Blanche Calloway

Blanche Dorothea Jones Calloway was an American jazz singer, composer, and bandleader born on February 9, 1902, in Rochester. She was the older sister of musician Cab Calloway and began performing as a teenager. Calloway made her professional debut in 1921 in the musical Shuffle Along and later toured with the production Plantation Days. After settling in Chicago, she recorded two blues tracks with Louis Armstrong and Richard M. Jones in 1925. In 1931, she formed the ensemble Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys, becoming the first woman to lead an all-male jazz orchestra. The band recorded for RCA Victor and released the recording “I Need Lovin'”, which served as her trademark song. She also recorded the tracks “Just a Crazy Song” and “Growlin' Dan”. Calloway later worked as a disc jockey in Florida and served as an activist for the NAACP. She died on December 16, 1978.

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