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Viola Smith, who played a giant 12-piece drum kit and was billed as the “fastest girl drummer in the world” — and who wrote a widely read essay during World War II advocating for big bands to hire ...

Viola Smith, the pioneering musician known as the “fastest girl drummer in the world,” has died. Per the New York Times, her nephew recently confirmed that she died in her Costa Mesa, California home ...

Viola Smith, a Costa Mesa resident and pioneering musician of the swing era who was billed in the 1930s as the “fastest girl drummer in the world,” has died. She was 107. Smith died Wednesday at her ...

Viola Smith, the trailblazing drummer once heralded as the “fastest girl drummer in the world,” has died, The Washington Post reports. She was 107 years old. According to The Post, Smith died October ...

Viola Smith, who will turn 103 later this month, received a mayor’s proclamation Oct. 31 from Costa Mesa Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch for being a living legend at a special tribute at the Orange ...

Legendary jazz musician Viola Smith (1912–2020) gets a much-deserved spotlight in Robbins’s ringing tribute. Onomatopoeic lines describe Smith’s childhood exposure to drums as the youngest member of ...

Viola Smith, one of the first professional women drummers of the 20th century, recently celebrated her 106th birthday. The Costa Mesa resident is still going strong, teaching techniques to the drummer ...

In the 1930s, Viola Smith was billed as the “world's fastest girl drummer,” and she went on to see other female drummers follow her trailblazing path over the next nine decades. A native of Mount ...

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