When I was asked to contribute to the ISJAC blog, I immediately thought about the lack of representation of women’s works in the canon and how the same names keep reappearing when there is representation. Though I’ve seen a heightened effort in this area over the last few years, I believe we still have to remain vigilant about making change in this area – and focus on radical inclusion – until we don’t have to anymore.
I came up with the slogan “Jazz Without Patriarchy” before founding the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice (JGJ). So much of our work is under the umbrella of The Jazz Without Patriarchy Project, and the first initiative of the project was to form a collection of compositions written by women to be an addition to the wonderful tunes that are already considered standards, of which we’ve played for so long. To that end, I am pleased to say that the book, New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers (Berklee Press/Hal Leonard), came out in September 2022. I must admit I’ve been a little bit surprised by the extent of excitement around it, and did not fully realize the need for this collection, nor the need for this “space” that allows so many women composers to be acknowledged together. I’ve received many heartfelt emails and text messages from women in the book (and those not in the book), that seem incredibly happy and genuinely thankful that the book exists.
I’ve begun to ponder once again why jazz has been so slow to address gender justice. We wouldn’t read books only by male authors, and we wouldn’t watch plays or movies with only male actors, so why would we play music by only – or mostly – male composers? Music is supposed to not only contribute to bettering the human experience, but somehow to also reflect the lives and experiences of people during the time it was played or composed. If we were looking back 100 years from now through a time capsule, what would we think about who played and composed jazz? This problem has existed for far too long. It is blatantly obvious and rather exhausting for those who live the experience and for those who work toward its correction. Also, it’s starting to become a rather boring topic, as I’m sure most of us would rather be discovering, playing or composing new music. Luckily, it’s also something that is being addressed head-on during these very exciting times. I’m sure many of the members of ISJAC are educators that are concerned about the next generation. And I remain convinced that if we love the music and care about its future, then we have to insist upon more equitable gender representation, so the music can reach its greatest potential. Seems simple to me.
I sat down with my colleague and friend, pianist/composer Kris Davis, who is the Associate Director of Creative Development for JGJ, and with one of our students, bassist/composer, Devon Gates, to chat about jazz, gender and New Standards. Both have compositions in the book.
Terri Lyne Carrington: What do you think jazz will gain by having more equitable representation with composers and arrangers? As you know, from middle school through college and the professional world, compositions and arrangements presented to students and young artists have been mostly by male composers, so what do you think will change if or when that is different?
Kris Davis: Society is more dynamic when we hear the ideas of all people, and art is a mirror of society. If people are left out based on gender, race or disability in any field, we as a community suffer because pieces of that mirror are missing or blurred. We often don’t even know that we are missing out on, like opportunities to learn from one another and to experience empathy and connection. Representation has been quite narrow in the field of jazz since the beginning. The Standards book amplifies voices that have been left out or silenced, and I think the next generation of musicians will gain new perspectives and ideas in music by studying this book.
Devon Gates: I definitely agree. As a student, my conception of what was possible in jazz was almost entirely shaped by the men I saw and heard around me, until I got to the Institute. Being able to play repertoire by non-male composers broadened my ideas of how a playing situation can feel, and also how differently things can sound as a result. When we uplift more voices, when we feel truly heard and seen by who we are playing with, when we don’t feel like a token or minority in a playing situation, the music reflects that comfort, and the vulnerability we are then allowed to share. It opens up to newer possibilities, and we in turn inspire each other to create new innovations, and transform each other as musicians, and as people.
TLC: I’m so close to the lead sheet book and of course hoping it helps in carving space for women composers to be acknowledged, but as composers represented in the book, I am wondering what you think the impact can be.
KD: Since the Me Too movement and Black Lives Matter, many institutions have been addressing diversity, equity and inclusion at every level, from hiring practices and mentorship, to the curriculum and repertoire they are teaching. Institutions were floundering to find repertoire by women, and I believe this book will become a critical resource in the coming years, not only for repertoire, but to introduce names of women composers that have been left out, or who are still contributing to the jazz canon.
