This Is Not... This Is... The Valaida Snow Page (TIN/TI #1)*

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It is  Lorraine Glover,
wife of  Donald Byrd,
legendary jazz trumpeter. 

It is  Hampton Hawes,
be-bop jazz pianist.



But both photographs were taken
by  William Claxton,
legendary photographer.

However, the rest of this page
is about  Valaida Snow!

She was born in Tennessee in 1904.


I am referring to the incomparable Valaida Snow,

a multi-hyphenated phenom.

She was a vaudeville performer,
jazz vocalist and a dancer.

Snow was also 
a pre-eminent trumpet player.
Her trumpet playing was so outstanding,
that she was dubbed "Little Louie,"
a complimentary nickname after Louis Armstrong.
Armstrong stated that Snow was
The second best trumpet player after himself.

***

Twenty-one years before Marilyn Monroe
sang the song in the 1960 film, Let's Make Love,
Valaida Snow recorded  My Heart Belongs to Daddy. 

***

If you were from Denmark or Switzerland,
you might be able to identify
the musicians in this photograph.

If you were from Denmark or Switzerland,
you wouldn't need me to tell you
about the talent of Valaida Snow.


A fellow bloggerista  can better
describe her talents than I can.

I am much better at relying
on your hyper-linking talents.

But this is fact:
Ms. Snow spent two years
imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp.

I am much better at praying to the likes of Oprah Winfrey.
Hoping that she takes some of her money that isn't being  spent on giving an entire audience
brand-new cars and uses that money to make a documentary or bio-pic about  Valaida Snow.  

* (TIN/TI #1)  = This Is Not...This Is...  Exhibit  #1)

   (TIN/TI #2)  is  here. 
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