Rosetta Records Project: Celebrating Women in Early Blues and Jazz Music
Rosetta Reitz surrounded by performers from the "Blues Is A Woman" concert at the Newport Jazz Festival, 1980. (Standing, L to R): Koko Taylor, Linda Hopkins, George Wein, Rosetta Reitz, Adelaide Hall, Little Brother Montgomery, Big Mama Thornton, Beulah Bryant; (Seated, L to R): Sharon Freeman, Sippie Wallace, Nell Carter). Courtesy of the Rosetta Reitz Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Used by Permission of Rebecca Reitz.
A series of LPs from SPINSTER and Americana Music Productions celebrating the centennial of Rosetta Reitz and her legendary feminist record label Rosetta Records
Over three curated albums, this project creatively responds to Rosetta Records’ pioneering compilations of rarely-reissued, hard-to-find early blues and jazz recordings with historical research, original writing, archival images, and new transfers of rare audio in best sound. Each LP also welcomes contemporary writers, artists, and organizers to engage with Reitz’s own extensive and illuminating research and to continue the critical unfinished work of her life: to elevate Black women’s popular music from the 78 RPM era.
RELEASE 1: JAILHOUSE BLUES. A remastered and expanded edition of the iconic and now out-of-print 1987 Rosetta Records LP Jailhouse Blues, which features field recordings made by women incarcerated at Parchman Penitentiary in the 1930s and liner notes by Bernice Johnson Reagon. This phase of the project will include a working group to collaborate with Black feminist organizers in Mississippi and ensure that the album has a presence in the region where the music was originally recorded. All proceeds will be donated to an abolitionist organization in Mississippi.
RELEASE 2: INDEPENDENT WOMEN’S BLUES. A new compilation of rare 78 RPM recordings inspired by Reitz’s “Independent Women’s Blues” series, recontextualizing the brilliant artistry and independent spirit of classic masters like Bessie Smith and lesser-known luminaries like Hattie Burleson.
“When I started working on The Color Purple, I was listening to the women on the [Independent Women's Blues Volume 1] Mean Mothers album. I love the way they dealt with sexuality, with relationships with men.” – Alice Walker
Release 3: OLD & NEW BLUES. Old & New Blues, inspired by an unrealized idea in Reitz’s archive, features newly recorded versions of songs reissued on Rosetta Records LPs–giving contemporary artists the opportunity to reimagine the landmark music of women in pre- and post-war blues and jazz.
"Old & New Blues" image "Courtesy of the Rosetta Reitz Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Used by Permission of Rebecca Reitz.
ABOUT ROSETTA REITZ:
Rosetta Reitz (1924-2008) was a feminist, educator, jazz historian, record label owner, record producer, Village Voice critic, food writer, author, independent bookstore and greeting card company owner, organizer, and mother. Scholar Daphne Brooks calls her “a beast of a collector, a superwonk who, above all else, devoted her life to Black women’s sonic cultures, and a woman who would ultimately produce some of the most extensive and trenchant critical thought and writing about Black women musicians that had ever been published.
ABOUT ROSETTA RECORDS:
Owned and operated by feminist polymath Rosetta Reitz, Rosetta Records (1979-1991) was the first and only record label specializing exclusively in 1920s-1950s women’s blues and jazz music. To this day, none of the label’s 19 releases have ever been reissued.
ABOUT THE TEAM:
SPINSTER is a radical feminist record label that supports a diverse range of musicians who explore territory across the traditional, radical, and experimental. Learn more at spinstersounds.com. The SPINSTER team includes Emily Hilliard and Michelle Dove. Emily is the folklorist at Berea College and is the author of the book Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia (UNC Press, 2022). Michelle works in the English Department at Duke University and teaches creative writing at Duke and Night School Bar. Her book of linked short prose is Radio Cacophony (Big Lucks Books, 2016).
AMERICANA MUSIC PRODUCTIONS collaborates with musicians, estates, record labels, museums, and other entities to preserve archives and share the important stories found in them through historical releases, exhibitions, writing, discographies, and more. Learn more at digamericana.com. AMP’s team includes Sophie Abramowitz, David Beal, Parker Fishel, Fran Mayo, and Matthew Rivera. Sophie is a writer, educator, and media producer, who holds a PhD in English Literature and American Studies and works at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. David is a writer and music archivist in New York. Parker is an archivist and researcher who has worked with the Bob Dylan Center, Carly Simon and the Leonard Cohen Family Trust. His book is Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine (Callaway, 2023). Fran is an independent real estate consultant who enjoys lending her marketing, branding, and project management skills to archival music projects. Matthew is a jazz archivist, writer, and radio programmer who runs the Hot Club of New York.
Research support for this project comes from:
The Independent Initiatives Award, funded by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, 2022-2023
The Mary Lily Research Grant, funded by the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, 2023-2024
The Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award, funded by the Library of Congress, 2024-2025
With additional support from the Estate of Rosetta Reitz