Margie Gibson (2)

African-American arranger, composer, and conductor (born 1917 in Baltimore, MD – died after 1945)

The New England Conservatory of Music-trained Gibson was the only female big band jazz arranger of the swing era. She started working for Benny Goodman in January 1941. In addition, she worked as a freelance arranger for Harry James, Count Basie, and Jimmie Lunceford.

Margie Gibson composed "Let the Door Knob Hitcha" (1941), "Take It" (1941), "Answer Man" (1941), "Beau Brummel" (with her husband, Bill Grey, 1941), "Deuces Wild" (1942), and "Special Delivery" (also with Bill Grey, 1942).

In 1943, Gibson and her husband followed bandleader Charlie Spivak to the West Coast and settled, at least for a while, in Los Angeles. In early 1945, Bill Grey assembled a new big band that used his wife's arrangements and played the "Club Alabam."