What about jazz and gender in the 21st century?

What about jazz and gender in the 21st century?

What about jazz and gender in the 21st century? I’ve been a jazz fan all of my life, and deeply have studied the rich history of this music, not only the past but where it’s going today.   One of my goals as content creator for New York Jazz Workshop the past seven years has been to shed light on the masters, current icons as well as issues regarding the music for those who may have just been attracted to this great American art form.  An issue I’ve been increasingly interested in is the issue of gender, and particularly transgender musicians.

In December of 2019, I embarked on a life altering path.  After many many years of withholding feelings, and grappling with the sense of who I was,  I mustered my courage and came out as a transgender woman– something I had been dealing with for as long as I could remember.  At this time, a lot of questions kind of orbited my mind; how would I be perceived in this industry? A very good friend of mine even told me that given their personal belief systems some musicians may be refused to be interviewed.  Thankfully, the acceptance I’ve received in the industry given my past track record of reviews and interviews has been very good. Gender and jazz though in the 21st century– what about it? And where is the direction headed?

Previously on this blog I’ve written that jazz since it’s inception has been a male dominated world.  I wrote about Clora Bryant, the pioneer female bebop trumpeter that made a lone album Introducing Clora Bryant for the VSOP label in 1957.  Bryant was primarily an instrumentalist of incredible prowess, a protege of Dizzy Gillespie, was told by the label that in order to move the needle she had to sing.  So the trumpeter was relegated to singing on most tracks, and contributing brief solos.  At the time of her passing, she had enjoyed a fruitful career regardless of the sexist climate of the 1950’s.  Viola Smith, the great drummer recently passing on last year, was every bit the equal of her counterparts like Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Sonny Payne, etc but afforded limited opportunity.  Ditto the pioneering alto saxophonist Vi Redd, who among her many accomplishments sang with the Count Basie Orchestra, but Basie himself had denied her a chance to be a lead soloist in his band.  The jazz scene, perhaps because of their roots in the Black church has been more kind to women who were organists: Shirley Scott, Rhoda Scott (no relation), Gloria Coleman all had success as well as the Japanese expatriate Akiko Tsuruga.  Certainly now the time for women instrumentalists is better than ever: among the names that are at the very top: Thana Alexa, Nicole Zuraitis, Brandee Younger, Roxy Coss, Rachel Eckroth, Linda May Han Oh, Tia Fuller,  Connie Han, Melissa Aldana (who just landed a contract with Blue Note records) and Grace Kelly, as well as rising stars from Taiwan living in NYC: Chien Chien Lu, and Wen-Ting-Wu.

So far I’ve mentioned biologically born women.  What about the transgender jazz musicians both male and female? That is an area of jazz still developing and one that is sadly historically limited.  The most famous case of a transgender jazz musician is the late pianist Billy Tipton.  Born Dorothy Lucille Tipton in 1914, the pianist was mainly a local mainstay of the Kansas City scene.  Tipton had in effort to get work  in groups hided his biological female  gender by dressing in suits and gaining relatively modest work in the clubs by emulating his idol from the Benny Goodman Orchestra, but in relation to his male identity and sense of personal self fabricated a story about being in an automobile accident that caused him to have to bind his chest to relieve his once broken ribs.  Even Tipton’s wife Kitty strangely had no idea that Tipton was previously a woman, and when he had passed in 1989 not even his sons knew.  An article called The Double Life of Billy Tipton has more details surrounding the fascinating life of one of the music’s first publically transgender musicians, but most recently the acclaimed documentary No Ordinary Man has shed light on the history of this largely little known but critically important figure in the development of LGBTQ+ musicians in jazz history.

There are others: the late Jessica Williams, the beloved pianist is probably the most known figures as well as the most mainstream, and bassist Jennifer Leitham who has contributed to Grammy winning recordings..  In the new generation, my very dear friend Maddie Liu is a trombonist/vocalist multi instrumentalist in the San Francisco Bay area is bridging the gap between jazz, rich Herbie Hancock and Bill Evans inspired harmonies, hip hop and neo soul.  Her story is a fascinating one: the only born son to Chinese immigrant parents, Liu’s music (due to release her first album soon) with her band Oddity  seeks to examine the trying experiences in her own life as a transfemme individual well as illuminate those of others in the trans community and be a positive force.  Liu also represents another cross section of jazz which isn’t really looked at by the mainstream media… the experiences of Asian and Asian American jazz musicians.  That topic will hopefully be a video for our YouTube channel in the near future.

Chloe Rowlands has been a light on the scene as a trumpeter, and when she auditioned for the group The Westerlies, she had came to the audition as her outer male shell, but the day after the audition, she came out as her authentic self, receiving the support of the band, in situations that had been a bit tense.  Trans women ARE women, and should be viewed in equal terms their male counterparts, but there still exists the problematic nature of the historically cisgender male dominated narrative of the music that for us, can be quite tiresome and painful.  The recent Conversations Series interview I did with publicist Lydia Liebman magnified this problem tenfold.  In our interview, she had detailed that quite often, mainstream media outlets have often asked her to include best female instrumentalists, rather than having said musicians included on a best instrumentalists list, they instead specifically just as for a women centric list.  Also, she explained that many overseas journalists ask her for whatever reason, to ask female jazz musicians to discuss their favorite fashion, makeup or shoes, all outmoded ideas of what a woman should be in the 21st century.  Liebman had told me that saxophonist Alexa Tarantino was asked by a male journalist if her multitude of reeds was too big for her? An absurd, and asinine question that reeks of misogynistic undertones.  Would the same question be asked of say, Chris Potter or Bennie Maupin? Absolutely not.  Rowlands had similar experiences where fans who had come up to her were surprised at how well she played, but others were more encouraging: parents of young women would say how she inspired them to follow that path.

Gender inequality, gender identity inequality in Black American Music, still has a long way to go, for parity.  Is there more parity than  twenty or thirty years ago when names such as the late Geri Allen, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Ella Fitzgerald, Patrice Rushen, Rosemary Clooney and others were the first were the first women people thought of in this music? Sure.  There may never be true equality but we can always move towards the goal, especially for more transgender jazz musicians to be included in the conversation within the problematic, linear historical narrative.

The New York Jazz Workshop always has workshops, and intensives for musicians and singers at all levels, with a world class faculty, in multiple boroughs including Manhattan, Brooklyn and Europe.