DG: I agree. It definitely leaves less excuses for institutions or educators to leave out women in their curriculum or teaching practices. It also sets a precedent for many more similar publications to further broaden the repertoire, and hopefully creates more visibility in general for the issue of non-male composer representation, in addition to non-male player representation.
Outside of institutions, students like me can also bring these tunes to each other, use them to jam, compose our own new works, and introduce each other to this growing repertoire, so that the culture can shift on a more grassroots level, as the tunes we call to play with each other hopefully become more reflective of the jazz community without patriarchy that we are aiming to cultivate.
TLC: In education, how do you think we (artists/educators) can better affect the next generation of composers and improvisers?
KD: By exposing them to the history and tradition of the music, while encouraging them to explore and express their authentic selves and the current culture in the art they create.
TLC: Yes, I agree, that balance of knowing the past in order to expand the present and future is so important.
Do you feel your voice is heard by your male colleagues and do you feel free and confident to express yourself authentically, openly, honestly with colleagues, press, etc.?
KD: To some extent. I’m grateful to be part of a community at Berklee that talks openly and honestly about the way each of us move through the world, discovering experiences that bind us and experiences we can learn from.
DG: Yes—being at Berklee is definitely a far more open environment, although of course, like any space, there are still very real remnants of patriarchy that we are still working towards eliminating. The more listening, the better…
TLC: Yes, the needle is moving, but it is not utopic by any far stretch of the imagination. We are doing better in some ways, but there is, of course, still improvement to be had. I always say I can’t wait until the day this work is not needed anymore!
Kris, do you feel there are still gatekeepers in the music? And where do you feel you experience a glass ceiling, if at all? For me, I think it is in the production, music directing realm of things.
KD: Childcare is a major hurdle for families with young children, especially artists with young children who don’t get paid for the time they work or for networking in the community. A woman is often faced with the hard choice to decide between her career or having a family in America. I can name at least ten incredible women artists who had to step away at a critical moment in their careers to be mothers. Until our society supports families with young children, women will continue to be a minority in many fields of work, including the arts.
DG: That is definitely something that as a younger person, my friends and I think about when it comes to having a future in this field. I think it has been really influential on us to be able to watch our professors at the Institute like you (Kris), and Terri, and Linda May Han Oh and others really impressively do this seemingly impossible balancing act – before seeing this, it wasn’t even something I had considered much at all, so I really appreciate that it’s been a visible part of me and my peers’ experience.
I also want to emphasize that the Institute is still the first and only space of its kind among most conservatories, and that although I am so proud of the strides that we are making, it is clear in my conversations with peers from other schools or in other cities that this cultural shift is just not present yet. So something I’ve been thinking about a lot is how to create more pockets of community in other, non-Berklee, non-New England, non-institutional spaces that bring us forward. And of course, there is always the tension of jazz being institutionalized and the uneven racial disparity that emerges from that in higher education and other spaces…
TLC: Yes, and we are counting on you to do so! This is all collective work and I think sometimes men don’t realize that it is just as much their responsibility as ours to make strides in these areas. I love how Robin D.G. Kelly speaks on why men should be feminists – and how it liberates them in doing so. We are seeing more of that now with this generation – men rejecting performative masculinity.
And one last thing. How are you feeling about the future for arrangers and composers that identify as female or non-binary? Do you see the it changing for the better – and what is your tangible experience with that?
KD: I am extremely hopeful and optimistic! There are such incredible young musicians on the rise, forging their own paths as cutting-edge artists! Young people are coming up at a time when the culture is hyper aware of inequality, and I see an awareness and commitment to equity and justice in students I meet from all over the world.
DG: Yes! I really feel so inspired by the incredible art, community, and activism that I see from my mentors, and my peers, at Berklee and beyond. I’m so excited to see what continues to emerge from programs like M3, student groups like Oberlin’s Crimson Collective, and just from jazz musicians anywhere coming together and making space for community in whatever creative and caring ways that looks like.
TLC: And that’s what it’s really all about – caring!
Thank you both for taking the time to chat with me about this for our ISJAC community.
