Sherrie Maricle (center) and the DIVA Jazz Ensemble

Last night marked the start of the Kennedy Center‘s 15th Annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival. The event, held in honor of one of the great jazz composers of the last century, brings together some of the country’s finest musicians to celebrate the contribution women have made to the jazz idiom.

Tonight, one of the headlining performers is the DIVA Jazz Ensemble, an all-female big band operating under the leadership of its drummer, the swingin’ Sherrie Maricle.

“All the women in DIVA are great instrumentalists, great creative soloists, and great sight readers,” said Maricle during a recent interview with DCist. “Our goal is just to play music that swings and makes people tap their foot.”

DIVA is the brainchild of Stanley Kay, a music industry veteran who once managed legendary drummer Buddy Rich and his band. In 1990, Kay was conducting a big band featuring Maricle on drums. Taken with her playing, he dreamed up the idea of assembling an entire big band featuring women who could play at the same level, an idea that Maricle didn’t take to immediately.

“I shied away from all-women’s situations, because they weren’t very good,” Maricle explained. “But because Stanley was involved, I knew this would be musically serious and exciting.”