The Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band began in June 2016, when trumpeter Shaye Cohn put together an all-female band for a Girls Rock New Orleans benefit. The band gelled so well they kept going — with Marla Dixon (of the Shotgun Jazz Band) on trumpet and vocals, Chloe Feoranzo on clarinet, Haruka Kikuchi on trombone, Molly Reeves on guitar, Julie Schexnayder on bass, and Defne "Dizzy" Incirlioglu on piano. Kikuchi brought a Kid Ory-inspired trombone voice to the front line, and the whole group plays the music with a polish that has won them festival dates and devoted crowds.
They hold down regular spots at Preservation Hall, the Spotted Cat, Maison Frenchmen, Fritzel's, and Three Muses, and they have carried the music well beyond New Orleans — a fan review on their Bandcamp page notes catching them at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy.
Their records show range and taste: Le Donne Mangiano Zucchero (2017), A Woman's Place (2018) — a set drawn from women composers of the 1910s–1930s — The Boy in the Boat (2019), and the Summer Selections EP (2023), five choice selections recorded by Big Tone Records.
