everything we do has got a deep element of groove and swing to it my name is
sherry Huckle and I'm a jazz drummer composer and a
bandleader when I started first started playing music in fourth grade I guess I
was about age 11 it was in concert band there wasn't really any other
opportunities and that of course in middle school I remember morphing into
kind of having an interest for the drumset and actually when I was 11 is
when my life changed when I went to see Buddy Rich in his killer force Orchestra
at the Forum in Binghamton New York
had never heard jazz in my life and that band hit and I got every hair I had my
body stood up on end and I flipped out and I was on the edge of my seat and I
ran home and I said mom mom I heard this music it's jazz and it's a big band and
this drummer is amazing and I have to play drums and I have to be in a big
band and she's over sure pat pat on the head like she didn't know what I was
talking about that's exactly what I've always wanted to do since that moment
and I'm still trying to do that by the time I got into its a high school of
course there was a jazz ensemble enough at first I was too a little bit too
nervous or intimidated to audition for it because you know no I young women or
girls were ever in the band before again teacher said to me and I think he
literally said something see when I was expressing my but there's no no girl has
ever played the drums before he's like what are you stupid
something to that effect go on audition what are you crazy so I just I did and
then of course that was that in that high school like full steam ahead like
this is what I'm doing so when I finished undergrad school all I wanted
to do was go to New York and play jazz I got into NYU and grad school much to my
oh my gosh great excitement now Lewis was on the Jazz faculty got the study
with no Lewis sometimes my lesson would literally I remember playing the third
set at the vanguard with his band Village Vanguard 21 scared out of my
mind like this can't be a drum lesson but you didn't do you have to teach me
things first and then stick me in that situation but that was remarkable and
that Mel was in the audience and he beat literally the I mean they don't do three
sets anymore but he would be out there play louder go to this symbol would be
telling me directions and I was like oh my god these could I hope these paying
people are drunk here to hear somebody getting schooled
in the art of big band drumming and then we stayed friends until he um sadly
passed away he was a huge influence on me
and all of my everything artistically musically jazz wise and swing wise have
some deep roots in my heart and soul is you know tightly wound up with no
all of us think about these real pivotal moments in our life may of 1990 I was a
pickup just the drummer for an event the 75th anniversary of the Shubert Theatre
in New Haven Connecticut so I'm just there hires the drummer in came this
great amazing dancer named Maurice Hines and his conductor Stanley Stanley Kaye
was a mpresario maestro composer drummer one
of the best humans that ever ever was in the music business and he was on many
iconic we'll call call them pop acts of the of
the 50s like the Frankie laine a mule train and I know he's the drummer around
how much is that doggy in the window he was a manager he managed a lot of people
in show business he was also involved in many Broadway productions and one of his
most interesting jobs was being the manager and assistant drummer of the
Buddy Rich band took over in 1946 at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago and he said the
first thing that buddy made him do was go out and fire a whole bunch of people
in the back nobody even knew who he was but Stanley played drums with buddy with
buddy's band it but he didn't want to play because like a feat we wanted to
sing or but he was a great tap dancer and sometimes they the the band played
for different acts like warm-up acts and Stanley would play drums it anyway
I'm playing along and I was like wow these charts are great they're so
swingin and so fun like you would imagine after the concert was over I
made a point to talk to Stanley I was like you're the mr. K that was with the
Buddy Rich and blooded out and he's like yes and we made a pact to stay in touch
Stanley Kaye told me that he was had been in these various aspects of show
business like Broadway television and he was just he missed the band business his
roots were in the band business so he just said I I wanted to get back into
jazz business and his favorite style was big-band music and he he just you know I
want to do this but I there's so many big bands around he I never see any
women playing this playing this music or in any of these big bands very
thankfully he remembered that he saw me that was his motivation he was I want to
do this but I want to give a whole bunch of women an opportunity to do this
because I haven't seen it since this into sweethearts our rhythm which is a
very famous all woman band in the 19th
June or May of 92 Stanley called me and he said hey do you
know other women musicians that play like you at first I was like I hope that
means good coming from Buddy Rich's manager who thought I played good wow
what a compliment I was like I do and he wanted to start a big band and it was as
simple as that and in June we had an audition myself a amazing teacher writer
educator John labarbera who was friends with Stanley from the Buddy Rich band
and myself we put word word out and every through every resource we could
think of that hey this Stanley cake is starting a new big band he wants it to
be women and who wants to audition so 40 people came from all over the world we
picked the original 15 and that was in June of 92 and our first gig was in
March of 1993
when we did the audition he said there's if I he had very high standards and that
was the motivation for the original 15 members to be in the group still today
and many times people uh ask women to do things be code you play okay but you
