amylsacks' photos with the keyword: bebop

Cover of a 45 RPM "single" with two short instrumentals on each side. Barbara Carroll penned them in her signature bop-meets-cabaret style. Born in 1924, she's still playing and singing today. You can find her homepage here .

"Here are five illustrious ladies, all of whom are in the class known as Peerless Performers. All are so expert at 'tickling the ivories' that they have won important places in the honor roll of American jazz. They are, to put it concisely, Queens of the Keyboard. Each one has her distinctive style, yet all of them have that pianistic manner which is characteristic and non-masculine..." Blah, blah, blah... Seriously, the whole back cover of this Decca 10"/EP drips with reassurance that women aren't stealing away Men's Sacred Manly Magic by daring to play jazz. Gah. Anyway, it's a lovely design, though it has diddly to do with the styles of music actually on the record. YouTube can help you hear what these talented women sounded like, all except Ann Jenkins. Sadly, there seems to be nothing readily available about her on the 'net. More details about the record can be found here.

Cover design by "Guldi, Trivas/Tri-Arts." "To call Mary Lou Williams the greatest woman pianist, arranger, and composer in present-day popular music is easy-- and accurate. But this qualified superlative seriously minimizes the importance of Miss Williams as an artist, for her talents easily override arbitrary barriers of sex and, indeed, of time..." -- Mike Butcher , from the writing on the back cover. Duke Ellington put it more succinctly: "She is soul on soul." She was.

"During the past decade, modern jazz has been the spearhead in widening the audience for jazz in general-- and as the head of that spear, the piano has opened ears that hitherto had been closed to what, to them, were the harsher sounds of the trumpet, trombone and saxophone..." -- Ira Gitler, from the notes on back.