Ever hear of HER???!!!
So, after my David Bowie post recently, I came across another amazing musician that I'm mortified to learn I had never heard of, nor heard... My wife and son brought home a book from our public library today called "Little Melba and Her Big Trombone". What an amazing story. I actually thought, when we began the book, "this must be fiction..." Once again, truth is stranger than fiction... That an African-American woman could do what she did in the 1950s and 60s, is amazing. She went on the road with Dizzy, Duke, Quincy, and many others. There's a great NPR profile called "Women in Jazz", as well as another NPR Music piece called Melba Liston: Bones of an Arranger. Check them out!
Here's Melba Liston, 1960, Lausanne, with Quincy Jones...