know you know show some cleavage or put on a miniskirt or put on lipstick which
is absurd but believe me even today some of that still goes on he didn't care
about anything except if you can play you can play I don't think there's any
difference between a woman playing or a man plant as I always said if you can
play you can play if you can't play you can't play and we're gonna form this
band all the music is going to be original either original arrangements or
originals and the whole thing was just so exciting and coming from such a deep
and serious place of I just I'm gonna make some great hard swinging music and
let's give people a chance if I who I haven't seen in my lifetime having an
opportunity to do this and that was women so that's that was his motivation
when the diva jazz orchestra did our our first gig which was happen to be at New
York University March 30th 1993 all women playing jazz music are doing
anything and a traditionally male-dominated field never in a million
years put their gender above their craft or what they're doing no woman and jazz
ever goes around thinking oh I'm a woman in jazz
we are by default it's always we're just in jazz so you gotta be careful if we
find out how you say but sherry pointed it out to me it's it's a good band or a
great thing so but you have to say but they'll all happen to be women
historically it's been there's been articles published in downbeat why women
can't play jazz in the 1940s and all kinds of crazy reasons we got reviewed
in the Midwest one time and the reviewer said the last thing I wanted to do on
Saturday was go see a bunch of girls play a watered-down version of in the
mood and then boy was I wrong you know so that that people sometimes
just just because the band is women immediately brings all kinds of things
to mind I think it's oh it's better much better
today and actually there's a backtrack for a second there's an amazing film
called the girls in the band that's the history of women jazz instrumentalist
and it asks a lot of women who are a hundred right
now about their experience in the sweethearts of rhythm and other other
performing experiences back in the 30s and 40s if you consider that you're
working under a handicap to try to make profession of being a jazz pianist as a
woman well it has never been a handicap being true and I really don't think
about it I just think of myself as a musician working without a musician and
they say a lot of the same things that I could tell you today that still happens
which is remarkable like the progress that's if there is progress but it's
very slow the progress today of having like the Jazz at Lincoln Center
orchestra having blind auditions is really important because people do
listen with their eyes first and if they see you they'll have a different
perception if they just listen to you play it's a hundred percent true for all
of us me too everybody is just the natural thing
all the music is menus the term straight ahead
meaning it's deeply rooted in the tradition of swing I don't mean I don't
mean swing necessarily like a dance fans swing but I mean Count Basie and Woody
Herman or Buddy Rich might have been coming from even if it's an original
tune I want there to be a lot of melody can be reharmonization would like but I
want people do I want people they snap their fingers and tap their feet and
smile the diva jazz orchestras music library is all original to their
original arrangements of standards or more original pieces of music starting
with our newest CD is called 25th anniversary project and all the music on
there is original it was composed by me and nine of my bandmates so it's amazing
to have a band of 15 people or 12 of them are extraordinary writers in
arrangers some of the writers we've had a great time you Newsom and I mentioned
Jon LaBarbera the women in the band it's a great writer in Los Angeles named
Scott Whitfield but Michael and Manny Ellen drove one of the best writers I
know just a lot of great composers whatever the diva jazz orchestra is
doing a performance we certainly offer immediately any kind of outreach that
the venue might suggest where we could do the most good so sometimes that means
bringing in several dozen sometimes actually sometimes hundreds and hundreds
of school kids to do some general QA and talkback and demonstrations to private
lessons instrumental essence two lessons an improvisation and jazz history one of
the most fun things we like to do is is group lessons like all the trombones go
with our trombone section and work on music together and you know instruments
specific and style wise a lot of things like telling kids like this is how you
make this swing and that's kind of what our mission keep the world swinging the
original members of diva are me and our lead trumpet Lisa Whitaker many people
have been in the band over 20 years we have a very very a lot of longevity
which is really to me is remarkable that people are very dedicated and loved
playing in the group the opportunity to bring this music as as as women to is
real then all over Japan and all over the Western Europe into South America
and all the places we've been blessed to go and from the Hollywood Bowl to
Carnegie Hall that we just replayed at the NEA jazz masters Awards
last year we've done really had some amazing experiences in them just keep it
keep them going and you know what men playing the band - it's on our website
it's everyone who's ever played in diva we try to keep track of it because
gender never surpasses talent chery chery makes me proud she she's dedicated
she cares she's the backbone of the bench he keeps it going the musicianship
was superb she's a finer range and a wonderful composer and we're proud the
diva jazz orchestra has been it's been booked for over half of my life it's
been like the center of what I've done musically I love it we're still doing it
27 years later I congratulate them because without the product I could
maneuver all day long but without the product I would have nothing we got a
good product we got a great product
you