Posts Written by lalareina

Introducing Valaida Snow

This a woman I discovered over the summer and I have been sharing with all that will here:Valida Snow, a legend waiting to be discovered.

Valiada was born Tennesee on June 6, 1905 and by the time she was 15 she could play 8 musical instruments at a professional level including: the bass, violin, cello, clarinet, harp, sax, mandolin, but it was the trumpet she was most noted for. Louis Armstrong said she was “the second greatest trumpet player in the world”.

A singer, dancer, as well as musician and bandleader, Valiada performed with the largest bands on her era but turned down a chance to be a full-time featured performer with Duke Ellington in order to front her own all-female band as well as tour the world with other orchestras. While touring Europe singer Josephine Baker warned her it was time to go back to the US but Valaida ignored her. She was arrested by the Nazis in Denmark trying to buy morphine and placed in a concentration camp where she was held 18 months. Released weighing only 65 pounds in a prisoner exchange she was never the same. She died May 30, 1956 hours after a performance in NY. Valaida Snow, talent who ought to be remembered.

Here is a short piece on her