Black Satin

The elegant portraits in this book, as the author says, “uncover the lives of women jazz artists who have been unfairly neglected, underestimated, even cancelled by the leading historians of jazz–most of them men.” Pianists, singers, composers, harpists, trumpeters, they gave their all to this music born from the experience of Black people in America. Stanley Péan shines a light on fifteen women musicians who may have known their share of glory during their lifetime, but who have since been relegated to the footnotes of jazz history, despite what they brought to it, individually and collectively. In these essays, Ma Rainey, Lillian Hardin Armstrong, Valaida Snow, Hazel Scott, Mary Lou Williams, Bessie Smith, Dorothy Donegan, Dorothy Ashby, Ina Ray Hutton, Clora Larea Bryant, Melba Liston, Jutta Hipp, Shirley Scott, and Geri Allen reclaim their rightful place.

Stanley Péan concludes Black Satin with an essay on abolitionist Harriet Tubman, expanding the book’s field. He states of Tubman, “She died over a century ago, yet she has continued to inspire artists of all backgrounds, working in all disciplines. Though it has been durable, her role as a muse is a neglected aspect of her legacy.”