For my blog project I am going to research female jazz artists. To start off I want to give an overview of the impact of female jazz artists and the history of women in jazz. During the semester I will then look at the contributions women made to each instrument in a typical jazz band, vocals, and composers.
Jazz is largely composed of male artists. Yet women have been involved in jazz, both on the forefront as lead singers and instrumental soloists and in the backup bands, even the composer behind the music, since jazz became an art form.
In the beginning African American women actively participated in blues, spirituals and gospel music all of which funneled into and influenced jazz. They contributed largely to the classic blues of the 1920s.
The other acceptable form of jazz participation for women was piano. The ability to play piano was prized for both African American and European American women. The families of the women involved, either from black or white families, did not always view playing jazz lightly. But this did not stop the determined from pursuing a career as a jazz pianist; these include Dolly Adams and Emma Barrett from New Orleans and Lil Hardin Armstron and Lovie Austin from Chicago.
During this time women also contributed to other aspects of jazz. They played horns along side men or in all women bands. All women bands such as Bobbie Howell's American Syncopators and Bobbie Grice's Fourteen Bricktops were the most common outlets for women jazz artists.
This pattern persisted until World War II when the draft pulled many eligible men from society. The lack of men gave women the chance to enter more fully into the jazz scene and women artists and all female bands became more popular. They maintained this foothold until the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s offered them even more prestige. The first women’s jazz festival was held in Kansas City in 1978 and was followed by one in New York the same year.
While women jazz artists especially those in lesser known horn, percussion, and guitar sections have increased over the years they are still a minority within the jazz world. This semester will be about learning more about these great artists and discovering how they have influenced jazz over the years.
Sources: http://www.pbs.org/jazz/time/time_women.htm
http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/women_1.html
http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/women_2.html
Critical Listening:
This piece has a calming yet surreal feel to it. It begins with a percussion intro/transition from the prior piece. Vocals and clarinet then come in with the melody in the A section backed up by the rest of the ensemble. In the B section the melody is changed slightly and the piano joins in. The highest point (both in dynamics and register) occurs in the C section. This is the arrival point of the piece. The A and B sections are then repeated with slight modifications (A’ and B’) A’ is strictly instrumental and vocals are intermittent in the B’ section. The C section then repeats. Flugelhorn comes in for a virtuosic like solo for the next third of the piece. After a few minutes of solo the horn and vocals reenter intermittently and begin bringing the piece back to its central theme arriving at 5:10 to a recognizable recap of the B section. A new idea follows this recap. The vocals are softer and more flowing. A deeper clarinet is introduced (contra?). It is hard for me to definitively organize it into sections. The first third appears to be ABCA’B’C with roughly 8 bar phrases. The second third consists of the flugelhorn solo, which is hard to characterize into sections. I would almost say that it is a D section where it is the horn with rhythm section followed by an E section when the rest of the ensemble joins in. There is then a recap of the main theme heard in the first third of the piece. The last third takes a new turn. There is an F section where the instruments introduce the new theme and then the vocals join in.
Instruments: drums, vocals, piano, clarinet, flute, saxophones, guitar bass guitar, shaker, trombone, trumpet, flugelhorn
