OPINION: SEXISM AND ALL THAT JAZZ
Lola Grieve explores the musical and institutional structures upholding gender inequality in jazz, and the efforts being made to dismantle them.
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Over the course of jazz’s illustrious history, role models for aspiring female jazz musicians have been few and far between. As the American activist Marian Wright Edelman once said: ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’. In the public eye, the UK’s leading jazz magazine, Jazzwise, saw women on the cover of just 10% of their magazines between 2014 and 2019, with 111 male cover stars in comparison to just 12 females. Behind closed doors, it’s a more sinister picture, with research conducted by Dr Sarah Raine for Cheltenham Jazz Festival finding that 90% of female jazz musicians experience discrimination due to their gender, with as many as 30% experiencing direct sexual harassment. The gatekeepers of jazz are overwhelmingly male; for instance, across the UK’s leading conservatoires, women account for 11% of full-time teachers on jazz degree courses, and as of 2021, women make up just 5% of jazz instrumentalists in the UK today.
Taking all this into account, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to argue that women have been denied space in jazz because its framework is fundamentally in opposition to the worldview of our gender. Jazz relies heavily on the practice of improvisation - to be a successful jazz player involves a great degree of confidence in one’s own ability, and consequently, jazz has become synonymous with notions of (male) intellectual superiority and (white) male entitlement (although conceived by black musicians and firmly situated in black culture, jazz has been appropriated and monopolised by white men since its conception). What’s more, instruments which dominate jazz spaces, such as brass and rhythm section instruments, have been conceptualised and stereotyped as masculine. The passive social role women are conditioned to enact simply does not align with the realities of jazz; for women, this involves significant self-belief to play instruments which sonically dominate a room and perform improvised solos in rehearsal rooms and concert halls continually monopolised by men.
If women are refused space in jazz, a vicious cycle emerges where the work of male composers continues to be taught by male professors and played by male musicians, meaning that women continue to lack female role models, and so, are often put off the industry altogether. By not writing women into jazz history, women are pigeonholed not as ‘jazz musicians’ but distinctly ‘female jazz musicians’, branded as new and exciting because their history was never documented in the first place. Although the history books might try to tell us otherwise, women have been involved in jazz since its conception. From household names such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone and Bessie Smith to the perhaps lesser-known jazz instrumentalists Alice Coltrane, Hazel Scott, Mary Osbourne, Geri Allen, Peggy Gilbert, Melba Liston, Vi Redd and Esperenza Spalding, female jazz musicians have, and do, actually exist!
In recent years, an ever-expanding wave of female jazz players, particularly instrumentalists, have been coming up through the UK jazz scene. Spearheaded by the likes of Nubya Garcia, Sheila Maurice-Grey, Poppy Ajudha, Jas Kayser, Yazz Ahmed and the female-fronted KOKOROKO, the last few years have seen something of a female jazz Renaissance. The gender balance does, albeit slowly, seem to be recalibrating, and I caught up with Bristol-based bassist Marla Kether to hear more about her experiences as a jazz musician in the current climate. Marla, who regularly performs with jazz/neo-soul ones-to-watch Yazmin Lacey and Ego Ella May, shared her personal experiences of the ‘boys club’ culture of big bands and jazz jams, fuelled by misogynistic and trans-exclusionary language such as ‘get your jazz penis out’ or ‘you’re playing like a girl!’. Marla recites the all-too-common story of a female friend who asked to play a song at a straight-ahead jam, to which the male band abruptly answered that the jam was over. Our laughter is tainted with sighs as she discusses the commonplace conception that women will not want to (or simply aren’t capable of) solo improvisation in group settings. ‘Sometimes they just assume you don’t want to solo. It’s like ‘hello?! My turn now!’’, she tells me, ‘There’s the assumption that you don’t have a voice… your voice just won’t be heard’. If enabled the opportunity to solo - and as any woman who has played in a male-dominated jazz ensemble will know all too well - men almost always congratulate other men for solos, but scarcely congratulate women.
