Impervious:
An
Improvisatory look at how Jazz resisted the feminist movement.
Alec Degnats
Georgia State University Improvising the Brain Symposium Paper
Spring
2013
Intro:
It
is eight o’clock in New York city and you are at Monk's to enjoy
the American creation of jazz with some friends. The set list is
packed tonight and you enjoy listening as the heavy- weights of jazz
play their hearts out. As the night goes on the show quickly devolves
into a glorious jam session of great creation. For hours you and your
friends watch and listen as the night blooms into something magical.
Good times and drinks are flowing. However, an odd feeling in the pit
of your stomach grows as the night wears on. At first you think it a
coincidence, however as the evening continues you know it is more
than that, your instincts are never wrong. Watching the bandstand you
can not help but wonder: “What happened to women in jazz?”
The
question bothering you is a question I ran into this past year when
studying music, philosophy, and particularly feminism. Exploring
twentieth century history we are overwhelmed with successful feminist
movements; from gaining the right to vote, to become prominent
contributors in almost all fields in modern society. Women become
supreme court justices and senators, writers and artists, CEO’s and
principals, teachers and more. These fights and struggles were not
easy, but feminists' efforts brought equality to all fields, all
fields except one: jazz.
Jazz
is a style of music that since its inception has provided a hallowed
space for the underprivileged, discriminated, and abused. Jazz was on
the forefront of many movements and played a crucial role in race
relations and civil rights throughout the twentieth century. From all
outside appearances it would seem that jazz would not only succumb
to, but embrace feminism. However history shows us that traditional
roles created for women in jazz are still the predominant roles that
women fill and are allowed to fill in jazz today.
These
un-marriable juxtapositions left me wondering: what happened in jazz?
What happened in jazz to make it impervious to feminism? Through my
research I have seen that the same stereotypes that separated female
artists in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are the ones being employed
to hold women down in jazz today. In the first part of the paper I
intend to define, expand, and explore women' roles in jazz. In the
second part of my paper I will present evidence to show that there is
no validity in holding down women in jazz. I will show that
antiquated social stereotypes and psychological factors are the
dominant factors excluding women in jazz today. I will show that
their exclusion is not determined by talent or virtuosity. I will
show that women in jazz are going through the same struggles faced
and overcome by feminists throughout histories in a variety of
fields. After connecting the females jazz struggle to those found by
women throughout history and in a variety of fields, I will use the
third part of my paper to offer a solution to how women can break
into jazz on any instrument they choose and become successful. I will
do this by showcasing options already available to them while
creating a blueprint based on how women overcame this discrimination
in other fields. At the conclusion of this paper we will have started
to understand the barriers that have made jazz impervious to feminism
and begin to embrace solutions.
Section
One
Jazz,
known as “American classical music” is considered America's
greatest contribution to the arts and music. Starting in the late
19th century jazz traces its roots to the field hollers heard
throughout plantations across the south.1
Evolving over time, jazz struggled to gain traction in its infancy.
It was degraded as “nigger music” and had to fight to be
considered music let alone an art form in America. From these humble
beginnings jazz has developed into one of the most beloved art forms
of all time. Taking the bull by the horns in the roaring twenties and
thirties with the development of the big band; to the heydays of
improvisation during the be bop and hard boy era’s of the forties,
fifties, and sixties.2
Over the past few decades jazz has branched outside of itself
becoming much more than swung eight notes from our fore fathers'
years. In the seventies we saw jazz artists branch out to embrace new
styles of R&B in their playing; to finally adapting a cooler
style in the 80's and 90's. Through all of this growth, through all
of this development, and change, womens' roles in jazz have not
really changed from the early days of jazz.
Do
not misunderstand me. I am not saying that: “Women
are not professional jazz musicians or that they did not play other
instruments within the group.”
What I am saying is: “that
for the majority of jazz history a woman's role jazz has not
changed.”
