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YOU HAVE TO SEE IT TO BE IT.

In case you are the only woman/non-binary instrumentalist and/or composer in the jazz room, here’s a list of inspiring people who are making a living from music to check out. This is by no means anything remotely close to a comprehensive list. This is just who I thought of off the top of my head because I’ve probably played a gig with them. There are literally thousands of us around the world, but are generally not as visible as jazzmen. The effects of the historical exclusion from the narrative of jazz are unfortunately ongoing. However, everyone is busy playing gigs, teaching, writing music, and being amazing.

Contact Nadje to add a name she inevitably missed. Sorry in advance!

Women in Jazz Organization

Women In Jazz Organization (WIJO) intends to help level the playing field in Jazz, so that women and non-binary people have equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to Jazz, leading to an improved and more rich, diverse, and successful art form.

WIJO is committed to honoring Black Americans as the creators of Jazz.

Link to incredible free mentorship program is here.

Mutual Mentorship for Musicians

Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) is a platform created to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to musicians of historically underrepresented gender identities (including cis women, trans women, trans men and non-binary) in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions.

We Have Voice Collective

We Have Voice is a collective of 14 musicians, performers, scholars, and thinkers from different generations, races, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, gender identities, economic backgrounds, religious beliefs and affiliations. Together, they are determined to engage in transformative ways of thinking and being in their creative professional world, while being ingrained in an inclusive and intersectional analysis.

Berklee Center for Jazz and Gender Justice

What would jazz sound like in a culture without patriarchy?

The jazz industry remains predominantly male due to a biased system, imposing a significant toll on those who aspire to work in it. In understanding the importance of balance and equity, the goal of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice is to do corrective work and modify the way jazz is perceived and presented, so the future of jazz looks different than its past without rendering invisible many of the art form's creative contributors.

Andrea Keller

Featuring compositions that span her illustrious career, Andrea Keller’s Forty-One Pieces for Piano offers pianists from early intermediate to advanced levels the opportunity to delve into her world and distinctive musical language. These works, arranged for two or four hands, are either fully notated, or contain passages of varying complexity for both confident improvisers and those just starting out

Diversify the Stand

Diversify the Stand provides accessible educational music for younger musicians through commissioning composers of color, gender-marginalized composers, and composers identifying as LGBTQ+.

Trumpet Music by Women Composers

Curated by Amy Dunker

Catalog of Trumpet Works by Gender-Marginalized People and/or Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color curated by Ashley Killiam HERE

List of Percussion works by Female/Non-Binary composers curated by Claire Edwardes HERE

Digital scores of leading women composers in jazz curated by Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice. A resource for the international music community, libraries and institutions. Link is HERE

A film that I think should be required viewing for all jazz majors: The Girls in the Band, directed by Judy Chaikin

Produced by Mick Paddon

PODCAST: Music Has No Gender

Sandy Evans, who has been described as a national treasure and awarded an Order of Australia for her contributions to contemporary Australian music, talks about her attempts in the early 2000s to give more opportunities for young women to study, play and make a career in jazz. Sandy reflects on what has changed in the past fifteen years.

BOOKS ON WOMEN/NON-BINARY MUSICIANS IN JAZZ