#WomanCrushWednesday! 6/16

It’s time for #WomanCrushWednesday! This week we are celebrating the life and accomplishments of Valaida Snow. Ms. Snow was a master trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist as well as a fixture in early Hollywood films. Blues legend and composer W.C. Handy heard her play and consequently dubbed her “Queen of the Trumpet”, and Louis Armstrong himself called Snow “the world’s second best jazz trumpet player”, besides himself. Born in Chattanooga Tennessee, Snow was an incredibly talented musician at a young age. By the time she was 15, she had learned to play the cello, bass, banjo, violin, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone in addition to being able to sing and dance.
Snow enjoyed an immense amount of success, but her highest point came during the 1930s. During this period alone, she recorded her hit song “High Hat, Trumpet, and Rhythm”, became the talk of the town across Europe in such cities as London and Paris, played Ethel Waters show Rhapsody in Black, made films with her husband Ananias Berry (of the Berry Brothers dancing troupe). She then traveled back to Europe and Asia to film and perform more shows. This would, unfortunately, lead to a life-changing event which would impact Snow for the rest of her life.
In Denmark, 1941, Snow was captured by the Nazis and kept in a Danish prison in Copenhagen. She was released in a prisoner exchange in May 1942, where it was rumored that her friendship with a Belgian police official helped board her on a ship carrying foreign diplomats. Sadly, as jazz historian Scott Yanow describes, “she never emotionally recovered from the experience”. Snow passed away May 30, 1956, in New York City, backstage during a performance at the Palace Theater.
To learn more about Ms. Valaida Snow, we encourage you to visit the New York Times obituary detailing her incredible life.