This article is about the jazz musician. For other uses, see William Rogers.
Billie Rogers
Billie Rogers circa 1943
Background information
Birth name
Zelda Louise Smith
Born
(1917-05-31)May 31, 1917 North Plains, Oregon, U.S.
Died
January 18, 2014(2014-01-18) (aged 96)
Genres
Jazz, swing, big band
Occupation(s)
Musician, bandleader
Instrument(s)
Trumpet
Years active
1927–1947
Labels
Decca, MCA, V-Disc, Musicraft, Majestic
Musical artist
Billie Rogers (née Zelda Louise Smith) (May 31, 1917 – January 18, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter and singer who was a member of Woody Herman's band from 1941 to 1943. She led her own band in 1943. At the end of that year, she joined Jerry Wald's band and remained a member until October 1945, when she left to form her own sextet.
Rogers is credited as the first woman to hold a horn position in a major jazz orchestra.[1][2]
Woody Herman discovered Rogers in August 1941. After his band had finished for the evening at the Palladium Ballroom Cafe in Hollywood, Herman had gone to a small Los Angeles night club on the advice of his road manager where Rogers was singing and playing trumpet. Impressed, he asked for an introduction. Sammy Cahn, the songwriter, introduced them, and within a few minutes Herman hired her for his Blues on Parade band. She made her debut at the Panther Room of the Sherman Hotel in Chicago.
^Gene Lees, Leader of the Band: The Life of Woody Herman, Oxford University Press (1995) OCLC 32013538 ISBN 019505671X ISBN 9780195056716 ISBN 0195115740 ISBN 9780195115741
^William D. Clancy, with Audree Coke Kenton, foreword by Steve Allen, Woody Herman: Chronicles of the Herds, Schirmer Books (1995) OCLC 243809412, 31435792, 462271707
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music influences are Justin Bieber, H.E.R., Kehlani, and Billie Eilish. On February 28, 2019, Rogers released her debut single "Tomboy," following recording...
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mid-1940s. Herman and his band appear in the movie New Orleans (1947) with Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. In 1947, Herman was Emcee and also played at...
formed in Auckland in late 2007 with Emily Edrosa on guitar and vocals, BillieRogers on bass and backing vocals and Mikey Sperring on drums, originally with...
is the debut studio album by American indie pop singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers, released on January 18, 2019, by Debay Sounds and Capitol Records. With...
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and quarterfinal victories came in three sets. In the Fed Cup (eventually Billie Jean King Cup) in 2019, she was a hitting partner for the British team....
1936. Other versions that year were by Guy Lombardo and Teddy Wilson with Billie Holiday. The song was sung by Fred Astaire in the 1936 film Swing Time in...
the cast were Oscar Levant, Billie Burke, Jacques François and Gale Robbins. It is the last film that Astaire and Rogers made together, and their only...
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