Peggy Gilbert & Her All-girl BandPeggy Gilbert, born Margaret Fern Knechtges (1905-2007), arrived into a musical family and grew up hearing music in her house every day. Her father was a violinist who played in theater pit bands in Sioux City, Iowa, and her mother sang for touring opera companies whenever they appeared in town. Gilbert started taking piano lessons at age eight and soon after accompanied her father at stage shows. But it wasn't until after she turned eighteen that Gilbert took up the saxophone. At the time, there weren't many girls playing horns, but she immediately took a liking to the free and loose feeling the saxophone gave her. In the early 1920s, girl bands had become fairly common and the notion that one could make such a living intrigued the young musician. Gilbert soon organized The Melody Makers, the first all-girl band in Sioux City, where her group found success playing twice a day at the Martin Hotel. Before long, the band's music was heard nightly on KSCJ, a fledgling radio station in 1927, making Gilbert a broadcast pioneer. A professional tenor saxophonist for more than eighty years, Gilbert inspired several generations of musicians and continued to perform professionally into her nineties. Her last band, Peggy Gilbert and the Dixie Belles, played hot Dixieland jazz on national television, at jazz festivals, and in concerts from 1974 until 1998. Their appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Golden Girls, Ellen, and Simon & Simon, among other programs, made them famous coast-to-coast, even as octogenarians. In Peggy Gilbert & Her All-Girl Band, Jeannie Gayle Pool profiles the fascinating life of this multitalented saxophone player, arranger, bandleader, and advocate for women instrumental musicians. Based on oral history interviews and Gilbert's collection of photographs, newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia, this book includes materials not previously available on all-women bands from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. This volume also includes a chronology, bibliography, filmography, and a list of all of Peggy Gilbert's columns for Overture. Thoroughly documented, this book highlights the contributions of Gilbert and other notable West Coast female jazz musicians. It should have a major impact on the research of American jazz, and of female jazz musicians in particular. Book jacket. |
Contents
CHAPTERS | 1 |
John Darwin and Edith Ella Gilbert Knechtges | 2 |
American Vaudeville Performers and Musicians 12 | 12 |
Copyright | |
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Ada Leonard Alaska all-girl band All-Girl Orchestra alto American Angeles Ballroom band members bandleader bass Betty big band Boots born broadcast Buddies Café California clarinet Club New Yorker dance Dixie Belles Dorothy drummer drums Emcee entertainment Fanchon and Marco Femme Musicians film Fox Theater girl band girl musicians guitar Helen history interview 1985 Hollywood Hollywood Canteen Hotel Ina Ray Hutton Jack January jazz Jazz Temple Idea Jerrie Thill Kathleen McArtor Katy Cruise Kay Boley KMPC Knechtges KTTV live Los Angeles Marnie married Melody Girls movie Nellie Nellie Lutcher night Oral history interview Orpheum Orval Overture Peggy Gilbert Peggy recalls Peggy's band performed photograph pianist piano played player radio recording Rhythm Sally saxophone Sioux City song starring studio television Thelma White tour trombone trumpet Tuning union vaudeville Vegas Victory Belles violin Vivian Duncan vocals Wiedoeft Women in Music women musicians Women's Symphony