"Good Night, Sweet Blues" and the Legacy of Ida Cox: Jazz, Women, and Agency in Route 66 (1961)

Abstract

ow important can a single episode of a major television drama series be to American history? If the year is 1961, and the subject is jazz, then one episode, featuring black characters and black music, can signal a surprising, if still complicated, shift in popular consciousness. “Good Night, Sweet Blues” was a jazz-and-blues-themed episode, aired on October 6, 1961, in the CBS television drama series Route 66 (1960-64). The episode appeared just after Ida Cox had released her comeback album, Blues for Rampart Street (recorded and reported on in the New Yorker in April 1961 and released in late summer), which featured the Coleman Hawkins Quintet. In the television show, the quintet backs the character of Jennie Henderson, played by the singer Ethel Waters. However, instead of replicating the true story of how the album Blues for Rampart Street was produced, the episode