Singer, composer and bandleader Blanche Calloway (1902-1978) is recognized as the first woman to successfully lead an all-male Jazz orchestra under her own name. Waxing a couple dozen sides, Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys were a quite successful regional Midwestern band in the early 1930s. But she was eclipsed by the superstardom of her much more famous brother Cab Calloway.

Cab Calloway borrowed key elements from his elder sister’s act — her bravura vocal style and Hi-de-Ho call and response routines.  His 1976 memoir acknowledges her influence, declaring Blanche “vivacious, lovely, personality plus and a hell of a singer and dancer,” an all-around entertainer who was “fabulous, happy and extroverted.”Blanche’s 12-piece outfit consisted of personnel often interchangeable with Andy Kirk and The Clouds of Joy including pianist and arranger Mary Lou Williams, but Calloway split off.  In 1931 she was one of the first to hire young Kansas City tenor saxophonist Ben Webster — heard on “Just a Crazy Song.”  Trombonist Vic Dickenson is featured in “I Need Lovin’.”  Both songs were probably arranged by talented trumpet player and arranger Edgar “Puddinghead” Battle, who later wrote for Cab.Just a Crazy Song.mp3I Need Lovin’.mp3

Blanche Calloway in her early days and with Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds of Joy including Mary Lou Williams.