[Dixielandjazz] The Girls in the Band reviewed -Seattle Times, February 14, 2014

[Marek Boym]

I wonder how many Europeam musicians are featured.  When I heard Bob Oliver
in Bude in 1994, he announced "I Never Knew What a Girl Could Do - until I
had two of them in my band."  One - the trombonist Christine Woodcock - has
become a well known star; in 2000, it was enough to advertise "Christine
and the Stackyard Stompers" to draw a sizeable crowd.  The other one  was
Sylvia Marsh on sousaphone.  There also is the wonderful French reed player
Aurelia Tropez.  We should not forget the French all-girl band Some Like it
Hot, the Swedish Carling Family, or the Dutch Slidin' Selena.  There are
more, too many to mention.  All have been playing for a while - the younger
ones less than the oder ones - the way of the world!
Anyway, when Emily Asher played in Tel-Aviv, I was certainly not deterred
by her gender!
Cheers


On 16 February 2014 00:18, Robert Ringwald <rsr at ringwald.com> wrote:

> 'The Girls in the Band' a Heartening Look at Ladies of Jazz
> by Paul de Barros
> Seattle Times, February 14, 2014
> On the heels of feminism's second wave, the '80s saw a florescence of
> books and TV
> shows about -- and tributes to -- women in jazz, who had long been
> neglected, ignored
> or forgotten. Now we have Judy Chaikin's celebratory, superbly directed
> and edited
> documentary film on the same subject.
> The major strength of "The Girls in the Band" is its abundant, crisp
> footage of women
> playing at the highest level, from pianist Lil Armstrong (Louis' wife) to
> contemporary
> reed player Anat Cohen. With music like this, there's no need -- as there
> was 50
> years ago -- to defend female jazzers.
> The music speaks for itself, whether it's trumpet player Billie Rogers
> (hired by
> Woody Herman) blowing up a storm on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Patrice Rushen
> (whom
> Quincy Jones counseled, "you're going to have to be very, very good")
> wailing on
> electric piano, or Portland's Esperanza Spalding doubling down on bass and
> vocals.
> How heartening that as the film moves on speed dial through history, from
> the bad
> old days when women were flat-out unwelcome, it arrives at a place where
> women are
> saying gender isn't a hurdle anymore (never mind that not all would agree).
> The film is also candid about what, in part, held women back, explaining
> that men,
> particularly in the big-band era, simply did not want a woman around when
> they were
> telling dirty, often misogynist jokes and/or cheating on their wives.
> Some worthy players are omitted -- in particular, trumpeter Barbara Donald
> and pianist
> Patti Bown (who is actually in the background of a shot about trombonist
> Melba Liston,
> but goes unmentioned) -- but a more important weakness is that it doesn't
> explain
> why anyone who doesn't already love jazz and support its women should
> care, which
> will probably doom this doc to the jazz festival circuit.
> That's too bad, because it has a smart shape, starting with the famous
> 1958 "A Great
> Day in Harlem" photo, which featured only three women, and ending with a
> restaging
> of that same photo in 2008 -- using all women and three men.
> I happen to have been at the shoot, and it was a moving moment, especially
> when everyone
> cheered for the late grande dame of jazz, Marian McPartland, as she got
> out of her
> town car.
> If there was ever a moment when the cliche "You've come a long way, baby"
> was appropriate,
> that was it.
>
>
> -B-30
> ob Ringwald K6YBV
> www.ringwald.com
> 916/ 806-9551
>
> "Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours."
> --Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra
>
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