Women in Jazz Festivals. Do We Need Them?

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Women in Jazz Festivals. Do We Need Them?

Valentine’s Day weekend marked the second annual Seattle Women in Jazz Festival, and once again, founder Jessica Davis put on a wonderful community-building event. It was the first of three similar festivals scheduled to take place this spring. This “mini-season” of women in jazz fests has gotten me thinking again about festivals dedicated to female performers. Do we still need them? Do they help or hurt the larger cause of women trying to make it in the male-dominated world of jazz? Which leads to the larger, most pressing question: How do we cultivate more female talent and build audiences for their concerts?

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I’m Irresistible You Fool. Give In. Part 3: We LOVE YOU Sarah!

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I’m Irresistible You Fool. Give In. Part 3: We LOVE YOU Sarah!

I love fan art. It gives the amateurs amongst us a chance to put our own creative spin on an existing work while paying tribute to an artist that we admire. It’s interactive. It’s a form of homage. It helps Vaughan’s legacy live on. And Vaughan’s cover of “Whatever Lola Wants” has spawned a lot of fan art. Some of it is a lot of fun. Some less so. Some, quite, frankly, a little weird.

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I’m Irresistible You Fool. Give In. Part 2: Buy This!

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I’m Irresistible You Fool. Give In. Part 2: Buy This!

Last time I talked about Sarah Vaughan’s still popular cover of “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets” and the power of music to enact real cultural and social change. This post I’d like to discuss another form of cultural work done by music: selling stuff! In particular, how “Whatever Lola Wants” has been used in advertising.

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An Ode to the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival

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An Ode to the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival

Friday afternoon as I eased into my long, holiday weekend, I ran across Abby Johnston’s thoughtful piece for Salon, “No women allowed: Summer music festivals are dudefests, again.” Ugh. Disappointing but not surprising. Then as I wrapped up my weekend I saw an advertisement for “The Women’s Concert for Change.” The ad was upbeat and promised an uplifting celebration of women. But, as it turns out, the concert, to be aired June 2, is part of headliner Beyonce’s new campaign to raise funds and awareness for female empowerment around the world. This is serious, more disheartening business.

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Female musicians don’t want to be “pretty good, for a girl.” They want to be awesome. Period.

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Today is International Jazz Day (I’m throwing virtual confetti as I write this), and that means that Jazz Appreciation Month is almost over. It’s been a busy, jazz-filled month, and once again, I’ve been reminded how lucky I am to live in Seattle. Not only do we have an amazing scene, we have an amazing scene with dozens of incredibly talented women. Many of whom performed during last weekend’s first-ever Seattle Women in Jazz Festival. This was a wonderful event, a true act of love and devotion by its founder Jessica Davis.

That said, jazz festivals devoted solely to women have their pros and cons. Celebrations of women and their accomplishments are, on the whole, a good thing. As is bringing a greater awareness to the hardworking women amongst us. But they also risk marginalizing these same women. It’s far too easy to dismissively say (or think), “Oh, she’s just a ‘woman in jazz,’” then go hear your favorite male musician instead.​

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"Sometimes, it’s difficult to say how you do something, you just do it."

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"Sometimes, it’s difficult to say how you do something, you just do it."

Today’s interview is with New York-based composer, arranger, and vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles. The S.E. Charles Quartet, with Jesse Elder on piano, Burniss Earl Travis on bass, and John Davis on drums, will perform at the Triple Door on Sunday, April 28, the final night of the Seattle Women in Jazz Festival. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the set begins at 7:30 p.m. This is Sarah’s first time singing in Seattle, so don’t miss out!

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“Here in Seattle there is an incredible network of women jazz musicians.”

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“Here in Seattle there is an incredible network of women jazz musicians.”

Today it’s my pleasure to present an interview with trumpeter and composer Samantha Boshnack. She's participating in the Seattle Women in Jazz Festival’s youth-oriented performances at the Vera Project on Sunday, April 28. Her set begins at 8:00 p.m. and promises to be a blast.

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“I don't self-identify as a woman when I'm on stage. I'm me, I'm a dude.”

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“I don't self-identify as a woman when I'm on stage. I'm me, I'm a dude.”

My celebration of JazzApril continues with another interview with a Seattle Women in Jazz Festival performer, this time soprano saxophonist Kate Olson.

She’s a relative newcomer to Seattle, arriving in 2010, but she has quickly made her mark on the jazz and improvised music scenes. In 2011 Kate appeared in the Earshot Jazz Festival and was nominated for an Earshot Golden Ear Award in the Northwest Emerging Artist category. In 2012 Kate was chosen to perform in Earshot’s Jazz: The Second Century series, which showcases the next generation of jazz musicians. And she can be regularly heard around town performing with her own projects including the Syrinx Effect and Sugarpants and as a collaborator with the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra, Ask the Ages, Daniel Barry’s 2 Hemispheres, and Wayne Horvitz’s Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble. ​

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From Jazz Manhood to Jazz Personhood

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From Jazz Manhood to Jazz Personhood

There has been a lot of talk online recently about jazz, gender, and sexuality. Musicologist Guthrie Ramsey, for example, gave us a historian’s take on what he calls “jazz manhood” in bebop and the career of pianist Bud Powell, and how this contributed to his own embarrassment as a boy playing the piano, which he loved, rather than the more masculine saxophone. Drummer Allison Miller wrote a moving essay on the challenges of being not only a woman, but also a lesbian, in the jazz world. Crooner Spencer Day discussed coming out, homophobia, the absence of gay voices in jazz, and how all of this has influenced his career, both creatively and commercially. And singer Michelle Shocked, long believed to be a lesbian herself, lashed out with an unfortunate, if predictable, homophobic rant during her recent appearance at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in San Francisco.

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Welcome to the Boys Club

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Welcome to the Boys Club

Years ago I sat in on an undergraduate jazz improvisation class. Week after week, a collection of non-majors stretched themselves as they learned the art of small ensemble jazz playing. On the whole, they had a lot of fun – listening, collaborating, and experimenting. But I was surprised by how quickly this group of novices adopted the cult of masculinity so prevalent in jazz.

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