TRUDY PITTS   

Hey Joan...Bright Moments!

It's ALWAYS a "Bright Moment" hearing from you with some "Sunshine" about your constant determination to travel through the world of "Jazz", as "Up Hill" as it always seems to be! I really admire you tenacity! Keep doing what you're doing, it's wonderful!

Hopefully your Spirit is being properly nutritionally fed with all of the variety of things that you make happen! My world is also holding it's own musically... check out my "Web Site", it's always being Up dated with New and Current stuff!!

Some really exciting events have been surfacing in my world, last year was incredible, and if God wills, this year will be just as, or even more exciting than last year! Let's you and I Pray on the success of our visions , our family, the health of our Body and Minds, Positive Creative Energy each day, and that hopefully, this year we'll finally SEE EACH OTHER once again!!!!

Keep sending me stuff,

Love, Peace, and Music,
Trudy

WOMEN IN JAZZ SITE CONTENTS

  1. Toshiko Akiyoshi
  2. Geri Allen
  3. Andrews Sisters
  4. Angela Andrews
  5. Lil Harden Armstrong
  6. Dorothy Ashby
  7. Pearl Bailey
  8. Beverly Barkley
  9. Karen Briggs
  10. Ruth Brown
  11. Diane Cameron
  12. Betty Carter
  13. Joan Cartwright
  14. Kim Clarke
  15. Gloria Coleman
  16. Alice Coltrane
  17. Dorothy Donegan
  18. Ella Fitzgerald
  19. Rita Graham
  20. Jace Harnage
  21. Billie Holiday
  22. Bertha Hope
  23. Shirley Horn
  24. Lena Horne
  25. Alberta Hunter
  26. Jus' Cynthia
  27. Sandra Kaye
  28. Emme Kemp
  29. Vinnie Knight
  30. Lavelle
  31. Peggy Lee
  32. Abbey Lincoln
  33. Melba Liston
  34. Gloria Lynne
  35. Tania Maria
  36. Marian McPartland
  37. Carmen McRae
  38. Mabel Mercer
  39. M'zuri
  40. Sandy Patton
  41. Trudy Pitts
  42. Cheryl Porter
  43. Shirley Scott
  44. Nina Simone
  45. Bessie Smith
  46. Carol Sudhalter
  47. Sarah Vaughn
  48. Dinah Washington
  49. Ethel Waters
  50. Mary Lou Williams

DIVA JOAN CARTWRIGHT

www.divajc.com

Trudy Pitts is a native Philadelphian who began playing piano at age six. Her mother, too, was a musician and inspired this family tradition. "My family was deeply involved in the church community," says Trudy, "and I started playing piano for Sunday school when I was about nine or ten. As time went on, I was introduced to the church organ, and I played organ in Sunday school."

Trudy later helped with the senior choir during the main services and from there went on to her own church choirs in various other settings. As she puts it, "It was just a musical atmosphere. You did whatever you had to do wherever you were."

Earning a degree in music education was only natural for this talented prodigy. She studied at Philadelphia's Musical Academy, Temple University, and Julliard, among other institutions. During these years she reached out to the classics and built a base from which future compositions and arrangements would spring.

Always seeking new musical challenges, Trudy accepted an offer to sit in the pit as an assistant to the pianist in the Tony Award-winning show "Raisin"', when it traveled through Philadelphia.

"I did that for the month or two that they were in town. Then, not too much later I got a call from the manager inquiring if I could join the company for the rest of the tour." [More. . .]