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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

dated opinion that not everyone agreed with.

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

because she couldn’t get a job singing for the Met.

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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

members, for lack of a better term, a proper reaction.

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

male bands, as Toll argues.

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.