Darlings Of Rhythm
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The Darlings of Rhythm was an
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, all-female swing band from the 1940s. The Darlings were often compared with the
International Sweethearts of Rhythm The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was the first integrated all-women's band in the United States. During the 1940s the band featured some of the best female musicians of the day. They played swing and jazz on a national circuit that incl ...
, another African American all-girl swing band. The Darlings were darker skinned than the Sweethearts. Toby Butler, a white member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, was rumored to have left the band and joined the Darlings in the mid-1940s, when racial segregation made playing in mixed bands illegal. This rumor was confirmed in 1946 when she was arrested while performing in Georgia.


Band members

Members of the Darlings changed over time, and included the following:


History

The Darlings were formed in 1943 in
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...
by African American tenor and baritone saxophonist Lorraine Brown. Several of the band members joined the Darlings after leaving other bands. Cooper, Gaddison and Vi Wilson joined the Darlings after leaving the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Wilson joined the group to be with her cousin, reeds player Gurthalee Clark. Trombonist Jessie Turner and tenor saxophonist Margaret Backstrom left Eddie Durham's All Star Girl Orchestra for the Darlings. In 1945, drummer Hettie Smith replaced Henrietta Fontaine. The bassist, drummer, and saxophonist for the Darlings later went to the Syncoettes band. Some members from the Darlings also went to Tiny Davis's Hell Divers.


See also

*
Harlem Playgirls Harlem Playgirls was an African American swing band active in the Midwest and throughout the United States from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s. History Organized by Milwaukee-based drummer and band leader Sylvester Rice (1905–1984)''Late Eli ...
*
Ina Ray Hutton Ina Ray Hutton (born Odessa Cowan; March 13, 1916 – February 19, 1984) was an American singer, bandleader, and the elder sister of June Hutton. She led one of the first all-female big bands. Biography A native of Chicago, Hutton began da ...
*
Melodears There were two independently created and independently operating groups known as the Melodears or Melo-Dears in the 1930s and 1940s, one a band, the other a vocal trio, with similar names only by coincidence. There is no known connection between th ...
*
Prairie View Co-eds The Prairie View Co-eds were an all-female band that formed in the 1940s at the historically black Prairie View A&M University. The band formed in response to more and more males being drafted into the armed forces. The Prairie View Co-eds' succe ...
* Eddie Durham's All-Star Girls Orchestra


References

{{reflist Swing ensembles Big bands Musical groups established in 1943 History of racial segregation in the United States All-female bands