We were chatting and watching the dogs play, when Jen’s cell phone rang. After the call, she said, “Pardon me, but I need to go perform an autopsy on a rhinoceros.”

Jen works at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, where she’s a diagnostic pathologist. Her particular interest in diagnosing cancers, but she sees all kinds of animals who have died from all sorts of maladies.

Outside the lab, Jen’s love of gourmet food is matched by her voracious appetite for books. She also plays trombone with Ladies Must Swing, an all-woman jazz band. Their set list includes old-time classics like “Chatanooga Choo Choo,” and “Tuxedo Junction”–two hits by bandleader and fellow trombonist Glenn Miller.

Jen and her LMS bandmates are a toe-tapping reminder that women have been an important part of jazz since its inception:

In jazz’s early years, female instrumentalists usually formed all-women jazz bands or played in family-based groups. Stepping up into the professional jazz world was a difficult feat for many women… During the later years of World War II, when many male jazz musicians had been drafted into the military, a number of all-women jazz bands began to become popular.

 

Even though many women jazz artists were held to the era’s rigid standards of glamour — strapless gowns, high-heeled shoes — they gradually began to be hired in many of the big bands, including those led by Woody Herman and Gerald Wilson. Once WWII ended though, many women instrumentalists were let go as GI jazz musicians returned to reclaim their jobs. The few women who remained in the mostly male bands often faced harsh criticism and sexual harassment from their bandmates.

 

Women leading smaller jazz groups slowly became more common. Some of the famous women small combo leaders were Barbara Carroll, Hazel Scott, Nellie Lutcher, Hadda Brooks, and Marian McPartland. (NPR)