Jazzwomen Spoken Here: Comprehensive Series of Interviews Available at the Institute of Jazz Studies
Adriana P. Cuervo
Wayne Enstice: Let me ask you about sexual politics. Has gender been an issue for you in your life as a professional musician?
Jane Ira Bloom: Of course it’s an issue. Anybody who told you it isn't has a few more years to live. (Laughs.) It’s a matter of covert discrimination. It’s not spoken. That's what’s so insidious about it. It’s the phone calls that you don’t get. It’s the things that are never spoken in front of you, but you wonder why you never got the opportunities, or why you’re never thought of among the list of musicians in a promoter’s mind when a festival is being prepared. It’s the sin of omission, and that’s what’s so deadly about it. That’s why you have to talk about it and why you have to keep reminding people, “Why not?”1
Work continues at the Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS) to bring our rich collections to jazz scholars and enthusiasts around the world. I am excited to highlight the Enstice, Rubin, and Stockhouse Jazz Interviews and Radio Show Audiovisual Recordings collection, a not-so-recent acquisition that unfolded as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking flight.2 This collection contains interview recordings that authors Wayne Enstice, Janis Stockhouse, and Paul Rubin assembled between the years 1975 and 2001 as radio personalities and jazz scholars. These eventually became the books Jazz Spoken Here:Conversations with Twenty-Two Musicians (Enstice and Rubin, Louisana State Press, 1992) and Jazzwomen: Conversations with Twenty-One Musicians (Enstice and Stockhouse, Indiana University Press, 2004).
This collection arrived at the Institute in early 2020 after the IJS accepted the authors’ generous offer for its donation. It was a perfect match, especially the interviews of women jazz musicians. We are committed to filling the representational gaps in jazz history, and the Jazzwomen interviews provide a rich selection of voices including Marian McPartland, Regina Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Dottie Dodgion, Marilyn Crispell, Cassandra Wilson, and Diana Krall. The other set of interviews were captured by Enstice and Rubin who hosted a radio show titled “Just Jazz” in Tucson, AZ, at KUAT-FM. In this capacity they interviewed Art Blakey, Anthony Braxton, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Tommy Flanagan, Dizzy Gillespie, Chico Hamilton, Lee Konitz, Charles Mingus, and Henry Threadgill, to name a few.
Once the boxes were onsite, we eagerly began the arrangement and description work, only to be sent home on indefinite quarantine in mid-March. I recall a conversation I had with Wayne Enstice at the time, naively saying “We’re going on quarantine, but will probably be back at work in a few weeks’ time.” We all know how that ended. Having a complete finding aid and the collection completely rehoused and available for use took a lot of time and effort. We were working remotely for over 18 months, and the few on-site activities we were allowed to perform were geared towards the stewardship of our collections and monitoring of collection storage areas. This was a university-wide mandate, and as much as I would have liked to be on-site at IJS, I had to request special permission from campus security to visit the collections on a weekly basis to make sure our storage spaces remained secured and the collections safe. Wayne, Janis, and Paul were patient and understanding of this unprecedented situation, and I couldn’t have asked for kinder or chiller donors.
I’m writing this short entry from my office at Alexander Library in New Brunswick, NJ, where I have assumed the position of Director of Special Collections and University Archives since late January 2024. I spent the past ten and a half years, most of my professional career as an archivist, at IJS and I can’t help but reminisce about the great work we accomplished. Having our collections described online and available to users around the world has opened a lot of doors to engage with new audiences and continue to realize the Institute’s mission. We also acquired wonderful collections, including the Basie Family Papers, Chico O’Farrill’s music and audiovisual recordings, Connie Crothers’s sound recordings, and Lucky Roberts’ personal papers. But most importantly, I had the opportunity to meet and work with exceptional musicians and researchers from all walks of life who contributed to the Institute’s mission and my own professional growth as an archivist. These are memories I will cherish forever!
I am looking forward to seeing the fruits of our labor multiply in years to come.
About the Author
Adriana Cuervo recently assumed the role of Director of Special Collections and University Archives, where she oversees a team of archivists, librarians, and staff who facilitate the discovery, visibility, accessibility, and impact of Rutgers University Libraries’ nationally and internationally recognized special collections and archives. Prior to SCUA, Cuervo was the Head of Collections and Services at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University – Newark. She began her archives career at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Adriana holds an MS degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MA degree in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark.
Notes
1 Quoted in Wayne Enstice and Janis Stockhouse, Jazzwomen: Conversations With Twenty-One Musicians (Boomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004), 9. Jane Ira Bloom has two recorded interviews in this collection, one from October 27, 1995 and another from March 24, 2000.
2 The finding aid for the collection is available at https://archives.libraries.rutgers.edu/repositories/6/resources/361.