Not every creative pioneer becomes in icon. But Matthew Winkler, A25, is combining his love of history and music to give one groundbreaking artist, Joya Sherrill, her due. Sherrill sang on Duke Ellington’s hits; became the first female jazz singer to visit the Soviet Union, alongside Benny Goodman; and later hosted Joya’s Fun School, a popular children’s TV show in New York. 

Despite her successes, as a Black woman in the 1940s and 1950s, Sherrill never received the same attention as her male peers. Winkler hopes to elevate her profile with a 15-minute documentary he wrote and associate produced, now in post-production. 

David Proctor, distinguished senior lecturer of history and classical studies, urged Winkler to pursue independent research with support of the Laidlaw Scholars Program. Jennifer Burton, professor of the practice in theatre, dance, and performance studies, whose work often spotlights marginalized American women in history, then partnered with him to create the documentary through her independent film company, Five Sisters Productions. It’s slated to debut this spring.

How does a history and music major come to create a documentary?

It’s a crazy story. I had no prior experience in film. Freshman year, I got a job as a research assistant for author Larry Tye, a career journalist at the Boston Globe. He was writing a book on jazz about Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong.

One day, I woke up to a list of research questions that he wanted me to answer. One of those was: “Who wrote the lyrics to ‘Take the A Train’?” Through that, I discovered Joya Sherrill. The more I looked into her life, the more I was astonished by how many remarkable things she did that are largely unknown.

Why is she so special?

Just as I never wanted to do film, she never wanted to do music. She wanted to be a writer. She grew up in Detroit in the 1930s, when it was remarkable for a Black girl in America to dream of becoming a writer. Her writing appeared in Detroit newspapers when she was in middle school.

She listened to a record of “Take the A Train,” a Glenn Miller version with no lyrics, and she wanted to sing along, so she wrote her own. She showed these lyrics to her father. He found a way to put his daughter in touch with Duke Ellington when he visited Detroit. She was a 17-year-old at this point and never had a music lesson her entire life. He mistook her for a professional singer and asked her where she was working. She said, ‘Sir, I’m in high school.’ 

He asked her to keep in touch, and that was the start of their relationship. She sang on ‘I’m Beginning to See the Light,’ one of his best-selling records. In 1962, she was the first singer in Benny Goodman’s tour of the Soviet Union—the first time an American jazz singer ever performed there.

What do you think kept Sherrill from becoming a household name?

Women in jazz had much less power than men. Another factor is her own upbringing within upper-middle-class Black Detroit, and her understanding of her role as a woman. I don’t think she felt comfortable or like she had the right to speak out against powerful men marginalizing her. 

Her resilience really struck a chord with me. She had a talk show, which got canceled, so she turned it into a kids’ TV show, because women were expected to make kids’ TV shows. She didn’t complain; she then went on to make one of most beloved TV shows in the ’70s in the New York area. There are so many of those inspiring examples.

Why is this your passion project?

I was shocked to see how many groundbreaking contributions to American history she made. I thought I could make a real public impact with this film. It’s one thing to do academic research, seen by academics. It’s another thing to make a public-facing documentary. 

Public-facing history is very important to me. I hope this film will make people know who Joya Sherrill is and why we should care about her. On a broader level, I think a documentary like this will make people realize how easy it is for remarkable figures to fall through the cracks of history.