Blanche Dorothea Jones Calloway (February 9, 1902 – December 16, 1978) was an American jazz singer, composer, and bandleader.

[3] With a music career that spanned over fifty years, Calloway was the first woman to lead an all-male orchestra[1] and performed alongside musicians such as Cozy Cole, Chick Webb, and her brother.

[4] The family had originally lived in Baltimore prior to Rochester but had left due to tough times with the crash of the real estate market where Cabell II worked.

[4] The date of Cabell II's death is debatable, some sources argue that he passed after the family had moved to Baltimore on October 15, 1913.

[4] Another source claims that he died in 1910, and her mother married insurance salesman John Nelson Fortune a few years later.

'[4] Even in her youth, Blanche Calloway was a singer, starting in choir concerts given by the local Grace Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.

[4][6] Calloway made her professional debut in Baltimore in 1921 with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle's musical Shuffle Along.

The club, the Sunset, became her main stage and where Cab Calloway likewise worked after his move to Chicago.

[4][7] She became popular in the Chicago scene and would continue to tour nationally,[1] performing at New York's Ciro Club in the mid-1920s.

Blanche Calloway attended in Wheeling, West Virginia, appearing in “The September Show” as the main attraction.

[8] She would go on to form another big band, Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys,[2] which included Ben Webster on tenor saxophone and Cozy Cole on drums.

A version of the Joy Boys would tour, featuring Cozy Cole still on drums, Bennie Moten, Andy Kirk, Chick Webb, and Zack Wythe.

In response, the police were called, an orchestra member was pistol whipped, and both he and Calloway were jailed for disorderly conduct and fined $7.50.

[1] As a musician, Calloway had a reputation for being "exceptional",[1] but was given few opportunities outside of being a singer or dancer due to gender roles of the time.

Calloway helped her brother get his first role on stage, in Plantation Days, when another cast member fell ill. She may have served as the influence for Cab's signature "Hi De Ho" chant in his song "Minnie the Moocher".

[3] In 1940 she formed a short-lived all-women orchestra, feeding on the popularity of all-female bands during World War II.

She became an active member of the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality, also serving on the board of the National Urban League.