Strong and Sassy: Inspiring Women of Jazz

CREATIVE

Jazz lover Moira Stuart explores the lives and music of some of the most influential women of jazz from Thursday 7th August at 10pm onBBC Radio 2. 

Along with some great music, this four-part series, produced by Unique, will also focus on how some of Moira’s favourite female jazz vocalists used their fame and notoriety to push social and musical boundaries and fight injustice and prejudice.

Listeners join Moira on her further discovery of these inspiring women, talking to the people who knew them. There are archive interviews and performances, as well as some of Moira’s personal memories added to the mix. The series also features contributions from biographers and artists who have themselves been inspired by these “strong and sassy” women.

Lena Horne, Anita O’Day, Adelaide Hall, Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae are all fascinating women, for whom jazz was a way of life, and who made their mark on society. In the first programme  Moira is joined by writer and historian Stephen Bourne to discuss the life and career of Lena Horne, a singer and actress whose left-leaning political views and involvement in the Civil Rights movement led to her being blacklisted in Hollywood.There are archive interviews from Lena and her daughter Gail Lumet Buckley, as well as great recordings like Stormy Weather.

Strong and Sassy: Inspiring Women of Jazz was originally broadcast in 2011 and will be repeated on Thursday evenings from 7th August 2014 until 28th August 2014 at 10pm on BBC Radio 2.