The roles that women filled in the 1920’s
and 30’s (singer/pianist) are still the primary roles women fill
today in jazz. Part of this can be traced to jazzes strong apprentice
culture. In jazz, like glass blowing, one truly makes it only when
they have been accepted by the people they consider their masters.
Therefor, the strong female artists for women to look up to remain
fixed in the traditional roles. From Ma Rainey to Ernestine
Anderson, Diannene Schuur and many more many of the great women in
jazz have been and continue to be singers and pianists.
The
interesting thing about strong women in jazz is that when they are
not playing a stereotyped role (pianist or singer) they are singled
out because of their gender. Viola Smith, an amazing drummer from
the 1940’s and 50’s broke her way into the male dominated field
to be referred to as the “world’s fastest girl
drummer.”3
Cindy Blackman, a more recent feminine drummer, is not lumped into
the female drummer role, but is famous because she plays exactly
like Tony Williams, a great jazz drummer. She is the one that carries
on his storied legacy. One of the greatest arrangers of our day,
Maria Schneider, is singled out and separated because she is a woman.
She is one of the “first great female” arrangers. What is
incorrigible and disgraceful here is that within jazz women are
singled out, classified, and viewed as inferior musicians. Their
deeds and accomplishments are separated out based on their gender.
In
Kathleen McKeage’s 2004 paper: ”Gender participation in High
school and College Jazz Ensembles” she introduces and examines the
same common perceptions that I have made about jazz. McKeage found
that many people felt that the lack of a female inclusion could be
linked to: women not playing an instrument common to jazz, that women
are “sex spectacles”,
and/or they are not true musicians, but simply family or novelty
acts.4
Through her own study though, Dr. McKeage discovered that these
reasons were not the real reason behind discrimination. McKeage found
that the discrimination could be linked to an inability to link jazz
performance to career aspirations, institutional obstacles and
pressures, and obstructions in actually being able to find work
within the jazz field.5
These observations led Dr. McKeage to do a study to discover the
reason behind the drop in participation of female artists from high
school to college.
In
her study McKeage divided her survey into four distinct questions:
1.
What is the relationship between gender and participation in high
school and college instrumental jazz ensembles?
2.
What is the relationship between gender, previously identified
variables (lack of connection between jazz and career aspirations,
institutional obstacles, and the jazz environment), and student
choices to participate in instrumental jazz ensembles?
3.
Are there differences in attitudes toward jazz based on gender and
participation status?
4.
Do men and women differ in their reasons for discontinuing
participation in jazz ensembles?
Each
of these questions were purposed to track a different function of
jazz participation.
The
first question addressed and showed the attrition rate from high
school players to college players. Within this question McKeage was
trying to get an idea for the drop-off faced by students as they
transitioned between high school and college. She found that 74% of
the women quit jazz after high school as compared to 38% of men.6
In addition to this McKeage also found that 46% of women had never
played jazz before college as opposed to only 15% of men. In this
regard we see that there is a correlation between men continuing to
play jazz from one level to the other, while women either pick it up
or seem to let it go as they reach the collegiate level.
The
second question had some staggering results, due to the fact that
many women did not identify a lack of a role model as a reason for
non-pursuance.7
Outside of this fact there was no real discernible difference in the
concerns of the male and female population interviewed. It was found
that each group equally weighed the perceptions of future career
applications equally. Thus the study found that non-pursuance did not
have an inherent gender bias.
The
third and fourth questions both mirror the results of the second, in
that they question answer rates are very similar between genders .
Most participants, male and female, said that they quit because of a
lack of time to practice enough to become skilled performers.8
Most felt that with the right amount of training they could become
successful in the field.9
If anything, the most startling fact was that women who still play
jazz responded more overwhelmingly that they did not enjoy soloing
and improvisation compared to men who were asked the same question
(the male numbers were those taken from playing and not playing
participants).
