Women in Contemporary UK Jazz: Artistic Voice, Gender and Professional Identity

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Over a decade ago when I formed my first band, its 50/50 gender balance made us a rarity on the jazz scene. Having continued to work in the UK jazz industry since then, I've become increasingly aware of the disparities in visibility and opportunity between male and female musicians. Despite progress, women are still a minority and continue to experience barriers to career progression.There is potential to build on existing research and provide a full-scale investigation relating to gender and jazz in the UK. Wherever possible, my research will also encompass minority genders.As a practitioner I have a personal and wide-ranging perspective on UK jazz. I have a network of female colleagues and have been privy to their lived experience over time. I have played at many of the festivals and venues that signed the Keychange Pledge (Raine 2019), often with female artists, and I participated in the 2017 'Making the Changes' symposium.I have a close relationship to grass roots jazz as a player, leader, and jazz collective member. I am also an educator and ABRSM examiner.My focus will be to produce detailed research on the lived experience of women, ranging from those currently in education to those who began their careers 30 years ago. I will also take an autoethnographic approach, drawing on experience from my schooldays - when I was steered away from jazz piano lessons and instead offered figured bass - to my current position having carved out a portfolio career whilst navigating a patriarchal industry. I am keen to research this project at Kent University as the supervisors are highly experienced in qualitative research methods, gender studies and music psychology. NYJC provides a rich range of contexts for fieldwork and has a mentorship strand running through generations.My response to initial research is one of a growing sense of empowerment and recognition of the potential for a new understanding of the 21st-century UK jazz musician.