Jane Sager (1914–2012) was an American

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

trumpeter and bandleader. Throughout her career, she played in the bands of

Rita Rio Dona Drake (born Eunice Westmoreland; November 15, 1914 – June 20, 1989) was an American singer, dancer and film actress in the 1930s and 1940s. Drake was mixed race by ancestry. She often presented herself as Mexican and went by the names ...

Ada Leonard Ada Leonard (July 22, 1915 – November 29, 1997) was an American bandleader. She was the leader of the All-American Girl Orchestra, the first all-female band to tour with the USO during World War II. The big-band leader was a performer with a b ...

Katherine Dunham Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for ma ...

Charlie Barnet Charles Daly Barnet (October 26, 1913 – September 4, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle ...

, and

Johnny Richards Johnny Richards (born Juan Manuel Cascales, November 2, 1911 – October 7, 1968) was an American jazz arranger and composer. He was a pivotal arranger for some of the more adventurous performances by Stan Kenton's big band in the 1950s and e ...

Biography

Early life

Sager was born in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

on June 5, 1914. She began playing violin at the age of six, and by the age of 14, she began performing in local venues. She attended college for violin, and continued her studies at the

American Conservatory of Music The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservato ...

. She switched to playing trumpet after a car ran over her hand.

Orchestral career

In the 1930s, Sager began touring with

all-female band An all-female band is a musical group in popular music that is exclusively composed of female musicians. This is distinct from a girl group, in which the female members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universally followed. While ...

s, such as the Traveling All-Woman Band led by One-Arm Miller. At this time, she also performed with the Chicago Women's Symphony. In 1940, Sager was a founding member of the All-American Girl Orchestra led by

. Advertisements claimed the band featured the “World’s Greatest Girl Trumpeter Jane Sager”. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the

United Service Organizations The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...

contracted the orchestra to perform for enlisted troops. In 1942, Sager left the All-American Girl Orchestra and earned a spot in a band led by Johnny Richards. She left before they began touring and decided to remain in Los Angeles. She then joined The Victory Belles, a band led by

Peggy Gilbert Peggy Gilbert (January 17, 1905 – February 12, 2007), born Margaret Fern Knechtges, was an American jazz saxophonist and bandleader. She was born in Sioux City, Iowa. When she was seven years old, she played piano and violin with her father's ...

on a radio show geared toward servicemen. She was also briefly in 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 ...

. In 1950, Sager joined the all-female band of

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 ...

that performed on ''

The Ina Ray Hutton Show ''The Ina Ray Hutton Show'' is a TV show starring prominent female jazz bandleader Ina Ray Hutton and her all-female orchestra. From October 30, 1950, until October 9, 1951, the program was sponsored by Altes Beer on KTLA. From 1951 to 1955, the s ...

''. While with the All-American Girl Orchestra, Sager met Mary Sawyer. Sager and Sawyer partnered to open a trumpet studio in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

in the 1950s. The two also organized the Frivolous Five, a musical comedy troupe which Sager led until the late 60s.

Later life

Later in her life, Sager primarily worked as a teacher in her studio. Her students included Roger Tillison,

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

, and

Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...

Flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

, another student of Sager, posited in his memoir ''

Acid for the Children ''Acid for the Children'' is the memoir of Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. It was released on November 5, 2019 by Grand Central Publishing, accompanied by audiobook and E-book versions. Background In April 2014, Flea started writing his memo ...

'' that "if Jane had been a man she'd be acclaimed as a great trumpeter, but sexism is a bitch, and she lived in that little apartment on Selma teaching the likes of me..." In 1997, Sager was granted the Pioneer Award by the International Women's Brass Conference. In 2002, she was given a Lil Hardin Armstrong Jazz Heritage Award by the

International Association for Jazz Education International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), formerly a not-for-profit corporation based in Manhattan, Kansas, was a volunteer-run organization that, among other things, allocated student scholarships through its approved festivals program ...

.''The Overture''. AFM47: 24. February 2002. She spent her final years in

Morro Bay, California Morro Bay (''Morro'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Hill") is a seaside city in San Luis Obispo County, California. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, the city population was 10,757 as of the 2020 United St ...

. Sager died in 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sager, Jane American bandleaders 20th-century American musicians 1914 births 2012 deaths American trumpeters