From
these questions and results we see that there has to be an underlying
cause to womens' lack of and drop off in participation in jazz. Part
of this can be tied to the well established idea of instrument
genderization. Many women feel more comfortable on instruments that
are traditionally feminine instruments. Because of this women are
less likely to play a primary instrument within jazz, which in turn
leads to feeling unwelcomed or out of place within a jazz ensemble.
This
underlying defense, though, does not hold water across musical
styles. Other genres of music have seen women break through as
primary artists on masculine instruments. In rock and pop there are a
host of female artists (Orianthi, Adele.. etc) while the orchestra
has also been a safe place for female artists. Due to jazz’s
unique nature and boys club mentality women do not feel welcomed or
ready to succeed.
Harsh
gender discrimination is one of the few ties we can identify as a
true reason why women have been unable to break through in jazz. In
personal interviews with the “older guard” jazz musicians many
believe that women are not strong enough or aggressive enough to
succeed within the jazz idiom. These stereotypes, paired with little
career guarantee, all have created a perfect storm where women have
been unable to succeed. These reasons though are not all that
different from the same stereotypes faced by women in modern art in
the 60 and 70’s. I think is to explore the question of
improvisation and why women in jazz do not enjoy it as much and to
see if we can tie these to the social stereotypes they face.
Section
2
Noted
French philosopher Thomas Laqueur makes a crucial point in his book
“Making sex” when he states: “Instead
of being consequences of increased specific scientific knowledge, new
ways of interpreting the body were the result of two broader,
analytically through not historically distinct, developments: one
epistemological , the other political.”10
Laqueur illuminates that the shift from a
one to a two body system. During the late before the late 18th
century much of the world followed the one body system created by the
Greeks for identifying gender and social roles. During the time
outlined above there was great civil unrest which in many ways
prompted the change from a one to two body system. It was a way to
keep the extablished gender roles without admitting to
discrimination. The important thing to not here is that no scientific
or biological development lead to this change.. Furthermore
Laqueur’s main point here is one that we have seen played against
women for centuries. A new body system was initiated in an attempt to
keep women down, similar to how they were in jazz.
There
are many parallels between jazz and the changing of view during the
1700’s. In jazz circles females musicians exclusion goes largely
unnoticed. Mainly because it is felt that women have a different role
and talent in jazz than men, the same way that the two gender system
was meant to create roles that socially separated men and women.
According to jazz musicians male and female, women are not as
aggressive as men and are more delicate with the music. To many men
this resulted in them being too weak for jazz, however with female
musicians they mainly felt like they did not belong in the all boys
club. What I personally find humorous is that in the end some female
musicians feel that male jazz musicians are too insecure to play with
women because the intimate nature of jazz.11
In
all senses the social stigma surrounding women and their success and
jazz stems around a central problem a problem that has plagued women
for centuries: the belief that their talent is inferior. As Charlotte
Whitton said “Whatever
a woman does she must do twice as good as a man to be considered half
as good. (luckily this is not difficult)”12
This quote captures the problem so perfectly that with the use of
two studies we can show that the foundation of discrimination towards
women in jazz is unwarranted. By looking at an NPR study and a study
by Dr. Erin Wehr-Flowers we can show that women can improvise just as
well as men.
In
Dr. Wehr-Flowers published paper and study “Differences between
male and female students’ confidence, anxiety, and attitude toward
learning jazz improvisation,” she explores differences between how
male and female students experience and learn how to improvise within
jazz.
In
Dr. Flowers' study she surveyed 332 students to see how social
stigmas and stereotypes affected their opportunities and ability to
participate in jazz.13
Flowers stipulates that: “improvisation
is an integral part of jazz performance”
14
That this type of creativity is normally exhibited by the more
independent creative type of person. In this way she feels that women
may not want to improvise to avoid being ostracized as
“non-feminine”, a feeling that I found was shared among the women
I personally interviewed. Dr. Flowers wanted to see how confidence
and anxiety affected male and female students and their approach to
jazz and more importantly improvisation.
