’s.

Snow was born in 1903 to a musical family. Her mother, a music teacher, taught her to play a wide variety of instruments (cello, bass, violin, banjo, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, saxophone and trumpet), and Valaida also became an accomplished vocalist and dancer. Valaida turned professional at the age of 15, focusing on vocals and trumpet, and by 21 she was a featured performer in Noble Sissle/Eubie Blake’s musical In Bamville (AKA, The Chocolate Dandies). Less than a year later she headlined Barron Wilkins’ Harlem cabaret show. But this was just the beginning of her relentless touring in the 1920’s: she performed in the U.S. with the Will Mastin Trio, in London and Paris in the musical Blackbirds, toured China and Russia, and returned to the U.S. to headline Chicago’s Sunset Café.

In the early 1930’s, Valaida starred in Blake’s Rhapsody in Black, which led her to appear in many Hollywood films. At that point Valaida Snow should have been an international superstar, but racism and sexism cast her as an outsider. She headlined the Apollo Theatre before traveling to Europe for more live dates and more film work in the 1930’s.

In 1941, while performing with her all-woman band in Denmark, Valaida was captured by German Nazi soldiers and spent the next 18 months in a concentration camp that broke her spirit and her physical stamina. She was released in a prisoner exchange program with allied troops, and returned to New York. Some reports say she never recovered from her internment, while others say she went on to perform remarkably well for the next decade. By either account, she did continue to work, touring the U.S. in the musical revues that were her first love, headlining clubs, and recording for various labels. Her last performance was on May 30, 1956, at the Palace Theatre in New York, where, after her final curtain call, she collapsed and died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Valaida Snow was a flamboyant, talented woman who courageously pioneered an expatriate movement. She dressed in elegant gowns, traveled in an orchid-colored Mercedes limousine and outfitted her chauffeur and pet monkey in orchid-colored clothes. She became the toast of Paris and London, was courted by French superstar Maurice Chevalier and American bandleader Earl Hines, and was presented a solid gold trumpet by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Snow was a savvy businesswoman, spoke seven languages, was an excellent music transcriptionist and composer, and a remarkable performer. Fortunately, Rosetta Records owner, Rosetta Reitz, has reissued a comprehensive collection of Valaida Snow’s recorded work.

In a newer, truer history of women in jazz, Valaida Snow will not be known – as she was in her day – as "the female Armstrong", but as an extraordinary, unique and rare talent.

To hear a documentary program about Valaida, go to www.audiohighway.com.

To read more about Valaida: Hot From Harlem, Bill Reed, Cellar Door Books, 1998