Jane Sager (1914–2012) was an American big band trumpeter and bandleader.[1] Throughout her career, she played in the bands of Rita Rio, Ada Leonard, Katherine Dunham, Charlie Barnet, and Johnny Richards.
Sager was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 5, 1914.[2] She began playing violin at the age of six, and by the age of 14, she began performing in local venues.[3] [4] She attended college for violin, and continued her studies at the American Conservatory of Music.[2] She switched to playing trumpet after a car ran over her hand.[3]
In the 1930s, Sager began touring with all-female bands, such as the Traveling All-Woman Band led by One-Arm Miller.[4] At this time, she also performed with the Chicago Women's Symphony. In 1940, Sager was a founding member of the All-American Girl Orchestra led by Ada Leonard. Advertisements claimed the band featured the “World’s Greatest Girl Trumpeter Jane Sager”.[5] During World War II, the United Service Organizations contracted the orchestra to perform for enlisted troops.[4]
In 1942, Sager left the All-American Girl Orchestra and earned a spot in a band led by Johnny Richards. She left before they began touring and decided to remain in Los Angeles. She then joined The Victory Belles, a band led by Peggy Gilbert on a radio show geared toward servicemen.[5] She was also briefly in the International Sweethearts Of Rhythm.[2] In 1950, Sager joined the all-female band of Ina Ray Hutton that performed on The Ina Ray Hutton Show.[4]
While with the All-American Girl Orchestra, Sager met Mary Sawyer. Sager and Sawyer partnered to open a trumpet studio in Hollywood, California in the 1950s. The two also organized the Frivolous Five,[5] a musical comedy troupe which Sager led until the late 60s.[2] [6]
Later in her life, Sager primarily worked as a teacher in her studio. Her students included Roger Tillison, Chet Baker, and Herb Alpert.[7] Flea, another student of Sager, posited in his memoir Acid for the Children that "if Jane had been a man she'd be acclaimed as a great trumpeter, but sexism is a bitch, and she lived in that little apartment on Selma teaching the likes of me..."[8]
In 1997, Sager was granted the Pioneer Award by the International Women's Brass Conference.[3] In 2002, she was given a Lil Hardin Armstrong Jazz Heritage Award by the International Association for Jazz Education.[9]
She spent her final years in Morro Bay, California. Sager died in 2012.[1]