Valaida Snow (June 2, 1904 – May 30, 1956) was an African American jazz musician and entertainer. She was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Raised on the road in a show-business family, she learned to play cello, bass, banjo, violin, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone at professional levels by the time she was 15. She also sang and danced.
After focusing on the trumpet, she quickly became so famous at the instrument that she was named “Little Louis” after Louis Armstrong, who used to call her the world’s second best jazz trumpet player besides himself. She played concerts throughout the USA, Europe and China.
Her most successful period was in the 1930s when she became the toast of London and Paris. Around this time she recorded her hit song, “High Hat, Trumpet, and Rhythm.” She performed in the Ethel Waters show with her then husband Ananias “Nyas” Berry of the famous dancing Berry Brothers, “Rhapsody In Black”, in New York. In the mid-30s she made films with her husband, Ananias Berry, of the Berry Brothers dancing troupe (below the sing with Dan Daily in You’re My Everything in 1949). After playing New York’s Apollo Theater, she revisited Europe and the Far East for more shows and films.
Later she became addicted to morphine. While touring through Denmark in 1941, she was arrested by the Nazis and kept at Vestre Fængsel, a Danish prison in Copenhagen that was run by the Nazis (the German police), before being released on a prisoner exchange in May 1942. She said of the Nazis:
“They beat me, and fucked me in every hole I had. I was their whore. Their maid. A stool they stood on when they wanted to reach a little higher. But I never sang in their cage, Bobby. Not one note”
According to jazz historian Scott Yanow, “she never emotionally recovered from the experience”. She later married Earl Edwards. In the 1950s, she was unable to regain her former success.
Valaida Snow died of a brain hemorrhage on May 30, 1956 in New York City, backstage during a performance at the Palace Theater.
Editor’s Note: The photograph at the top of the article is new. The original photograph used in the original post will be researched more before being abandoned.
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That is a nice photo of a nice lady but she’s not Valaida Snow. This photo was taken in 1960 or later, you can tell by the cars in the background. Thanks for showing it anyway, it’s nice.
djill is right: The lady with the trumpet on the photo in the street is none other than Mrs. Donald Byrd, wife of the hard bop trumpet man. And it was shot by William Claxton in 1957. This is not the only place in the internet where the picture is wrongly attributed to Valaida (but the only place I could comment on). It would be nice if you could change that error as not to further perpetuate it.
Wow. When I first glimpsed the photo, I knew that it was not Valaida Snow. There are similarities, though.
The quote above, “They beat me…,” has been attributed to the FICTIONAL work of John Edgar Wideman (1989). “Valaida.” Fever: Twelve Stories. ISBN 978-0-8050-1184-5. Valaida is a maid in Wideman’s fictional characterization.
There many “story shifts” surrounding the detainment of Valaida Snow. Certain “artistic liberties” have, seemingly, been exercised to reshape what was Snow’s real life story. The truth is so blurry.
As an avid history buff and documentarian, I am hesitant about repeating information that has not been verified through primary and secondary archival records. The New York Public Library has four, vast research units with reference librarians ready, willing and able to assist.
I am curious. I would like to see the documentation that names the other person in the “prisoner exchange.” Who (in the US government) negotiated the exchange? Out of all of the possible prisoner exchange considerations – why was Valaida chosen? Was it her musician peers who served as catalysts (solicitors) for that exchange? Better yet, Did an exchange ever take place? There are so many unanswered questions. When the non-fictional dots are connected, it could lend itself to a really good non-fictional read.
Thank you, the photo has been fact checked a number of times and all dots lead back to this being a photo of Ms. Snow.
The other information you mention we will look into and see if you can find more information.
Thank you,
HW