Terry, née Combes (1901-1966) was an American bandleader and bassist during the 1920s and 1930s. She fronted Thelma Terry and Her Playboys and was the first American woman to lead a notable jazz orchestra as an instrumentalist. After graduating from Austin Union High School, she earned first chair in the Chicago Women's Symphony Orchestra. As this did not provide her with a living, she eventually turned to jazz. After playing in and around Chicago for some years, sometimes with her all-girl band (Thelma Combes and her Volcanic Orchestra), sometimes in a stringed quartet, she found her way into the house band of Colosimo's Restaurantin 1925. She played bass and sang at Colosimo's, sometimes on live radio. In 1926 Combes was hired to play at the Vanity Fair Café. A stint at a local Chicago theater in the spring of 1927 and an article in Variety brought national attention to Thelma Combes. The newly formed Music Corporation of America took notice. They renamed her Thelma Terry and in April 1927 organized for her an all-male band (including a very young Gene Krupa) called Thelma Terry and Her Playboys. Terry disbanded the Playboys and quit MCA to marry and settle down in Savannah. This brilliant recording was made in 1928.