Cora “Lovie” Austin (September 19, 1887 – July 8, 1972) was an American Chicago bandleader, session musician, composer, singer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong are often ranked as two of the best female jazz blues piano players of the period.

She was born Cora Taylor in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Lovie grew up with eight brothers and sisters. She took the name Cora Calhoun in her teens from an early marriage; she was married for a short time to a movie house operator in Detroit and then later married a vaudeville performer, Phillip Austin. She studied music theory at Roger Williams University and Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee which was uncommon for African American woman and jazz musicians alike during the time.

In 1923, Lovie Austin decided to make Chicago her home, and she lived and worked there for the rest of her life. She was often seen racing around town in her Stutz Bearcat with leopard skin upholstery, dressed to the teeth. Her early career was in vaudeville, where she played piano and performed in variety acts. Accompanying blues singers was Lovie’s specialty, and can be heard on recordings by Ma Rainey (“Moonshine Blues), Ida Cox (“Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues“), Ethel Waters (“Craving Blues”), and Alberta Hunter (“Sad ‘n’ Lonely Blues”).