Pauline Braddy
{{Short description|American jazz drummer (1922–1996)}}
Pauline Braddy Williams (February 14, 1922 – January 28, 1996){{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-cJHuaH5M5oC&q=%22pauline+braddy%22&pg=PA207 |title=Black Women in American Bands and Orchestras |last=Handy |first=D. Antoinette |date=1998 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810834194 |pages=207 |language=en}} was an American jazz drummer. She drummed with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, an integrated, all-female swing band, from 1939 to 1955. An African-American, she was known as "Queen of the Drums".
Biography
The Mendenhall, Mississippi-born Braddy attended Piney Woods Country Life School.{{cite encyclopedia |year=2002 |title=Braddy, Pauline |encyclopedia=The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz |publisher=Macmillan Publishers Limited |location=New York Public Library for the Performing Arts}}Feather, Leonard (April 13, 1980)
In school, she played clarinet, and says she got into playing drums "by accident."{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-BhAwAAQBAJ&q=%22pauline+braddy%22&pg=PA34 |title=Women Drummers: A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country |last=Smith |first=Angela |date=2014-04-10 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810888357 |pages=34–35 |language=en}} When the school band went to Memphis to play, the drummer dropped out and Braddy was chosen to take up the drums because of her good sense of rhythm.
Braddy joined the International Sweethearts of Rhythm in 1939. She was not only a drummer for the group, but also sang.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15900062/the_pittsburgh_courier |title=When the International Sweet- |date=1940-04-13 |work=The Pittsburgh Courier |access-date=2017-12-20 |page=20 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1944, she was named "Wallet Gal" by soldiers stationed in Hawaii.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15900109/the_new_york_age/ |title='Wallet Gal' For Hawaii's Battalion |date=1944-02-12 |work=The New York Age |access-date=2017-12-20 |page=4 |via=Newspapers.com}} Braddy participated in the bands USO tour of Europe in 1945, and remained a member until 1955.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sq4eXS-IbngC&q=%22pauline+braddy%22&pg=PA282 |title=Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen |last=Dahl |first=Linda |date=1984 |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |isbn=9780879101282 |pages=282 |language=en}}
In the USO tour, Sherrie Tucker writes that "Chorus after chorus, Braddy's drums draw shouts of applause at every new configuration of paradidles."{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ywv2IcP_WvoC&q=%22pauline+braddy%22&pg=PA235 |title=Swing Shift: "All-Girl" Bands of the 1940s |last=Tucker |first=Sherrie |date=2000-06-06 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=0822380900 |page=235 |language=en}} In the performances of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, her drumming was considered a "spotlight" of the group.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15900169/moberly_monitorindex/ |title=All-Girl Orchestra to Play Emancipation Dance at Auditorium |date=1947-07-29 |work=Moberly Monitor-Index |access-date=2017-12-20 |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}} The Tampa Bay Times called her drumming "sensational."{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15900210/tampa_bay_times/ |title=Joyland Brings All-Female Band |date=1948 |work=Tampa Bay Times |access-date=2017-12-20 |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Francis Davis in The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that the band was "powered by Pauline Braddy's drumming."{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15900266/the_philadelphia_inquirer/ |title=Jazz |date=1984-12-14 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |access-date=2017-12-20 |page=110 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was also called "Queen of the Drums."
After the Sweethearts disbanded, she moved to New York and became a drummer for the Vi Burnside All-Stars, the Edna Smith Trio and Two Plus One.{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1996/02/02/pauline-braddy-williams-swing-era-singer-dies-at-73/71ca4c63-800b-4681-9414-23bc9a4d00f7/ |title=Pauline Braddy Williams, Swing-Era Singer, Dies at 73 |date=1996-02-02 |work=Washington Post |access-date=2017-12-21 |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}} Braddy moved back to Washington to care for her mother in the 1960s. She then worked for some two decades as a switchboard operator, retiring in 1994.
Braddy was eager to talk about the history of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, and provided writer Antoinette D. Hardy with information and ephemera for her book The International Sweethearts of Rhythm.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NGBqyf9tpLcC&q=%22pauline+braddy%22&pg=PA5 |title=The International Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Ladies' Jazz Band from Piney Woods Country Life School |last=Handy |first=Antoinette D. |date=1998-10-01 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9781461623595 |pages=4–5 |language=en}} Braddy moved to Braxton, Mississippi after retiring. Braddy died in her home on January 28, 1996, aged 73.
References
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External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwMxuFD4ZP4 Drum Solo]
- [https://womenshistory.si.edu/spotlight/international-sweethearts-of-rhythm International Sweethearts of Rhythm Collection Spotlight, Because of Her Story, Smithsonian Institution]
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Category:American women jazz musicians
Category:American jazz drummers
Category:People from Mendenhall, Mississippi
Category:African-American drummers
Category:Jazz musicians from Mississippi
Category:International Sweethearts of Rhythm members
Category:20th-century African-American women
Category:20th-century African-American musicians
Category:African-American women musicians
Category:American women drummers
Category:Drummers from Mississippi
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