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We studied the ‘bibles’ of jazz standards – and found sexism lurking in the strangest place

<p>We are two female jazz singers, jazz researchers and lovers of jazz. And we have discovered jazz gave us another shared experience – sexism.</p> <p>We’d both experienced garden variety sexism. Wendy was asked by a male school principal if her recent marriage meant she would resign from teaching to start a family. Melissa received passionate advice from a male audience member to swap her comfortable outfit with a “glamorous dress” when she sang jazz. </p> <p>But as university music students, neither of us imagined something as innocent as a key signature in a textbook might be a symptom of gender discrimination.</p> <p>A <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/key-music">key</a> tells musicians which set of notes a song uses. In singing, a key affects whether the notes will be sung in the low, middle or high part of the voice. </p> <p>But when we looked at what keys the “bibles” of jazz standards used, we found a hidden form of sexism.</p> <h2>The Real books</h2> <p>This unusual story begins in 1975 at the Berklee College of Music in the United States. Two music students, tired of reading shoddy, error-filled song sheets, created The Real Book to accurately notate jazz songs. Sold illegally to avoid copyright fees, it was a phenomenal success. </p> <p>After years in surreptitious worldwide circulation, publisher Hal Leonard transformed The Real Book into a <a href="https://officialrealbook.com/history/">legal edition</a>. In 1988, Sher Music joined the act and produced The New Real Book. Despite similar titles, Sher’s book was unrelated but mimicked the idea of clearly notating jazz songs. </p> <p>Together the two books cornered the market. </p> <p>The real books remain the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/10/arts/pop-music-flying-below-the-radar-of-copyrights.html">bibles of jazz musicians</a> everywhere because they contain hundreds of songs called <a href="https://www.jazzstandards.com/overview.definition.htm">standards</a>. </p> <p>Standards are common jazz songs jazz musicians are expected to know. Knowing them is your ticket to participating in jazz ensembles, and so universities use these books to train students.</p> <p>However, few educators realise one decision in 1975 about notating standards cemented a practice excluding women.</p> <p>Jazz is valued as a “conversational” style of music where musicians express personal ideas and real stories. “Authentic” jazz singing is associated with the lower voice we use when speaking.</p> <p>The human voice is a <a href="https://soundbridge.io/human-voice-instruments/">biological musical instrument</a> coming in a variety of sizes, with the male larynx (or voice box) generally larger than the female. This means men generally sing (and talk) in lower pitches, and keys that sit in the middle of the male voice are usually too low for women to sing. </p> <p>When our Berklee students and Sher Music notated songs, they chose keys used by jazz musicians. And during that era, male instrumentalists and male singers dominated the jazz community.</p> <p>So, when the real books were being developed, the editors didn’t choose keys that suited female voices.</p> <h2>What’s in a key?</h2> <p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Jazz-and-Gender/Reddan-Herzig-Kahr/p/book/9780367534141">Our research</a> examined the recordings of 16 renowned female jazz vocalists, including <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ella-Fitzgerald">Ella Fitzgerald</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/search?query=sarah+vaughan">Sarah Vaughan</a>. </p> <p>We sampled 20 songs from The Real Book and 20 songs from The New Real Book and compared the keys in the books with the keys of the female recordings. </p> <p>Less than 5% of 248 recordings fully matched the printed key. </p> <p>If women sing songs straight from The Real Book or The New Real Book, they are likely to be singing too low for their voices. And if they shift the male key up one <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/octave-music">octave</a>, it will be too high.</p> <p>Consequently, female jazz vocal students are disadvantaged. If they comply with the keys of the iconic texts, they won’t sound as “authentically jazz” as male students. The male voice will produce the conversational tone we have come to expect from jazz; the female voice will be too low or too high for this conversational style.</p> <p>The female professional singers we studied <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposition_(music)">transposed</a> the standards to keys that suited a jazz style. But this skill takes time for students to learn. Transposing requires understanding music theory and having confidence to advocate for your needs as a singer.</p> <p>Experienced jazz singers inevitably acquire these skills, but what about novice female singers? </p> <p>For many young female singers, their introduction to jazz is coloured by keys ill-suited to their voices. Place them in a band where the instrumentalists are predominantly male with little understanding of voice production, and it is an uncomfortable situation for aspiring singers.</p> <p>Fortunately, technology has advanced to a point where many standards are available on phones and can be transposed instantly. But this won’t happen until music teachers and jazz musicians understand and respect female singers by using the appropriate keys.</p> <p>So, can a key signature be sexist? Yes, it can when it’s presented as the only choice of key for female students learning jazz standards. </p> <p>It’s time to update our jazz bibles with sources including keys used by Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and acknowledge sexism has been hiding in the strangest place.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-studied-the-bibles-of-jazz-standards-and-found-sexism-lurking-in-the-strangest-place-189553" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

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Did academia kill jazz?

