This woman was born 80 years too early. Back in the 1930s, female drummer Viola Smith had chops that could match any man. In all honesty, she had more skill than most modern drummers have today. In ...

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 ...

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 ...

Boundary-breaking swing drummer Viola Smith, who worked with legendary jazz entertainers Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb, has died at the age of 107. Smith reportedly passed away Wednesday in Costa ...

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, 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, 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, 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 ...

In the 1930s, she 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. Viola Smith, a native of Mount ...