From Women-in-Jazz to Gender-and-Jazz: Jazz Feminisms from 2017 to 2019

Abstract

Between 2017 and 2019, the word “gender” flooded marketing materials of U.S.-based jazz institutions, ostensibly taking the place of the word “women.” What does this discursive change reveal to us? Riffing off of Sherrie Tucker’s category of women-in-jazz, this article examines the emergence of a new category, gender-and-jazz. Utilizing online ethnography and an anonymous online survey for non-male musicians, I analyze three different slogans (“Forget about Gender,” “The Future is Female,” and “Jazz without Patriarchy”) in order to examine how gendered jazz tropes transform into slogans, or branding for marketing and promotional materials. I argue that despite the varied language between these slogans, together they strive to accomplish the same goal of gender equity in jazz spaces. In doing so, this article offers a framework on how to “listen” to these slogans in order to understand who they are speaking to, who identifies with them, and how they naturalize, maintain, and challenge pre-established jazz discourses, especially within institutionalized spaces.