Geneva Rawlins was born in Guthrie, OK on January 9, 1930 and died on June 10, 2020. Raised in Wichita, Kansas, she had a special calling for music from an early age. Her mother, a church pianist, and her father and uncle who performed rhythm and blues in their local area, were influential in her love of music. Rawlins graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Communications. From 1965 to 1979, she performed in Austin as a pianist and vocalist in the popular music group, Geneva and Her Gentlemen while also serving as Music Director, Director of Intergenerational Choir, and Director of the Men’s Chorus at Wesley United Methodist Church.
From early in 1965 through the late ‘70s, Geneva and Her Gentlemen, was a frequent pop jazz act at many Austin nightclubs. The combo’s first gig was at The Jade Room on February 1965. The group featured Geneva on piano, vibes and vocals, Fred Smith on tenor sax, T.J. Cleaver on bass, Jimmy Hamilton on drums, Jim Langdon on trombone, and Geneva’s husband, Lionel Rawlins on bass and acting as conductor. Some of Geneva’s Gentlemen went on to form the jazz fusion group, Passenger, which began in the early ‘80s and was popular in Austin nightclubs.
Beginning in 1966, The Club Seville at the Crest Motor Inn on Lady Bird Lake booked Geneva and Her Gentlemen for frequent playdates, and from early to mid-70s, become the Club Seville’s house band, playing from 9 pm to midnight nightly. Occasionally standing in with the group were Don “Skipper” Young on vibes and flute and Billy Joe Walker on drums. There isn't much historical information about the recording and diskography of Geneva and Her Gentlemen.
Although Geneva and Her Gentlemen ends its run as an organized band toward the end of the 1970’s, Geneva continued to perform as a solo jazz pianist and vocalist in Central Texas throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, often donating her time and musical talents in support of the Austin’s Women & Their Work non-profit organization focusing on nurturing and promoting the public exhibition of contemporary art by women in Texas as well as her music directorial duties stated earlier at Wesley United Methodist Church in Central Austin.
Geneva Rawlins will be remembered as one of the early women of color who pioneered jazz music in Austin, Texas.