Hi hi,

Happy Feminist Friday! I think you are going to love today's newsletter, it's all about women musical innovators and is based on a book I am reading right now, Sounds Like London. Let's get cracking.

We start with jazz dancer Marie Bryant. What's cool about Marie Bryant is that there are many clips of her amazing dancing online. FEEL THE JOY RIGHT HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53pNfjC9M6Q

Here is an article about her and her work:

“I’ve built a dancing style of my own that can best be described as ‘controlled release.’  This consists in finding the natural line in each body and the favorite ways it likes to move about — then controlling these movements.” – Marie Bryant

https://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/in-focus-marie-bryant/

Up next, do you want to know more about the only woman to have a UK #1 hit with an instrumental track? This newsletter was founded on the basis that the answer to that question is going to be yes; let me introduce Winifred Atwill, multi instrumentalist and also the first black artist to (a) top the UK charts and (b) sell a million records. Here she is playing one of her hits, The Poor People of Paris. You get a free snooker fact with this one, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY_PabVEUbY

More about Winifred Atwill:

Atwell moved to America in the early '40s to study the piano with Alexander Borovsky and later to London, where she studied at the Royal Academy of Music and became the first female pianist to be awarded the highest grade for musicianship. Supplementing her income while studying, she played ragtime at various London clubs and was spotted at the Casino Theatre by entrepreneur Bernard Delfont, who signed her to a recording contract with Decca Records.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/winifred-atwell-mn0000573685/biography

Finally, what about Maya Angelou! I did not know before I read this book that Maya Angelou sang calypso before settling into literary and activist life. What a woman. Enjoy this video of her performing in a film, Calypso Heat Wave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2lALEmcUl4

Here's more about Maya Angelou's musical career:

A former drama and dance student at the California Labor School, Maya Angelou worked as a calypso dancer to support herself and her son. She became a member of the applauded Alvin Ailey Dance Company and along with choreographer Alvin Ailey, she formed a dance group called Al and Rita. At the time, she was known as Rita Johnson. She toured Europe and African in the musical “Porgy and Bess” from 1954 to 1955 and in 1957, was cast in an off-Broadway production of “Calypso Heatwave.” Also that year, she made her feature acting debut in “Calypso Heat Wave” and released her debut album, “Miss Calypso.” Angelou was also spotted singing in New York nightclubs in the late 1950s.

https://worldhistoryproject.org/1957/maya-angelou-records-her-first-album-miss-calypso

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Alex xx.