‘I wouldn’t change skins with anybody’ Dulcie Pitt/Georgia Lee, a pioneering Indigenous Australian jazz, blues and community singer

Authors

  • Karl Neuenfeldt Queensland Conservatory of Music, Griffith University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v8i1-2.26773

Keywords:

Indigenous Australian music, Australian jazz and blues, Georgia Lee, Dulcie Pitt

Abstract

This article explores the career and music of Indigenous Australian singer and musician Dulcie Pitt, also known as Georgia Lee, and how music, race and gender intersected in her career. She had a distinguished career as an internationally recognized jazz, blues and folk singer and versatile entertainer from the 1940s to the 1970s. She performed extensively in Australia and Britain at cabarets, dances, concerts, nightclubs and theatres, as well as participating in numerous radio and television broadcasts, and sound recordings. Although there are currently other Indigenous jazz and blues artists in Australia, Dulcie Pitt/Georgia Lee is unique because she was a pioneer at a time when Indigenous peoples in general were the objects of widespread, legislated race-based discrimination. She rose above them through hard work and talent to set an example for other Indigenous performers to follow.

Author Biography

  • Karl Neuenfeldt, Queensland Conservatory of Music, Griffith University

    Dr Karl William Neuenfeldt is Adjunct Associate Professor at the Queensland Conservatory of Music, Griffith University, Australia.

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Published

2015-06-16

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Neuenfeldt, K. (2015). ‘I wouldn’t change skins with anybody’ Dulcie Pitt/Georgia Lee, a pioneering Indigenous Australian jazz, blues and community singer. Jazz Research Journal, 8(1-2), 202-222. https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v8i1-2.26773