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Women in jazz/improv


David Ayers

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Been spending time with two contrasting recordings recently and wondered who else people here might follow.

So on Spotify I have been rediscovering Pure Fantasy by Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia. I bought the original LP and no longer have it. It made it to CD as Nightwatch, as I discovered only recently. Jazz-rock with a lot of interesting flavors. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/5niyGUY07Vn5nKu5ozYP9K?si=nfAfIJruTnCf5GLMyWAegw&dl_branch=1

Much more recent and in a contrasting vein, I've been listening to Sarah Gail Brand 's Deep Trouble with Paul Rogers and Mark Sanders, which I got from Bandcamp. Such a beautiful, clean and subtle trombonist, fantastic group, and a lovely close recording even though it is recorded live.

https://sarahgailbrand.bandcamp.com/album/deep-trouble

Outside the very well-known female vocalists, who else do people here recommend?

 

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This was the set, by the way:

Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Vol 3

Tomeka Reid Quarter - s/t

Tyshawn Sorey & Marilyn Crispell - Adornments of Time

Nicole Mitchell - Engraved in the Wind

Ingrid Laubrock - Contemporary Chaos Practices

Angel Bat Dawid - The Oracle

The aim was really to show my aunt that very forward thinking female led jazz of all kinds is now a big thing. She's 80 and is still angry at whatever 1960s pig at her university jazz club told her women could not play jazz. 

Obviously the pig was wrong even then, as great female instrumentalists have never not existed in jazz, whether Mary Lou Williams, Barbara Donald or Shirley Scott. 

Edited by Rabshakeh
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1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

This was the set, by the way:

Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Vol 3

Tomeka Reid Quarter - s/t

Tyshawn Sorey & Marilyn Crispell - Adornments of Time

Nicole Mitchell - Engraved in the Wind

Ingrid Laubrock - Contemporary Chaos Practices

Angel Bat Dawid - The Oracle

The aim was really to show my aunt that very forward thinking female led jazz of all kinds is now a big thing. She's 80 and is still angry at whatever 1960s pig at her university jazz club told her women could not play jazz. 

Obviously the pig was wrong even then, as great female instrumentalists have never not existed in jazz, whether Mary Lou Williams, Barbara Donald or Shirley Scott. 

That's a very nice selection. Did she like them?

Myra Melford, Kris Davis, Maria Schneider, Anna Weber,  Jamie Branch, Laura Kinsella, Patricia Brennan, Magda Mayas, Susana Silva Santos, Lisa Uhlen, Julie Kjaer and that's without thinking too hard. All released interesting music recently.

There's lots more I'm forgetting I'm sure. Not least Elaine Michener

Edited by mjazzg
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How could I forget...

b379a3_51b63bdd7aac4b81812b2e340a0957bc~

Irene Schweizer, Maggie Nicols, Julie Tippets all from a slightly older generation but still very much active.

I fear this thread may need some focus from the OP or it's going to be a long list which isn't a bad thing in itself but may not meet his requirements

 

Edited by mjazzg
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Esperanza Spaulding has a new record out. I bought it, it's on the way. I'm curious about where she's going. Perhaps not "jazz/improv" (or maybe so?!?!?!, but bottom line, wherever she goes, she takes that with her, it's always in the mix there somewhere.

On the whole, I am very much interested in whatever new perspectives can be/are being added to music/life in general. Pendulums do swing, and the what seems to be "nmasculine" model of learning to play every permutation over every change and doing so with a "warrior" mindset has, to me, devolved from a necessary survival mechanism to an insuluar inbreeding of inanity. New perspectives are needed, period.

"Playing like a man" is really NOT needed today, but neither does absence of a penis guarantee any particularly necessary insight.

What is really useful is for new voices to bring themselves to the existing arenas, and for those in these arenas to embrace those who bring a useful evolution to the mix. Evolve or die, as the expression says.

Time & Space have no limits, and they particularly have no gender.

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1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

How could I forget...

b379a3_51b63bdd7aac4b81812b2e340a0957bc~

Irene Schweizer, Maggie Nicols, Julie Tippets 

I'm glad they and Joelle Leandre got a mention. I am a huge fan of Schweizer and Leandre, but sadly have never acquired a taste for Nicols.

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

Maria Schneider

She's in London in January, playing the Barbican. I've bought tickets, on the basis that it might still be the least expensive way to hear her music.

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13 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

I'm glad they and Joelle Leandre got a mention. I am a huge fan of Schweizer and Leandre, but sadly have never acquired a taste for Nicols.

She's in London in January, playing the Barbican. I've bought tickets, on the basis that it might still be the least expensive way to hear her music.

I saw her a couple of years ago, fantastic. I wasn't aware of the January date. I know what you mean about the cost of her recordings

28 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

No-one has mentioned Susie Ibarra. 15 years ago that would have been unthinkable.

Or Satoko Fuji 

edit to add: Schneider ticket duly booked, thanks for the reminder

Edited by mjazzg
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28 minutes ago, David Ayers said:

I am quite surprised that there are some names here that I have never come across! The recommendations of specific recordings are the most useful things from my point of view. Keep it coming!

I got to hear the three I listed, not through recordings, but from (almost) live performances at Smalls and Emmet's Place on YouTube.

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