I asked musician and friend Alan Jones, who plays the Sunday Jazz Brunch and Jazz Jam at Carlys Bistro, to write a review for THIS Sundays screening of THE GIRLS IN THE BAND: The Girls In The Band I knew it would be moving because a musician friend told me that when she saw it, she cried. This is an entertaining documentary about female jazz musicians from the 1920s to the present, and the gender bias they faced. It demanded that girls who dared to play in a mans jazz world be the best at it. To prove that women really are some of the most inspired musicians in jazz, were treated to some of their music as a wonderful soundtrack for the film. Several still-living female jazz musicians from the 1940s and 1950s are interviewed. They relate funny but often frustrating personal experiences. Those ladies and their music are the bright happy side of the film. For me at least, the dark sad side appears at the end credits: There are 36 women listed as featured artists in the film, but I knew of only 6. And Ive been following jazz for 50 years. If this had been a film about male jazz musicians, I would have recognized most of them. One could hardly make a sadder comment about our culture. So, did watching “The Girls In The Band” make me cry? No comment. Alan Jones
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:44:41 +0000
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