William Palmer
Music & Rum
Anacaona: The Amazing Adventures of Cuba’s First All-Girl Dance Band
By Alicia Castro, with Ingrid Kummels (Translated by Steven Murray)
Atlantic Books 394pp £19.99 order from our bookshop
Before reading this book I knew of only two other all-women bands. One was The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a swinging big band in America during the Second World War; the other was the immortal, if fictional, Sweet Sue’s Syncopators in the film Some Like It Hot. The Cuban band Anacaona is a worthy addition to this short and exclusive list, more remarkable in that it was made up of eleven sisters.
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