Ginetta’s Vendetta

by Howard A. Stone

Always, follow the four D’s for success - determination, discipline, dedication, and drive!”

The namesake of Ginetta’s Vendetta™ is a diminutive diva known in the jazz world as Ginetta M. Ginetta’s name is a combination of a cocktail and a legend: gin & tonic and Etta James. That’s only natural because Ginetta’s stage presence is a heady mix of what you hear…she plays a sweet pocket trumpet and sings in a sultry voice, often exhorting her audience to swing…and what you see…she struts, shakes, and spins through performances, using her countless bangles as accompaniment.

On top of this, she is one of those rarest of people - a female leader of an all-male jazz ensemble. Not to suggest that Ginetta has anything against working with female musicians. But, early on in her career, she experienced many of them bristling at her glamorous, torchy and even sexy performance style. These days, she says, glamour is the rule rather than the exception for women jazz musicians. Right from the start, Ginetta understood that “audiences listen with their ears and their eyes.”

While she has not steered clear of working with women, over the years, she found touring and recording with men, exclusively, works better for her. She is aware that many men are not comfortable being directed by a female bandleader. Happily, through trial and error, she was lucky in her choice of bandmates. Ginetta faced many challenges during her career as a performer and recording artist. “I’m a pioneer like Ella Fitzgerald,” she insisted. At 21 years old, Ella was recruited by Chick Webb to lead his band. Only a handful of women have forged a successful career as a bandleader.

At the helm of Ginetta’s Vendetta for nearly thirty years, Ginetta likens her ensemble to a university that has graduated dozens of musical luminaries. Ginetta travels, internationally, as a Jazz Ambassador, spreading her gospel of music and promoting jazz music as “America’s Greatest Export.”

Along the way, Ginetta recorded and produced five records, as a bandleader. Two are collections of original compositions and three are jazz compilations. A sixth record, entitled Musical Freedom Fighter, will be released in September 2023. She owns her music publishing company, Kickin’ Wiccan Music, and is registered with ASCAP.

Ginetta’s earliest memory of music was listening to Zorba the Greek, at the age of five, on her family’s vintage console stereo, and twirling around the dining room. Ginetta’s passion for music was preordained because her father (100th this year) has been a lifelong jazz enthusiast, who attended live performances of every legendary jazz musician that lived. Her mother sang and four of her eight siblings played instruments. Ginetta picked up the trumpet at eight and her musical destiny was assured.

Ginetta continues to encourage women in jazz to follow their dreams in a world largely dominated by men. Ginetta counsels, “Don’t ever give up! You must have the hide of an alligator and the heart of a lion.

Ginetta advises musicians to remain open to constructive criticism. It’s no wonder that she continues to create, innovate, and delight audiences around the world. As Ginetta likes to say, ”With my horn as my passport there’s no place I can’t go!”