Sheryl Aronson

GJ: How long have you been writing? SA: I’ve been writing about women in jazz since the late 1970s.

GJ: What was the first professional article & where? SA: My first professional article was with drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, who was 13 years old, performing at the Jazz Gallery in Boston. I introduced myself to her father (Sonny Carrington) and asked if I could interview his daughter. She was already playing with pros like Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie. I asked her what she wanted to do in her career. She said she wanted to “play, produce, and teach.” At 13, she knew what she wanted to do. Now, she is a professor at Berklee College of Music, in Boston. She produces music and won three Grammys. She’s amazing! My interest in jazz started in adolescent and continued into my twenties. I wrote about women in jazz for the Boston University radio station that aired a jazz show. I’ve been interested in women playing jazz since then.

GJ: Who are the most famous artists you have written articles on? SA: As a journalist I wrote about Terri Lyne Carrington, Maynard Ferguson, and Herbie Hancock. I shot the cover of Modern Recording (1980), featuring Herbie Hancock.

GJ: What was your most challenging moment? SA: Fast forward to 2015, I reinvented myself as a music journalist at 61. I stopped writing for 25 years. I began writing in 1977. I got back into music and, 30 years later, Terri Lyne Carrington was my first interviewee in Los Angeles for The Hollywood Times. I met in Boston, playing drums for Herbie Hancock. So, it was full circle. I asked her if I could write an article on her and she agreed. I covered her in Poland, in concert with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Esperanza Spaulding.

GJ: How many women have you covered? SA: I wrote about Sheila E. for Agenda Magazine. I wanted to write about Women in Jazz, always! When I met you Gail, you had an all-women jazz band. That was like wow! These women are monster musicians! We want women to be out there because they are as good as men. Like you said, “Good music is good music, if it sounds good and feels good because, if you close your eyes, you don’t know who is playing it.”

GJ: Do you have a different approach to presenting women? SA: When I met you in 2015, with your all-female band that performed at so many venues, I was impressed by the quality and the beautiful femininity coupled with monster chops!

GJ: Thank you! I’ve been working hard and building on a humble philosophy. I’m a life-long learner, presently, a doctoral candidate. SA: I approach my photography differently for women musicians because I want to make that woman artist look beautiful when she is playing her instrument or singing. I could have a different approach because women make faces, when they sing or play their horn, guitar, bass, or piano. It is not sexist to say most women want to look good in their photos. When men make intense faces, they don’t care.

So, in photography, I may have a different approach to women than men. However, when I am writing about musicianship, each one is approached according to musical acumen.

I promoted Jazz in Pink for Oxnard Jazz Festival produced by Chuck Dennis, Long Beach Jazz Fest, Carson and Gardena Jazz Festivals. The audiences love you. They love the female energy. They say, “Oh, those women can play.”

GJ: Right, no one ever says they were glad they stopped taking music lessons! They see themselves in us and rooting for us that we were able to stay the course and come this far pursuing a music career. SA: My sister is a female trumpet player. I watched her play the trumpet and what she went through as the only female trumpet player in the Ohio State Jazz Band. She attended North Texas State for her Master’s degree. She caught it from the guys and learned to speak up for herself. She led The Great American Swing Band for twenty years. I spoke to many women in jazz who had to prove themselves to the male musicians, continually. They got bigger and better, and were not get put off when men said, “OK, show us!” You got to do it. You got

GJ: Did you take any courses to become a producer? SA: No, I’ve always been outgoing like my father, a traveling salesman who could talk to anybody. I watched him start conversations. That’s a part of my personality. My degree from Boston University was in Broadcasting and Film. I did not study journalism. My minor was in English. I loved to write. Photography came later. As a promoter, I believe in people and support them. That’s who I am. I meet so many people in the industry. If I love you and believe in you, I tell producers and promoters about your group.

GJ: Do you have a business or corporation? SA: My new company is Sasaphotos. com with my partner, Sherman Alford. Our initials are S.A. and SASA is our logo, SASA Photos. Our website is www.sasaphotos.com. We shoot photos and videos, and write articles. We are a promotion service for musicians, promoting them with photoshoots, videotaping, and articles to get their name out there.

We began this work at summer festivals in 2021. Sasaphotos is our YouTube channel. We promote Hiroshima, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Dionne Warwick, great artists in the music business. We help any artist who is serious, worthy, and has a good product. We will get you in and write about you. Visit our website and call for rates.

GJ: Tell me about your team. SA: Sheryl Aronson, Sherman Alfred, and Mikey Cohen. Many photos I took, over the years, are on our website.

GJ: I tell people that you know how to capture the moment. That is what I appreciate about you. SA: I am a psychotherapist and a writer who is not just looking at the pictures. I’m not a trained photographer. But I see the expression on the face, the musical relationship you have with Norman Brown onstage. I want to capture that, while looking through the psychological lens.

GJ: The music and the emotion is captured in your photos. SA: Thank you for saying that. It is a beautiful thing for me to know. I’m still learning about photography.

GJ: Do you play an instrument? SA: I can play the piano. I took piano lessons in the fourth to the ninth grade. But I gave it up. I don’t know what my talent is. I can read music and I have written songs and lyrics. I can do chords. But I can’t create a whole song on my own.

A Service of Women in Jazz South Florida