 |
|
Prairie View
Co-eds |
| The Prairie View
Co-eds were an extremely popular all-woman big band of
the 1940s, who brought audiences to their feet from the
Houston Civic Auditorium to the Apollo Theater and back
again throughout World War II. |
| |
| |
|
| During the
1930s and 1940s, many black schools in the U.S. fielded
traveling swing bands to keep their doors open during
the Depression. Narrator Tonea Stewart profiles three of
the era's most famous bands in "Swingtime," an hour-long
showcase of the Bama State Collegians, the Prairie View
Co-eds and the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.
|
| Stewart
artfully weaves the era's music around interviews with
surviving band members, scholarly commentary and
archival sound from now-deceased band members, including
the great Erskine Hawkins. The traveling ensembles
influenced mainstream music on a grand scale. Harlem's
top jazz orchestras pulled talent from these bands,
whose members made enduring contributions to American
culture. Hawkins' "Tuxedo Junction," for example, became
the anthem for American GIs in World War II.
|
| "Swingtime's"
music goes beyond the iconic — "Tuxedo Junction," "In
the Mood," "Take the A Train," "Henderson Stomp" — to
include lesser known gems like "Vi Vigor," composed for
International Sweethearts of Rhythm saxophonist Vi
Burnside. And the program draws listeners in as band
members describe what it was like for them as teens,
many from poor homes, to travel the country as stars of
swing.
|
| |
| |
|
 |