No other style of music is as in motion as jazz. A few years ago this was considered a dead affair, stuck in its own traditions. The times when giants like John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman or Miles Davis were permanently revolutionizing their own music and thus jazz itself seemed to be over for good.
But recently something has happened. In metropolises like Chicago, London and Berlin, young scenes are blossoming in which attempts are made to turn the traditional concept of jazz, as diverse as it may be, inside out. The London saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, for example, shortcuts his play with psychedelic rock and electronic music in his countless combos. And the saxophonist Kamasi Washington from Los Angeles, who is incredibly successful with his jubilant deep and spiritual jazz, repeatedly emphasizes how close hip-hop is to him. Mathias Modica, who lives in Berlin – actually a DJ and dance producer and recently also head of the jazz label Kryptox – says about the latest developments in the German capital: “This scene has nothing at all to do with old jazz. Our grandfathers no longer go to concerts there with red horn-rimmed glasses, but rather young people with trendy clothes. ”Jazz women play a special role in this departure.
Trumpeter with punk
The London saxophonist Nubya Garcia is celebrated for incorporating elements of reggae and cumbia into her sound. Trumpet player Jaimie Branch from Chicago, on the other hand, has a refreshing punk attitude. Alone, women are still outnumbered in the industry.
Of course, the jazz scene has also produced formative female figures: from Carla Bley to Alice Coltrane to Irène Schweizer. Or think of singers like Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald, who have become real icons. But all of them seem like exceptional phenomena in a male-dominated jazz culture. In addition, as a woman, until now you could only achieve something with the piano or with singing. The great warriors on the formative instruments of jazz, on drums, bass, trumpet and the jazz instrument par excellence, the saxophone: all men. This is one of the reasons why people like Jaimie Branch or Nubya Garcia seem so revolutionary. The Berlin musician Kathrin Pechlof believes that the male-dominated history of jazz has long prevented women from being able to inscribe themselves more strongly into it. “Jazz is music that is strongly based on role models,” she says, “and the great role models were always only men!” Especially in free jazz, which developed in the sixties, at some point it was no longer just about to play with, but against each other. To blow each other off the stage in increasingly freer improvisations and sometimes to puff up one’s own ego. For example, the musician Alfred Harth says of the free jazz scene that flourished in Wuppertal at the end of the sixties, that it was “a pure men’s club” – and that “alcohol was the engine” not infrequently. Kathrin Pechlof considers this to be a less inclusive work atmosphere: “The competitive edge and the will to want to compete was something that did not attract women so much.”
In the still most up-to-date survey on “Living and working conditions of jazz musicians in Germany” carried out by the University of Hildesheim Jazz study 2016So it came as no surprise: “The German and international jazz scene is still largely dominated by men.” To put it in bare numbers: 80 percent of jazz musicians were men, only 20 percent women. In a study by the German Jazz Union from 2020, which dealt with “gender equality in jazz”, the conclusion was at least: “The jazz landscape is on the move. Gender and gender equality are slowly penetrating the consciousness of the scene as issues to be taken seriously. ”But here, too, it had to be stated that men continue to dominate“ on the stages, in the juries, among the organizers and, last but not least, in the audience ”. In the Jazz study 2016 it also states that “overall, even more girls than boys take jazz lessons at music schools.” However, “fewer girls and women are already finding their way into the first bands and ensembles”. And with the increasing degree of professionalization, the proportion of women among music students, band leaders, lecturers and professors in the field of jazz continues to decline.
Mother at the harp
Pechlof knows the reasons for this: “The scene is very agile and is constantly re-forming. When you have children there, it gets quiet for a while. After that, it’s difficult to come back. ”That way, jazz would lose a lot of women. As a young mother she knows what she is talking about: “I put a lot of pressure on myself. I thought I couldn’t afford to take a three year break. I was always afraid of getting lost in the scene and was in constant conflict. I often had the feeling that it doesn’t really fit together to be a mother and a jazz musician at the same time. “
What Pechlof describes also exists as a problem in other artistic areas and, not least, plays an important role in society as a whole. But jazz is a particularly difficult terrain for young mothers. The fees here are low compared to other music genres, not to mention the record sales. You have to rely on playing a lot of live concerts at times that are not very family-friendly. It rarely starts before 8 p.m. And open ended. If you strive for security for your young family, you will leave it to jazz faster than elsewhere. But despite the above-described, also structurally conditioned resistance, women are now gradually conquering this industry. And they are becoming more and more visible at the relevant festivals, certainly also due to quotations.
At the same time, they are advancing into more and more areas. Five years ago, an overwhelming majority of jazz students stated that they had chosen singing as their first “instrument”. Certainly also because of the jazz history that has already been sketched out, which teaches that as a singer, one is most likely to achieve something in this scene. Kathrin Pechlof, on the other hand, plays the harp. It is probably the only instrument in jazz where the greatest role models are female: thanks to Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby. The belief that women would not be able to use the relevant jazz instruments is a “completely outdated role model”, says Pechlof and adds that this prejudice is “comparable to the cliché that women cannot park”. The younger generation would no longer accept these false attributions. “Instruments with a connotation of femininity are now being conquered by women: trombone, trumpet, double bass, drums.” Can they really play them as well as their male colleagues? “In 20 years at the latest, we will no longer be asking ourselves this question,” believes Pechlof. Then the age of red horn-rimmed glasses will be over for good.
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