Theo Zwicky is not an unknown person even outside Switzerland: he was one of the few people who owned and lent a print of Black and Tan, the famous short from 1929 featuring Duke Ellington’s first performance on film. Theo collected musical film clips, but also photographs and musical recordings. The clips are from different sources: some are Soundies, but Theo also bought entire fiction feature films just for one musical clip, which he would then cut out and add into one of his programmes.
His very last presentation in 2016 at the Lichtspiel, where his clips and the accompanying documents found a new home after his passing, was a programme he called Women in Jazz: 1935 to 1952 (the selection presented here is based on this compilation by Zwicky). In his introduction at Lichtspiel, he described how it was only due to the war, that women finally got a place on stage and that some very successful all-female jazz ensembles appeared, two of which are featured in this programme. Women were allowed as singers and pianists, but not much else, even though they often had a classical music education and were often the ones who had to teach the men the songs, as they could read musical scores.

Brigitte Paulowitz

· Ina Ray Hutton & Her Melodears, Accent on Girls
· Helen Humes with The Count Basie Sextet, If I Could Be with You
· Taylor Maids, Mississippi Mud
· Ida James with The Nat King Cole Trio, Is You Is, or Is You Ain’t My Baby?
· Connie Haines with The Fred Thompson Sextet, Ol’man Mose
· Martha Davis Trio, We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye
· Dorothy Dandridge with The Cee Pee Johnson Orchestra, Swing for Your Supper
· Ella Fitzgerald, A Tisket a Tasket
· Rita Rio & Her Mistresses of Rhythm, La cucaracha
· Rita Rio, Sticks and Stones
· Martha Davis Trio, Martha’s Boogie
· Peggy Lee with Dave Barbour Quartet, vcl / with Dave Barbour Quartet, I May Be Wrong
· Hazel Scott Trio, Taking a Chance on Love
· Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Lucky Killinder Orchestra, Four or Five Times