<p>Jazz seems to be experiencing a bit of a renaissance among movie directors – look no further than documentaries such as “<a href="https://www.sundance.org/projects/miles-davis-birth-of-the-cool">Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool</a>,” which just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, biopics such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2133196/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Born to Be Blue</a>,” and recent Oscar winners like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582802/">Whiplash</a>.”</p> <p>While films about jazz are everywhere, evidence suggests that fewer people are<span> </span><a href="https://www.arts.gov/artistic-fields/research-analysis/arts-data-profiles/arts-data-profile-18">actually consuming the music, putting the genre more on par with classical music</a><span> </span>than with today’s pop artists.</p> <p>There are a host of reasons for the decline of jazz as a popular music, but the one that interests me<span> </span><a href="https://harrisburg.psu.edu/faculty-and-staff/adam-gustafson">as a music historian</a><span> </span>is the role that academics played.</p> <p>In our attempt to elevate jazz to the ivory tower, we may have inadvertently helped to kill it as a popular style.</p> <p>However, all is not lost. While the genre might seem destined for academic obscurity, jazz continues to kick around in popular music – just in subtler ways.</p> <p><strong>Jazz captivates the country</strong></p> <p>In the 1920s, during the early years of<span> </span><a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration">the Great Migration</a>, waves of black Americans migrated from the South into the industrial cities of the North. Black jazz musicians, particularly those from New Orleans, brought their sound with them. They moved to neighborhoods such as<span> </span><a href="http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1212.html">The Stroll in Chicago</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/black-bottom-neighborhood">Black Bottom in Detroit</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://americanjazzmuseum.org/content/neon-signs-18th-vine">12th Street and Vine</a>in Kansas City and, of course, Harlem. This occurred just as the record industry blossomed and radios became mainstays in American homes.</p> <p>Jazz was well-positioned to become the most popular genre of music in the nation.</p> <p>Over the next decade, the genre underwent a transformation. Artists began to amass larger ensembles, fusing the energy of jazz with the volume of dance bands.<span> </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Billboard_Illustrated_Encyclopedia_o.html?id=w51ptGAeszIC&amp;source=kp_book_description">The Swing Era</a><span> </span>was born, and jazz orchestras dominated pop charts.</p> <p>These developments led to a new set of issues. Larger bands meant less freedom to improvise, the cornerstone of jazz. During the 1940s, music recordings became increasingly important, and jazz musicians found themselves frustrated with how little they were being paid, resulting in a<span> </span><a href="https://www.afm.org/about/history-2/">series of strikes</a><span> </span>by the American Federation of Musicians.</p> <p>By the time these problems were resolved, America’s youth had already begun gravitating toward new styles of R&amp;B and country, which would eventually morph into rock ‘n’ roll:</p> <p>After that, jazz never really recovered.</p> <p><strong>From the club to the classroom</strong></p> <p>Jazz underwent another, more subtle, shift during that same time period: It left the club and went to college.</p> <p>After World War II, jazz genres fractured and the music became more complex. It also became popular among college students. Dave Brubeck Quartet released several albums in the early 1950s that acknowledged the group’s popularity with the college crowd, including “Jazz at Oberlin” and “Jazz at the College of the Pacific.”</p> <p>Perhaps university administrators wanted to elevate a distinctly American genre to a status of “high art.” Or, maybe they just wanted to capitalize on jazz’s popularity among college students. Either way, universities started to create curriculums geared towards the genre, and by the end of the 1950s, several institutions, such as the<span> </span><a href="https://jazz.unt.edu/history">University of North Texas</a><span> </span>and the<span> </span><a href="https://www.berklee.edu/about/brief-history">Berklee College of Music,</a><span> </span>had jazz programs up and running.</p> <p>In the classroom, jazz was explored in a new way. Rather than hearing jazz played while grinding on a dance floor, it became something to dissect. In one of the earliest jazz histories, “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Story_of_Jazz.html?id=tDQrHw5zNaYC">The Story of Jazz</a>,” musicologist Marshall Stearns captures this shift. He begins his book by explaining how difficult it is to categorize the spirit of jazz. He then spends over 300 pages trying to do just that.</p> <p>Popular culture began to reflect jazz’s shifting identity as the music of educated people. The 1953 film “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCENBce_dls">The Wild One</a>” features a bouncing big band soundtrack that underscores the shenanigans of a motorcycle gang led by Marlon Brando.