With traditional jazz instruments stereotyped as male, the role of the vocalist is considered feminine, and, in turn, female jazz vocalists are frequently sexualised and objectified on centre stage. This male gaze-driven aestheticization is not exclusive to vocalists, however, also manifesting for female instrumentalists, particularly in the age of social media. Marla has found that posting bass covers on Instagram can attract a plethora of inappropriate comments from men, with social media being a sometimes difficult space to navigate as a young female musician. ‘I’ve gotten a lot of gigs [thanks to social media] that are like ‘Oh, we need a female bassist’ or ‘we need a female black bassist’... for some of the gigs, you mime and don’t actually play - as grateful as I am for those opportunities, it can almost feel like I’m a prop for a music video aesthetic.’ This, of course, is not a problem exclusive to social media; Marla recounts the many times people approach her after a gig to tell her simply ‘I love your dress!’ rather than ‘I love your playing!’ (in which case, ironically, it can be useful to reroute attention back to Instagram covers, which can showcase the talent of the individual on their own terms).
Image Credit: Lucy Hickling | @loose__c
Women in Jazz is one organisation utilizing social media to uplift and champion female jazz musicians. Although only founded in 2018, Women in Jazz has established a community of over 8,000 female jazz artists, and this month launched their digital channel and show UNCOVERED, designed to champion female jazz artists to a global audience (the first performance of which was by Brit-award winning star Celeste). Chatting to co-founder Lou Paley, she reveals the motivation behind Women in Jazz: ‘It was born out of a need to support female musicians who didn’t have the confidence to pursue jazz, despite being the top talent of their generation. I wanted to create a place to tell the stories of these artists and share their music to a global audience. I wanted to create a place where artists could reach their full potential’. Lou believes it’s important to focus on the positives of the situation. ‘At a music conservatoire in the UK, 3/70 instrumental students are female, which is less than 5%. If we look at the music industry as a whole, across 6 years in the pop charts females only accounted for 22% of all artists. Although there is a lot of work to be done, I think it’s important to focus on the positive changes which have been made, particularly over the last few years. Women are celebrated more than ever, thanks to the artists, the media and labels - some of whom have been integral in creating change for women in the industry’.
Image Credits: Ayshe Zaifoglu | @azcaptures
Also deciding to take matters into her own hands, London-based musician Ellie Argente founded Project : FEMME, a collective which promotes, supports and showcases female creatives (at their first event last International Women’s Day, performances ranged from experimental jazz to poetry and movement pieces). Ellie is a strong believer in the importance of female-only creative spaces: ‘The artists taking part all gave me incredible feedback explaining how they felt so comfortable and part of a community when performing or showing their work - I wanted to create a safe space… I think it’s important that events like mine, which I intend to be ongoing, be held to promote the wonderful work that females have the power of creating. But even post-gender equality, I think it’s beautiful to put all females in a room to share their work. It’s important to host events like these to push for female rights but also just to share creativity.’
Image Credits: Lily McMurray | @lilymcmurrayy
As valuable as grassroots organisations are, on their own, they are not enough. ‘The change has to come from the industry’, Lou tells me, ‘from grassroots organisations right through to major labels, promoters and platforms. All play an important role in bringing attention to the challenges women face in the music industry’. The future for women in jazz is looking brighter than ever before, and it is crucial that we all continue championing female jazz artists through bookings, as well as by streaming, sharing and buying their music, particularly through financially viable platforms such as Bandcamp. In 2021, the perpetual chain of male professors teaching male music to male students is simply not good enough. Until these outdated misconceptions are safely in the past, it is vital that our support for gender equality in jazz is as loud and fearless as the women braving the industry themselves.
With thanks to Ellie Argente, Marla Kether, and the Women in Jazz team (particularly Lou Paley!)
