Join host Rodney Stepp for the first episode in a three-part series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Naptown vocalist and keyboardist Sarah McLawler.
Born in Louisville in 1926, McLawler grew up in Indianapolis, where she studied music, sang in the choir at Crispus Attucks High School, and began performing jazz on Indiana Avenue. By the late 1940s, she had moved to Chicago, where she established herself as a pianist and vocalist with the all-woman jazz quartet the Syn-Co-Ettes.
This episode traces McLawler’s early recording career, from her 1950 debut single to her recordings for King and Brunswick Records. Hear her evolution from vocalist and pianist to Hammond organist, a role that would become central to her career.