</p> <p>Just two years later, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CGVPYIk54">Blackboard Jungle</a>,” also features delinquent kids – except this time, they prefer the sound of<span> </span><a href="https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bill-haley">Bill Haley</a>. In one scene, their math teacher tries to get the kids to appreciate his collection of jazz records. The scene ends with the kids beating the teacher and breaking his records.</p> <p>Jazz had gone from the music of youthful rebellion to that of the cultured elite.</p> <p>During the 1960s, jazz may have been as eclectic as ever. But academics like historian Neil Leonard continued to push for jazz to be made into a serious subject of academic inquiry, as he argued in his book “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jah/article/49/4/727/823999">Jazz and the White Americans</a>.” Professional groups devoted to the study of jazz education were founded, such as the<span> </span><a href="https://www.apassion4jazz.net/iaje.html">National Association for Jazz Education</a>.</p> <p>During the 1970s and 1980s, introductory jazz courses started to reach critical mass and led to the growth of what jazz critic Nate Chinen dubbed the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/arts/music/07chin.html">jazz-education industry</a>.” Playing jazz required a college degree. Jazz had become the music of the educated. It was the music of Cliff and Clair Huxtable, one a doctor and the other a lawyer, from “The Cosby Show.”</p> <p><strong>Just don't call it "jazz"</strong></p> <p>In the last 20 years, jazz’s identity as an academic art form has only grown. At my institution, almost all of the non-classical course offerings in the music school are about jazz.</p> <p>Today, in any given semester on any given campus, you can find college students sitting in classrooms at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday trying to absorb the importance and complexity of a music meant to be heard in a club at 2 a.m. on a Saturday. It’s become brussels sprouts for budding music aficionados: You know it’s good for you, but it doesn’t necessarily taste all that great.</p> <p>Outside of the classroom, a dwindling audience base has forced traditional jazz venues to play into the notion of jazz as an educated person’s music. The current iteration of<span> </span><a href="http://mintonsharlem.com/about-mintons/">Minton’s Playhouse</a>, a club that was once a bastion of jazz energy, now calls jazz “America’s classical music” in an attempt to raise the profile of the genre (and perhaps justify the cost of the steaks being served there).</p> <p>Other venues have minimized jazz. This year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival<span> </span><a href="https://www.nojazzfest.com/lineup/#/">will feature</a><span> </span>decidedly non-jazz artists such as Katy Perry, The Rolling Stones and Chris Stapleton.</p> <p>Despite jazz’s distance from its popular roots, a little digging shows that we still like listening to jazz more than we think. We just stopped openly calling it jazz.</p> <p>Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album “<a href="https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-oral-history-of-kendrick-lamar-s-to-pimp-a-butterfly-622f725c3fde">To Pimp a Butterfly</a>” is every bit as much a jazz album as it is a rap album, thanks to Lamar’s collaboration with the saxophonist<span> </span><a href="https://www.complex.com/music/2017/10/kamasi-washington-on-kendrick-lamar-to-pimp-butterfly">Kamasi Washington</a>. Washington also had a short film, “As Told to G/D Thyself,” based on his album, “Heaven and Earth,” at Sundance.</p> <p>Lamar’s album was such a revelation that it inspired David Bowie to feature a jazz ensemble as his backing band for his final rock album, “<a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/obituary/6836599/david-bowie-blackstar-jazz-musicians-remember">Blackstar</a>.”</p> <p>Meanwhile, the music collective<span> </span><a href="http://snarkypuppy.com/about">Snarky Puppy</a><span> </span>has become an international sensation by creating<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_XJ_s5IsQc">long-form jazz works</a><span> </span>while avoiding any specific labels. Another music collective, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, has found a way to keep the sound of jazz alive – and to embrace jazz’s lighter side – by transforming contemporary pop songs into historical<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLnZ1NQm2uk">jazz genres</a>.</p> <p>With academia positioning jazz as art music, the genre is unlikely to experience a popular resurgence any time soon.</p> <p>But today’s artists are proving that the spirit of jazz is alive and well, and that jazz is much more than its name.</p> <p>Maybe this is fitting: The earliest jazz musicians didn’t call their music “jazz” either. Instead, they blended their sound with pre-existing pop genres, and, in doing so, created one of the most distinct forms of music in American history.</p> <p><em>Written by Adam Gustafson. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-academia-kill-jazz-110485">The Conversation.</a></em></p>

