Another female musician is one of the greatest bassists you never heard—Laura Bohle. She was known to the soldiers only as Laura from Chicago. Classically trained on bass, she handled the bow with a proficiency that even the best male bassists could only dream of and her formidable bass-walking abilities were second to none. Bohle was known among the soldiers and the other musicians alike as one of the best—if not THE best—bassist on the USO circuit. An impressive audition had won her a full scholarship to the Eastman School of Music and she was recommended for the Rochester Philharmonic. She wanted the freedom that touring offered and went on the road but found there were NO billets open for a female bassist except for all-female bands and, due to the dearth of them, the competition for a slot was fierce. While female vocalist could and did lead all-male backup bands, a female bassist doing the same was simply not going to happen. Although not illegal, it may as well have been.
Bohle’s chops were good enough, however, that she didn’t have to settle for a background role. She led her own all-female swing band. They would take to the stage for the USO and Laura would open playing a difficult arco (bowed) bass solo of a classical piece. She would build to a hot climax to applause and cheers from the soldiers and then ease off so that the brass could join in with a baroque fanfare as though the whole set was going to be classical but then the drums would kick in with a syncopated jazz beat, Laura would tuck her bow away, and the piece would mutate into a swing number as hot and gone as anything an all-male band could come up with. The usual piece would be “Trigger Fantasy” by Glenn Miller written by Miller’s bassist, Trigger Alpert, featuring difficult pizzicato (plucked) bass lines and solo which Laura would embellish to an even greater degree and yet dash it off effortlessly while the soldiers, starved for anything that reminded them of home, went crazy to hear a bunch of girls playing big band jazz as well as big band jazz can be played.
Laura Bohle entertaining the soldiers. Long before there was a Nicki Parrot or an Esperanza Spalding, there was Laura from Chicago. I can find no recordings of her.