Jean Kittrell The “Red Hot Mama” of Dixieland Jazz, Has Died

Jean Kittrell, 91, August 14th in Edwardsville Illinois. She was a continuing presence in the midwestern Dixieland revival from 1957 until her retirement in 2008. She played piano in church as a child and majored in music theory at Blue Mountain College but didn't begin her long career in jazz until she was married 30 year old and the jams she and husband, trumpeter Ed Kittrell, would host at their home transitioned into The Chesapeake Bay Jass Band. The next year the Kittrells moved to Chicago where they played with the Chicago Stompers, even touring to Germany and the Netherlands for a month. Back home as her husband completed his education she pursued a Master's in Philosophy. By 1967, when she took a position as a composition teacher at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, she was juggling two young daughters, a jazz career, and directing her church choir. She also recorded a 1967 album of Bessie Smith songs w