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10 reasons to visit the Melbourne Jazz Festival

<p> </p> <p>Love jazz? Then you won’t want to miss the <a href="http://melbournejazz.com/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Melbourne International Jazz Festival</span><span style="text-decoration: underline;">.</span></strong></a> Running from June 2 to June 11 this year, here are 10 reasons why you don’t want to miss this event.</p> <p><strong>1. Celebrate a milestone</strong></p> <p>The Melbourne Jazz Festival is marking its 20th anniversary in 2017 with the most impressive show ever. Some 500 artists from Australia and around the world will perform in more than 120 shows across the city. There’s nothing else like it in the Australian jazz community.</p> <p><strong>2. See a legendary jazz guitarist</strong></p> <p>Bill Frisel has been called the most innovative and influential jazz guitarist of the past 25 years and will be performing two shows at the festival. In ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ he is joined by an all-star band and will be reinterpreting classic cinematic scores from Psycho to The Godfather.</p> <p><strong>3. Hear a Grammy winning vocalist</strong></p> <p>Dianne Reeves is the most awarded female jazz singer in history and will be performing one special show to close the festival. She creates an intoxicating medley of jazz music with R&amp;B, Latin and pop for a show that will blow you away.</p> <p><strong>4. Feel silent jazz</strong></p> <p>Out of Earshot is a unique performance that will show you how you can feel jazz music with your body, rather than hear it with your ears. It transforms music into physicality and explores the power of non-verbal communication. It will make you rethink everything you know about jazz.</p> <p><strong>5. See an Australian exclusive</strong></p> <p>Corey Henry &amp; The Funk Apostles are bringing their special brand of groove to Melbourne for their only Australian show. It will be a cool combination of retro and modern funk, drawing from classics like Marvin Gaye and Prince.</p> <p><strong>6. Swing dance the night away</strong></p> <p>Put on your dancing shoes! Melbourne’s renowned swing dance community is hosting a buzzing big band dance night at Melbourne Town Hall and everyone is invited. If you’re not sure of the moves, arrive early for a free dance class.</p> <p><strong>7. Drink and dine</strong></p> <p>While the music feeds your soul, you’ll need to feed your stomach too. Restaurants and bars around the festival venues are offering special menus and deals for attendees, so you can sample some of Melbourne’s best cuisine.</p> <p><strong>8. Hit the clubs</strong></p> <p>Jazz was born in the smoky, intimate atmosphere of the clubs and there’s something really special about hearing it there still. The Jazzlab in Brunswick and The Toff in Town in the CBD will be hosting classic gigs that will make you feel like you're in 1920s New Orleans.</p> <p><strong>9. Take the family</strong></p> <p>If you’ve got grandkids in tow, this is the perfect opportunity to introduce them to the wonders of jazz. Play School’s Big Jazz Adventure combines your favourite television characters with a trio of Australia’s best jazz musicians for a morning of games, music and songs.</p> <p><strong>10. Learn from the masters</strong></p> <p>Festival headliners and up and coming musicians will be hosting a series of fascinating two-hour workshops during the festivals. They’ll will share their experiences, give advice and reveal their process – and best of all, it’s free.</p> <p>Have you ever been to the Melbourne Jazz Festival?</p> <p><em><strong>Have you arranged your travel insurance yet? Tailor your cover to your needs and save money by not paying for things you don’t need. <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/travel/travel-insurance/?utm_source=over60&amp;utm_campaign=travel-insurance&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_content=travel-insurance%20%20%20" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">To arrange a quote, click here.</span></a> For more information about Over60 Travel Insurance, call 1800 622 966.</strong></em></p>

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Never-before-seen footage of Louis Armstrong in the studio

<p>For the first time ever, jazz fans are being treated to the only known footage of Louis Armstrong in the recording studio, thanks to a new discovery. Found locked in a storage facility for decades, the video was shot during recording of "I Ain't Got Nobody" from Armstrong’s 1959 album <em>Satchmo Plays King Oliver</em>.</p> <p>Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum said of the “groundbreaking discovery” that most Armstrong researchers didn’t even know the footage existed.</p> <p>The 33-minute film has no set plans for release in its entirety yet, but we simply can’t wait to see more.</p> <p>Who’s your favourite jazz artist? Tell us in the comments below.</p> <p><em>Video: Louis Armstrong House Museum / YouTube</em></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2016/04/judy-garland-barbra-streisand-duet/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Unearthed Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand duet</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/entertainment/music/2016/04/new-beatles-footage-behind-the-scenes/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Never-before-seen footage of The Beatles having fun behind-the-scenes</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/entertainment/music/2016/03/behind-scenes-pic-of-favourite-musicians/"><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>8 behind-the-scenes photos of our favourite musicians</strong></span></em></a></p>

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