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Conference mr1pst::music

Title:MUSIC V4
Notice:New Noters please read Note 1.*, Mod = someone else
Moderator:KDX200::COOPER
Created:Wed Oct 09 1991
Last Modified:Tue Mar 12 1996
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:762
Total number of notes:18706

508.0. "Women in Jazz" by CRISTA::MAYNARD (The Front Row Kid) Mon Oct 04 1993 15:14

    
    Why is it that when discussing Women in Jazz, we generally think
    about the vocalists and song-stylists? What about women who are
    virtuosos on an instrument like the piano or the trumpet?
    And why are there no well-known female conductors in Classical
    Music?
    
    		Jim
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508.1LEDS::BURATIHelter SkelterMon Oct 04 1993 15:3417
>    Why is it that when discussing Women in Jazz, we generally think
>    about the vocalists and song-stylists?

    Ummm, because the overwhelming majority of them are vocalists and
    song-stylists?

>    What about women who are
>    virtuosos on an instrument like the piano or the trumpet?

    What about them? If you want to discuss them, let's go. You start.

>    And why are there no well-known female conductors in Classical
>    Music?

    You got me there, Jim.

    --Ron
508.2What's Your Point?TECRUS::ROSTKeef RiffhardMon Oct 04 1993 16:1114
    Female jazz virtuosos:
    
    Marian McPartland, Jane Ira Bloom, Geri Allen,...
    
    Female conductors:
    
    Does Sarah Caldwell count?  How about Antonia Brico? Of course, they
    are not that well known.
    
    Why do we generally think about vocalists:
    
    Sexism 8^)  8^), force of habit
    
    							Brian
508.3VERGA::CLARKMon Oct 04 1993 16:164
>    Marian McPartland, Jane Ira Bloom, Geri Allen,...
    
  Mary Lou Williams... (to name one who's earned a place in jazz piano
  history).     - Jay
508.4boy child / girl child ??SMURF::LONGOMark Longo, UNIX(r) Software GroupMon Oct 04 1993 17:2323
	I've wondered why so many more women play classical and 
folk music by percentage than jazz or rock (other than as vocalists).  
I once heard someone observe that in jazz and rock the instruments are
played using a more improvisational style.  This observation was followed
by the suggestion that traditional American child-rearing (circa 
50's/60's) encouraged females to imitate their present non-working mothers
while males were actively discouraged from most forms of female 
roll imitation.  The theory goes that in the frequent absence of the
working father the males had somewhat vaguer role identification than the
females, somwhat less tutored play patterns, and so were encouraged by 
neccesity to develop improvisational skills in play.  Could this have 
grown into different musical tendencies/preferences among adults?

	This is a greatly simplified paraphrase of an idea I heard many 
years ago, but it seems interesting.  Nothing is quite that simple and 
there are so many gender differences in our everyday environment, but what
role might child rearing styles and conditions play?  If see more women 
now playing improvised music than 3 decades ago, (do we?) maybe our 
changing societal norms for child rearing are partly responsible...


/ml
508.5They're Out There...HOTWTR::TUTAK_PEBunny Brief LivesMon Oct 04 1993 17:4317
    
    Well, there's Carla Bley, who plays keyboards, always looks a little
    wigged out, but writes some great charts and currently has a band with
    bassist Steve Swallow. If they ever put the big band back together,
    they are worth checking out.
    
    There was also the late Emily Remler, who was about 37 when she OD'd in
    Australia about a year and a half ago. Very Wes Montgomery-influenced
    guitar work, simple and direct. Check out her 'This is Me' release,
    which was in post production when she died. Good player...saw her in a
    club in New Jersey back around '84. Her death really saddened me.
    
    Others in Jazz: Patrice Rushen (excellent pianist), Ruth Underwood
    (percussionist par excellence), Candy Dulfer (reeds), Gayle Moran
    (keyboards), Carol Kaye (mostly rock bass, but one of the great session
    musicians of the last 30 years)...