Customer Reviews

Swing Shift: “All-Girl” Bands of the 1940s

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My Grandmother was part of an all-girl band during this era, and still plays strong today. She was contacted to participate in the making of this book and thus my interest in reading the work was peaked. However, I soon realized there is so much more the book offers. Starting with a detailed historical description of the way African-American women were treated, the book moves on to cover a wide variety of trials women went through to get their music heard. I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in Jazz, in history, in women's study, or in just understanding the power of music, of voice, and of struggle throughout the ages of this society.

This book is a fascinating and unique book on jazz, gender, and race. Thoroughly researched and beautifully written, Swing Shift documents the central position black and white women musicians played in the Swing Era and World War II. Sherrie Tucker combines oral histories with archival research, producing a stunning record of what history books can be and what jazz women are. Most amazing is the author's analysis of race and racism as structuring aspects of the music industry, jazz history, and contemporary accounts of the 1940s. Swing Shift is the most accomplished book on women, music, and race that I have ever read; it is a gift as remarkable, talented, honest, funny, and captivating as the women musicians Dr. Tucker researched and loves.

This book is a very scholarly approach to the era of the all-female swing bands during WWII. As the book is careful to point out, the all-female bands were already thriving and in existence before WWII, but with the soldiers going off to war they became a sort of musical version of Rosie the Riveter. The wealth of information on the female bands contained in this book is beyond compare. I saw two major drawbacks in the book, however. First of all, one gets the impression that this is the first time the author has ever encountered people from a previous era and from a previous mindset. She seems quite shocked that they prefer to be called All-Girl bands rather that her more politically correct, All-Woman bands. In fact, she goes into great detail for several paragraphs about how it must be reflective of a different mindset and so forth. Secondly, due to her prolonged belaboring anytime there is a quote or comment or hint of something that she doesn't consider in accord with modern thought, the voices and experiences of the women themselves are not brought to the forefront. They all sound like women with fascinating stories to tell. But she doesn't let them tell it. What the author does is dwell on sociological issues, racial issues, feminism issues, and other academic type issues rather than tell the story of the All-Girl bands. I found this to be a prime example of why so often academic works are an unbelievably tedious read. I would love it if a more popular version of this book were to be issued.

Sherrie Tucker does something here that is very unique yet timely. After conducting years of interviews and research she crafts this wonderful overview of "All Girl" Bands . It is both academic and entertaining. In addition, she looks at these bands at the intersection of race, class and gender giving the reader new insights into the era. Somethings should be evaluated in the moment and others need distance and time to process. Lovely -love this work!

It was wonderful to receive Swing Shift so quickly and in excellent condition. It is great to be able to save money without sacrificing quality. Thank you.