Flowers'
study does show that women are more anxious and less willing to
experiment with jazz improvisation.15
As a whole it was shown that men were more willing to try to
improvise than women. The cause of this though could not be
correlated to improvisatory ability within jazz. Flowers suggests
introducing jazz to more students and to make improvising a larger
part of musical education would help reduce this gap.16
In essence Flowers wants to give women and girls a larger comfort
zone to work within, because she feels that the anxiety and
confidence problems identified in her study can not be linked to
talent, but instead to social factors.
A
recent study by NPR can help fill the gap about ability assumed by,
but left open by the Flowers study. In this study participants (jazz
and rap artists) were taken and told to improvise in their respective
ways while having their brains scanned.17
While the sample was small the results
were not. While improvising the same parts of each brain were
activated, showing that rap is a natural extension of jazz, an
evolution of sorts. For my purposes though this study creates a more
interesting proposition. Female rappers, while still fewer in number
than male rappers,, are accepted and celebrated within the genre.
Eva,
Missy Elliot, Niki Minage, Queen Latifa, are just a few of the names
that dot the world of female rappers. Funny how in a genre
traditionally dominated by music that degrades and abuses women
they are able to become accepted. I find it funny how rap can accept
them when jazz can not. If it is true that women can rap and that
rappers show the same brain wave patterns as jazz musicians it is
reasonable to think that social factors are what weigh heavily upon
the success of female jazz students and artists.
If
all of these studies show us anything, it is that women are
underrepresented in jazz because of social factors and not ability or
skill. Despite our belief in equality there seems to be quite a bit
of sexual discrimination present in jazz. Maybe it is because of how
intimate jazz is and how despite our best efforts it is still too
sensual and close for a man to play with a women, but not another man
in that way. Maybe it is simply that there is still too much
discrimination built within the history of jazz and that in itself is
too much to overcome. The reason for this discrimination is not the
complete goal of this paper This subject requires much more research
in order to have any definitive answers. For now it is safe to say
though that talent is not what keeps women out, but social
discrimination,the same type of discrimination that held women down
in a variety of fields. And with this in mind we may have a way out
if we can take guidance from other fields where women overcame this
oppressive discrimination.
Section
Three/Conclusion
Up
to this point, we have discussed the reason there are so few women in
jazz, and why they are constrained to being singers and pianists.
Due to lack of support and , social constraints, feminism has not
taken hold in jazz.. A lack of a conversation and social
discrimination, the belief that there was no problem to discuss only
compounded it. This paper along with that of others are at the very
least starting the conversation so we can overcome and pinpoint the
root cause. Overcoming this problem is difficult, but we can use
other feminist figures to create a blueprint for how jazz can begin
to embrace its feminist friends.
Yoko
Ono, famously known as the person who broke up the Beatles, was an
artist before she started breaking up world famous groups. When she
started as an artist she was continually put down and demeaned.
Artists would refer to her as “the
owner of the loft” or space before
they would admit that she was a fellow artist.18
For this reason I feel that Yoko is the perfect person to look at
when exploring and creating a blueprint for how women can overcome
discrimination in jazz.
Ono
did not have role models to look up to, similar to what jazz
musicians face now, Despite this she became a successful artist. With
no real role models Yoko pushed through the discrimination as she
worked her way up. It was not easy for Ono, but the support and
guidance offered by John Cage truly inspired and propelled her
career. Cage became her personal mentor by attending shows, while
also serving as a sounding board and counsler. At the time Cage was
one of the leading figures in art and performance art, his guidance,
praise, and encouragement helped lead Ono to new heights, essentially
creating a place of acceptance wher Ono's work could thrive and
shine.
What
Cage did for Ono is the same thing that both Flowers and McKeage
suggest we do for women in jazz. We need to celebrate and encourage
jazz and improvisation in general. Jazz itself is a dying art form
and an increased focus in teaching it will not only help women in
jazz, but also the art form as a whole.
