Floye “Flo” Dreyer

Floye “Flo” Dreyer, a trumpeter whose career stretched from the all-female swing bands of the 1940s to community ensembles in South Florida late in life, died March 2. She was 98.

Born August 1, 1927, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Dreyer left home at 14 to pursue music professionally. By fifteen she had joined Joy Cayler’s 16-piece all-girl swing band as first trumpet, touring widely and performing USO shows during World War II.

She soon joined the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the most celebrated all-female jazz orchestra of the swing era. The band, active from the late 1930s through the 1940s, toured major American theaters and dance halls and became the most prominent women’s jazz ensemble of the period. Dreyer played first trumpet with the Sweethearts during the later years of the group’s touring life, appearing in clubs, theaters, and one-nighters across the United States.

In the 1950s, she formed one of the first all-women bands to tour internationally under a female bandleader. The group performed extended engagements in South America, including a long residency in Caracas, Venezuela.

After returning to the United States, Dreyer organized the Flo Dreyer Quintet in New York. The group worked steadily on the club and hotel circuit and remained together for several years, touring widely throughout the United States and abroad. Their travels took them to Canada, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Greenland, Newfoundland, and Hawaii. An album they recorded can still be heard on Spotify.

In later decades, Dreyer settled in South Florida, where she remained musically active. She performed with ensembles including the North Miami Concert Band and the Hallandale Symphonic Pops Orchestra, continuing to play publicly into her late eighties.