1st Edition

Women and Jazz European Perspectives from Researchers and Artists

Edited By José Dias, Christa Bruckner-Haring Copyright 2025
238 Pages 24 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

238 Pages 24 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

238 Pages 24 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Women and Jazz: European Perspectives from Researchers and Artists is an edited volume bringing together the work of female researchers exploring the complex relationship between jazz and gender. Who are the European and Europe‑based women in jazz, and do they perceive jazz as still being a male‑dominated world? Women and Jazz encompasses a broad range of views and themes, including the role of... Read more

Foreword

Sara Serpa

 

Preface

José Dias and Christa Bruckner-Haring

 

Acknowledgements

 

Chapter 1. Breaking Barriers: Women’s Voices in Jazz Research and Performance

José Dias and Christa Bruckner-Haring

 

Chapter 2. Female Jazz Musicians in European Jazz Historiography

Magdalena Fürnkranz

 

Joëlle Léandre

Interview by Marie Buscatto

 

Paula Sousa

Interview by Beatriz Nunes

 

Monika Herzig

Interview by Magdalena Fürnkranz

 

Gina Schwarz

Interview by Magdalena Fürnkranz

 

Chapter 3. Out of Place: The Importance of Female Role Models in Jazz Education

Beatriz Nunes

 

Airelle Besson

Interview by Marie Buscatto

 

Beatriz Félix

Interview by Beatriz Nunes

 

Inge Katharina Pechoc

Interview by Magdalena Fürnkranz

 

Romarna Campbell

Interview by Sarah Raine

 

Chapter 4. Harmonizing Motherhood, Reimagining Identity, Support Networks, and Gender Equity in Jazz

Lee Ellen Martin

 

Giedrė Kilčiauskienė

Interview by Daina Urbanavičienė

 

Béatrice Graf

Interview by Katharina Weissenbacher

 

Anne Paceo

Interview by Marie Buscatto

 

Yazz Ahmed

Interview by Sarah Raine

 

Judith Schwarz

Interview by Magdalena Fürnkranz

 

Chapter 5. Working Together: Support Systems Beyond the Homosocial Jazz Networks

Sarah Raine

 

Veronika Čičinskaitė-Golovanova

Interview by Daina Urbanavičienė

 

Anoushka Nanguy

Interview by Sarah Raine

 

Sophie Alour

Interview by Marie Buscatto

 

Marena Whitcher

Interview by Katharina Weissenbacher

 

Chapter 6. “The Guys Didn’t Call to Offer Me Gigs”: Gender Dynamics in the Icelandic Jazz Scene

Þorbjörg Daphne Hall

 

Alicia Gardener-Trejo

Interview by José Dias

 

Luzia von Wyl

Interview by Katharina Weissenbacher

 

Viktorija Gečytė

Interview by Daina Urbanavičienė

 

Lara Jones

Interview by Sarah Raine

 

Chapter 7. Artistic Research in Jazz: Can You Hear That I Am a Woman?

Jasna Jovićević

 

Neda Malūnavičiūtė

Interview by Daina Urbanavičienė

 

Iro Haarla

Interview by Elina Hytänen-Ng

 

Hilaria Kramer

Interview by Katharina Weissenbacher

 

Susana Santos Silva

Interview by Beatriz Nunes

 

Chapter 8. When Female Jazz Instrumentalists Make It “Anyway”…

Marie Buscatto

 

Chapter 9. Outlook

José Dias and Christa Bruckner-Haring

 

Afterword

Loes Rusch

Biography

José Dias is a musician and researcher, currently serving as Assistant Professor in Critical Practices at Coventry University. He has authored Jazz in Europe: Networking and Negotiating Identities (2019) and Festa do Jazz (2020), and directed the documentary Those Who Make It Happen (2016). As a musician and composer, Dias has toured and recorded extensively and scored music for animation, film and television, as well as theatre and contemporary dance.

Christa Bruckner‑Haring is an Assistant Professor and the Deputy Director of the Institute for Jazz and Popular Music Research at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, where she is also co‑editor of the publication series Jazzforschung/Jazz Research, Beiträge zur Jazzforschung/Studies in Jazz Research, and Jazz Research News. Her work has appeared in such publications as Transnational Studies in Jazz, Jazz Research Journal, Beiträge zur Popularmusikforschung, European Journal of Musicology, the encyclopaedia MGG, and her monograph Gonzalo Rubalcaba und die kubanische Musik (2015).

"How painful but also how uplifting it feels to read about this topic, which is presented with thoroughness and care. Of course, this is a timely publication. Examining the experiences of being a female jazz musician in Europe in 2021/ 2022, most of those involved, appropriately, are female. The researcher-academics’ chapters alternate with clusters of interviews with the musicians, the voices of the latter jumping off the page, the conversational style and the poignancy of their stories leavening the academics’ formalised language. More research is clearly needed, again keeping musicians’ voices firmly central-field. This book is a terrific contribution to this field and to supporting all genders in having ‘a fair go’ at a career in jazz. They and all of society deserve no less." 

Fiona Mactaggart