About the Moderator:
Celebrating 40 years in music, three-time GRAMMY® award-winning drummer, producer, educator and activist, Terri Lyne Carrington started her professional career in Massachusetts at 10 years old when she became the youngest person to receive a union card in Boston. She was featured as a “kid wonder” in many publications and on local and national TV shows. After studying under a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music, Carrington worked as an in-demand musician in New York City, and later moved to Los Angeles, where she gained recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for both the Arsenio Hall Show and Quincy Jones’ VIBE TV show, hosted by Sinbad.
In 1989, Ms. Carrington released a GRAMMY®-nominated debut CD on Verve Forecast, Real Life Story, and toured extensively with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, among others. In 2011 she released the GRAMMY®Award-winning album, The Mosaic Project, featuring a cast of all-star women instrumentalists and vocalists, and in 2013 she released, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, which also earned a GRAMMY®Award, establishing her as the first woman ever to win in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category.
To date Ms. Carrington has performed on over 100 recordings and has been a role model and advocate for young women and men internationally through her teaching and touring careers. She has worked extensively with luminary artists such as Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, Woody Shaw, Clark Terry, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, James Moody, Yellowjackets and Esperanza Spalding, and many more. Ms. Carrington’s 2015 release, The Mosaic Project: LOVE and SOUL, featured performances of iconic vocalists Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, and Nancy Wilson.
In 2003, Ms. Carrington received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music and was appointed professor at the college in 2005, where she currently serves as the Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, which recruits, teaches, mentors, and advocates for musicians seeking to study jazz with gender equity as a guiding principle, and asks the important question, “what would jazz sound like in a culture without patriarchy?” She also serves as Artistic Director for Berklee’s Summer Jazz Workshop, co-curator for BAMS Fest, and co-Artistic Director of The Carr Center, Detroit, MI.
In 2019 Ms. Carrington was granted The Doris Duke Artist Award, a prestigious acknowledgment in recognition of her past and ongoing contributions to jazz music. Her current band project, Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science (a collaboration with Aaron Parks and Matthew Stevens), released their debut album, Waiting Game, in November, 2019 on Motema Music. Galvanized by seismic changes in the ever-evolving social and political landscape, Waiting Game expresses an unflinching, inclusive, and compassionate view of humanity’s breaks and bonds through an eclectic program melding jazz, R&B, indie rock, contemporary improvisation, and hip-hop.
Both Waiting Game and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice point to Carrington’s drive to combine her musical passion with her profound regard for humanity. Waiting Game is not the first time that Carrington has addressed her concerns for society, though it is the most direct and impactful. The subjects addressed on Waiting Game run the gamut of social concerns: mass incarceration, police brutality, homophobia, the genocide of indigenous Americans, political imprisonment, and gender equity.
“In previous projects I’ve hinted at my concerns for the society and the community that I live in,” Carrington says. “But everything has been pointing in this direction. At some point you have to figure out your purpose in life. There are a lot of drummers deemed ‘great.’ For me, that’s not as important as the legacy you leave behind.”
About the Interviewees
Photo © Mardok 2021
Kris Davis is a critically acclaimed pianist and composer described by The New York Times as a beacon for “deciding where to hear jazz on a given night.” Since 2003, Davis has released 23 recordings as a leader or co-leader. She has collaborated with Terri Lyne Carrington, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey, Tom Rainey, Eric Revis, Johnathan Blake, Stephan Crump and Eric McPherson, among others. In 2019, her album “Diatom Ribbons” was named jazz album of the year by both the New York Times and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. She was also named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist alongside Wayne Shorter and Danilo Perez, Pianist of the Year by DownBeat magazine in 2022 and 2020, and 2021 Pianist and Composer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. In 2016, Davis launched Pyroclastic Records to support artists whose expression expands beyond the commercial sphere. She subsequently formed a nonprofit organization to support the label’s work. Davis is the Associate Program Director of Creative Development at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Kris Davis is a Steinway Artist.
Devon Gates is a bassist, vocalist, and composer from Atlanta, GA now in her third year of a dual degree program between Harvard University and Berklee College of Music, where she studies social anthropology and jazz, respectively. She has worked as a research assistant with Berklee’s Jazz and Gender Justice Institute on the book, New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets By Women Composers (which also includes her composition, “Don’t Wait”) and for the accompanying installation at the Carr Center