Imperfect Harmony

Benjamin Dakshy

Jazz is perhaps the musical embodiment of progressive change. Its roots as African-American dreams of freedom improvised and intermingled with mainstream and white Folk music, the technicalities of the music itself, and its experimental pioneers such as Miles Davis, all contribute to its image of challenging established ideas of the time, both musical and social. Yet the genre’s desire for change did not extend into the realm of feminism, and surprisingly, the relationship between the two was, and to some extent still is, very problematic - one of imperfect harmony.

Jazz music is a musical genre developed in the late 19th to early 20th centuries by African-American communities in New Orleans. It has roots in blues and ragtime, embodying certain ideals of freedom and independence through which it evolved, in the form of improvisation, swung rhythms and complex extended chords, to name but a few characteristic features. In the words of immortal pianist Duke Ellington, “the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country”. When considering this background of challenging oppressive societal ideals, and the fact that the peak of the Jazz age (the 1910-20s) heavily intertwined with first wave feminism, which included the Suffrage Movement, the genre was the perfect candidate to embrace such movements, and actively support women in gaining autonomy stripped from them by the patriarchal society of the time. However, this was not the case, with the genre even actively excluding aspiring female musicians, resulting in little to no representation of women in the industry, the history of talented female artists being supressed, and even today, a very hostile environment for any who are attempting to discover the world of jazz.

A quick glance at the top 100 Jazz artists on ‘Rate Your Music’, (a website where the rankings are based on users reviews), would be enough to visually describe the issue. Out of one hundred musicians, American pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane (Figure 1) is the only female musician, occupying the number 39 spot. The simple explanation for this is an extreme lack of representation. Exclusion of women from the Jazz industry whilst it was still developing has transformed it into a male-dominated one, where talented female artists are hidden from the public eye, and in turn less women are encouraged into the industry, resulting in the viscous cycle we found ourselves in. There are several reasons responsible for the lack of female musicians. Primarily, jazz has always been deemed as a ‘wild’ genre, with its free improvised forms and fast tempos commonly found in subgenres such as bebop, and any female jazz instrumentalists were therefore considered unfeminine and disregarded. Furthermore, jazz began in light night bars and the red-light district of New Orleans, which presented these musicians with a daunting decision between passion and dignity, and as Susanne Vincenza of all female jazz band ‘Alive!’ summarised, “What ‘real lady’ was going to be part of that scene? It was not proper.” Finally, due to the complexity of the music, heavily built on complicated musical theory completely distinct from other genres, there was a common belief that jazz was too complex for women to understand and excel in, a belief constantly reinforced by influential figures such as Marvin Freedman of the Downbeat magazine, who stated, “there are two kinds of women, those who don’t like jazz music and admit they don’t, and those who don’t like jazz music but say they do”.

As a result of the above common archaic beliefs, women were alienated from these very much patriarchal jazz environments, and the very few involved were viewed as masculine and were significantly less popular primarily due to their gender, an example being pianist Mary Lou Williams, who only gained more recognition due to her perceived status as “one of the guys”. This begs the question, why should female instrumentalists have to make a choice between their femininity and their careers? An interesting nuance is that whilst instrumentalists struggled to find recognition, female vocalists were far more successful, with vocalists such as Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald becoming intrinsic names to the genre. Potentially, singing was considered more feminine, and certainly the standards in their repertoire were far less ‘wild’, with slower tempos and less disjunct chord progressions. Even the lyrics sung were designed to appeal to a male audience, with a notable example being early Jazz ballade ‘Black Coffee’ which contains the lyrics “Now man is born to go loving. A woman’s born to weep and fret and stay at home and tend her oven”, which speak for themselves as problematic and highly supportive of the rigid gender roles feminists were attempting to dismantle at the time.

One example of a talented female Jazz musician practically erased from the records was Vi Redd. Vi Redd was a saxophonist and vocalist, born in Los Angeles in 1928, whose popularity peaked in the 1960s. an extremely talented musician, she embarked on several tours, including a trip to London to perform at the prestigious Ronnie Scott’s, and was the first instrumentalist to headline a jazz festival. However, she faced much gender-based criticism, and was viewed more as a vocalist in spite of her undeniable prowess on the alto sax. In the Los Angeles Sentinel’s report of the afore mentioned jazz festival, they described her as an “attractive young girl alto sax player,” and barely touched on the actual music produced. Perhaps more absurd is the condescending comparison of the then 34 yearold mother-of-two to a ‘young girl’. Despite her immense talent, many record companies were reluctant to invest in female artists, she only recorded three albums, including the brilliant ‘Bird Call’ (see figure 2), with most recordings quickly going out of print. Certainly, Vi Redd is just one example of how female jazz instrumentalists remain largely invisible to jazz history.

Evidently, the history of Jazz is one blatantly conforming to patriarchal beliefs, but has this changed in modern times? Certainly, there are more commercially successful female jazz artists than the peak of the jazz age, and even today this number is increasing, but the issue of underrepresentation has by no means been completely resolves, with women only making up 16% of the core personnel of jazz albums produced in 2021 (see figure 3). The opportunities for aspiring female musicians are broadening, but due to the relative absence of predominant female figures in the jazz industry, we may be finding ourselves in a viscous cycle where there are no role models to look up to, and therefore a lack of desire to explore the world of jazz. Even then, whilst they may not be as widespread, archaic beliefs about the capability of women to perform and listen to jazz are still very much present, as demonstrated by the following quotes. A 2012 copy of the ‘Downbeat’ magazine declared that 33 year-old saxophonist Hailey Niswanger “has the power to be one of the best female alto saxophonists in the country, if not the world”. Whilst this does indicate a positive shift in the industry, one of increasing opportunity and exposure for female artists, it also suggests that Niswanger is limited, and defined by her gender, only with the capability to be a ‘female alto saxophonist,’ rather than just an ‘alto saxophonist.’ More shocking, are pianist Robert Glasper’s words from a 2017 interview, claiming that, “When you hit that one groove and stay there, it’s like musical clitoris. You’re there, you stay on that groove, and the women’s eyes close and they start to sway, going into a trance.” He faced extreme backlash on social media for this and other comments, but it does expose the archaic belief that women can only appreciate jazz on an erotic level, nothing deeper. As NPR’s Michelle Mercer revels, “To be a female jazz fan and critic is to live with a frustrating irreconcilability: I have an intellectual passion for creative, complex music and, sometimes, the musicians who make that music doubt my ability to appreciate its creativity and complexity.”

Whilst the background of jazz is one of shocking misogyny and female exclusion, there has been some positive change, with increased female opportunity, but inevitably, mindsets which oppose female participation in the genre do still exist, and have no place in the wonderful art that is jazz.