Billie Rogers
| Billie Rogers | |
|---|---|
Billie Rogers in a 1944 advertisement
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Zelda Louise Smith |
| Born |
31 May 1917 North Plains, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | 18 January 2014 (aged 96) |
| Genres | Jazz, swing, big band |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, bandleader |
| Instruments | Trumpet |
| Years active | 1927–1947 |
| Labels | Decca, MCA, V-Disc, Musicraft, Majestic |
| Associated acts | Woody Herman, Jerry Wald, Tommy Pederson |
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. She shared the distinction as a pioneering female jazz trumpeter with Valaida Snow.
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.
Rogers was born May 31, 1917 in North Plains, Oregon. Her family moved to Rainier, Washington, before she was 2 and remained there until age 13. She attended elementary school and first year of high school at Rainier, a small rural community 17 miles inland from Olympia. Rogers skipped two grades and graduated from high school at Renton, Washington, on the day after her 16th birthday.
She was raised in a family of musicians. Her father, William Cody Smith (1885–1970), played violin, alto sax, and banjo. Her mother, Bertha Emde (née Fleming; 1892–1976) played ragtime piano and accordion. Her older brother, Lester Smith (1913–1936), was proficient on sax. Her younger brother, Kenneth Gaylord Smith (1920–2005), played sax. She also had a younger sister, Alice V. (Mrs. Olaf Hemnes; 1924–1996).
During the years in Rainier, the family formed a band called "Smith's Rainier Entertainers," composed of Billie's father, mother, her brother Les, herself, and a hired drummer. Billie played trumpet and sang through a megaphone.
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