Can Women Play Jazz ???!!! Too often we talk about this thing we call Jazz and we give a perspective from a mans view. Just so the ladies dont think that we have forgotten, there have been many women of the Jazz that have made great contributions!!! This week we want to recognize and remember Women in Jazz! The contribution of these women have more than short lived significance, and it is enlightening to focus on the overwhelming accomplishments of the female artist who, for many decades, have been central to the mainstream of Jazz history and we loudly applaud our sisters in Jazz!!! Long after women became accepted in other artistic fields, women in music ~ whether classical, Jazz or pop ~ still faced the barrier of male chauvinism. Historically, men rarely hired women musicians, and those who crossed the barrier with seeming ease were pianists. Of the women who became famous in Jazz before the 1960s ~ Lovie Austin, Lil Hardin, Cleo Brown, Mary Lou Williams, Dorothy Donegan,Hazel Scott and Marian McPartland. They represent all of the women of originality and brilliance who have been present in Jazz since its inception!!! Women sang the Blues, played the piano, they composed music, played the sax, trumpet, drums, tap danced and much more! They held up half the sky, yet finding women in Jazz history prior to 1945 is like hunting for gold......... And I think thats because history places Jazz, its origins and accomplishments, squarely on the shoulders of men. We think of the pioneers of Jazz and preeminent soloists Louis Armstrong and composer Duke Ellington. When most people think of Jazz ~ Ragtime, Blues, the music of the Congo Square in New Orleans and all the styles in between ~ seldom do even the better known names like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Mary Lou Williams or even Louis Armstrongs wife, Lil Hardin-Armstrong come to mind first. Instead, it is Joplin, Ellington, Jelly Roll, Beiderbecke and others. Yet, as Armstrongs own story illustrates, women in Jazz did hold up half the sky even though history omits it. For example, Lil Hardin-Armstrong helped her husband in numerous ways, and in fact, he joined her band Lils Hot Shots in 1925 before ever starting a band of his own!!! In 1942, Viola Smith, a veteran drummer with 17 years of professional paradidles under her belt, sent shock waves through the readership of Down Beat Magazine by exposing the existence of Hep Girls, female Jazz musicians who could sit in any Jam Session and hold their own! A firestorm of letters to the editor ensued, passionately debating the topic; Can women play Jazz???!!! We invite all female Jazz musicians and singers out this week to jam with us and to help hold up half of the sky!!! ........And as a reminder, The Straight No Chaser Monday Nite Jazz Jam Ensemble was put together by Jazz vocalist Carol Sanders!!! Join us this Monday For a Salute to Women in Jazz @ The Original Monday Nite Jazz Jam!!! Straight-No-Chaser Jazz Ensemble Nelson Mills, III..................Trumpet/Vocals Robert Sanders...................Piano & Bloch Flutes Dr. Lex Valk......................Silent Bass Carl Lott, Jr., III..............Drums Doc Como........................Congas & Percussion Plus Special Guest Artists each Week from around the world!! Tell a friend to Tell a friend to meet you at the jam session!!! Phil & Dereks Jazz Cafe A Fine Restaurant and Wine Bar 2811 Bammel Ln., 77098 (4 blocks West of Kirby off Westheimer) Every Monday - 8pm to 12 midnite (713) 901-4863 Info/Press (713) 529-1314 Restaurant Reservations Strongly Recommended!!! And See You this Monday!!! youtu.be/1HdnjTCMzpg
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 19:41:34 +0000
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