We
need to bring women into the fold as much as we need to encourage new
young artists. Jazz education and improvisation scare most musicians
because it is unfamiliar and that is the greatest sin of all. A sin
that is truly exposed and accentuated by the lack of women in jazz.
There
are already small organizations pushing for the incluse of women in
jazz, fighting to create role models for women and girls to look up
to. This is half the battle and for jazz the first and biggest step
is recognizing this problem, this disproportionate representation and
lost opportunities. As a society we need to alleviate the problem
women face on the bandstand.
The
problem facing women in jazz is not something new. Women have faced
and overcome this problem for generations and it is now jazz’s turn
to recognize and address the problem. Women like Maria Schneider,
Lynne Arriale, and Cindy Blackman are all proof that women can become
great jazz artists, but simply put we want them to become more of a
standard than an exception to the rule. Talk and time is what we
need. More research is necessary, but in the end we have to keep the
discussion going and in our faces. As I have said before in my other
papers the only way we deal with problems is if they are in our faces
and we know about them. Now I hope we can all approach jazz the same
way and hope we all invite our female friends onto the bandstand more
often at the next jam session.
Work
Cited
Giddins,
Gary, and Scott DeVaux. Jazz.
New York and London: W.W.Norton and Company, 2009.
Laquer,
Thomas. Making
Sex.
London: Harvard University Press, 1992.
McKeage,
Kathleen. "Gender and Participation in High School and College
Instrumental Jazz Ensembles." Journal
of Reserch in Music Education .
52. no. 4 (winter 2004).
Wehr-Flowers,
Erin. "Differences between Male and Female Students' Confidence,
Anxiety, and Attitude toward Learning Jazz Improvisation."
Journal
of Research in Music Education.
54. no. 4 (2006): 337-349. http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/54/4/337
(accessed October 10, 2012).
Whitton,
Charlotte. "great minds great quotes." great minds great
quotes. film stripZildijan, "
Williams,
Penelope. by Alec degnats. march 18, 2013.
Yoshimoto,
Midori, ed. UTK
LIV.
Boston: Ruters University Press, 2005. s.v. "Into Performance."
Zelenski,
Sarah. NPR, "A Peek Inside Rappers' Brains Shows Roots Of
Improvisation." Accessed April 4, 2013
Zildjian
Wishes Artist Viola Smith a Very Special Happy Birthday." Last
modified Nov 29, 2012. Accessed March 29, 2013.
http://zildjian.com/News-Events/2012/11/Happy-Birthday-Viola.
1
Garry Giddins, and Scott DeVaux, Jazz, (New York, London: W.W.
NOrton and Company 2009), chap. ch3.
2
Ibid.
3
(Zildjian Wishes Artis Vuila Smith A Very Special Happy BIrthday”
NOv. 29, 2012)
4
Kathleen McKeage, “Gender and Participation in High-school and
College Instrumental Jazz Ensembles,” ˆiJournal
of Research in Music Education. 52 no.4
(winter 2004) 343-346.
5
Ibid
6
Ibid 350-354
7
Ibid
8
Ibid
9
Ibid
10
Thomas Laquer, Making Sex,
London:: Harvard University PRess, 1992) 25.
11
Williams, Penelope, (Phone interview on women in jazz), interview by
Alec Degnats March 18,2013.
12
Whitton, Charlotte, “Great minds, Great quotes,” poster.
13
Wher-Flowers, Erin. “Differences between Male and Felmae Students’
Confidence, Anxiety, and Attitude toward Learning Jazz
Improvisation.” (Journal of research in music education 52. no 4
2006) 336-347
14
Ibid 338
15
Ibid 342-345
16
Ibid
17
Zelenski, Sarah. NPR, “A Peek INside Rappers’ Rains Shows Roots
of Improvisation.
18
Yoshimoto, Midori,ed. UTK LIB. Boston:Rutgers University PRess,
2005. s.v. “Into Performance.”
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