Women have played an essential role in the development of jazz music since its inception. March is Women’s History Month. April is Jazz Appreciation Month. So what better time to hold a concert, and have a conversation with UT Tyler Associate Professor of Saxophone and Jazz, Sarah Roberts, Ph.D.?
Jazz lovers can join Roberts for the concert, entitled, “Girls Don’t Play Jazz,” an evening of jazz celebrating the women of jazz Thursday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Braithwaite Recital Hall at UT Tyler. Click the link for more information on the concert.
Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. Beginning in 1987, March has been National Women’s Month to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary achievements of American women. April will be Jazz Appreciation Month. UT Tyler’s Associate Professor of Saxophone and Jazz Dr. Sarah Roberts, thought it might be a good idea to celebrate the contributions of women in both of those areas.
And she’s our guest today. Welcome. Now, tell us more about celebrating women in jazz. What’s your idea about how to do that?
Sarah Roberts: Sure. Well, my idea is to not only play my saxophone as a female jazz artist, but to play the music written by some important women, jazz musicians who have spanned the history of jazz.
Mike Landess: And how are you gonna do that? You got some sort of a program?
Sarah Roberts: I do. I am presenting a recital on March 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Brathwaite Recital Hall. And it will feature compositions by women in jazz. And I’m gonna talk a little bit about the composers of the pieces and a little bit about women’s contributions in jazz.
So, one of the composers that I’m playing, Melba Liston, she is a jazz trombonist from the early 1900’s. And, and my program spans from there to jazz saxophonist, Alexa Tarantino, who’s currently in her, you know, late 20’s, New York saxophonist. So it really spans the gamut of female jazz.
Mike Landess: The saxophone is your musical weapon of choice. Other than Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer, who toured with Prince in 2004 as a performer with Pink Floyd, I wasn’t aware of how many extremely talented and respected female artists there were.
Sarah Roberts: Mm-hmm. , that’s true. You know, women have always played a role, not just in jazz, but in in music in general, and especially in our history books, they very frequently get left out, especially the instrumentalists.
We commonly think of our women jazz vocalists like Billie Holiday or Sarah Vaughan. But we leave out those instrumentalists who played not only an instrumental part in developing the genre and the music, but also just some of the nuts and bolts to have jazz gain popularity.
And one of my favorite stories is about little Hardin Armstrong. She. Grew up in Chicago. She was a jazz pianist, and she played with King Oliver’s band. And, King Oliver was a really important band leader that a lot of young musicians would get their start with him. And so he, is kind of noted for, you know, giving Louie Armstrong his start.
And we’ve all heard of Louie Armstrong, and we know what an influential figure he’s been in jazz. He actually met Lil Hardin Armstrong through King Oliver’s band. And, they performed together and ended up marrying each other. And not only did little kind of serve as, you know, his musical partner, but she was also his business partner and billed him as the world’s greatest trumpeter and helped him form his Hot Five and Hot Seven band.
And, even helped write some of the music that his band would play.
Mike Landess: Was the handkerchief her idea ? I’m not sure that’s the classic picture that you have with Louie Armstrong, with the trumpet and the handkerchief.
Sarah Roberts: Exactly. No, it’s really interesting that, you know, women played this integral role, but we commonly think of jazz as being this, you know, male art form that women weren’t doing, but they actually were.
If we look back at World War II, you know, men were off fighting, and women were holding down the fort, and a lot of all-female bands were started. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm is one of the most famous, an all-female band that was actually integrated. It was actually one of the first jazz organizations to have integration.
And so they toured nationally, and kept the music going, kept the style going, you know, and it’s really, really interesting when we read our history books. To know that this happened, but why isn’t it in there? Why isn’t it there, you know? There’s, wait a minute.
Mike Landess: That’s your next book, isn’t it?
Sarah Roberts: Oh, there you go. I think you need my podcast, or your podcast. There’s a woman named Hazel Scott, and she was a jazz pianist, and she grew up in New York. She, her mom, was friends with Billie Holiday and Lester Young, ran in some really cool crowds. And so, when she was 13, her mom got her a gig playing at the Roseland Ballroom.
And she had to follow the Count Basie Orchestra.
Mike Landess: How do you follow the Count Basie Orchestra?
Sarah Roberts: I don’t know, but she did. And she ended up because Billie Holiday was an influence and friend. She was a vocalist and a pianist, and you know, she’s probably the most famous, and performed for the largest crowds, but we don’t know her name.
She’s not a household name, but Count Basie is, and Billie Holiday is. It’s really, really fascinating. I love the back story.
Mike Landess: That’s so great. How did you happen to pick the saxophone? I mentioned Candy Dulfer. Isn’t that one of your first influences?
Sarah Roberts: Well, yeah. You know, my dad; I’m a child of the 80’s and I grew up, listening.
My dad was a classical rock fan. And, I, we grew up around music. My parents were amateur musicians, still are. And, you know, I knew what the saxophone was. I really picked it because of Sesame Street, actually.
Mike Landess: Is that right? I love it!
Sarah Roberts: There is a really fun, you know, episode where they went into a saxophone factory and showed how it was made.
And I distinctly remember telling my mom, that’s what I wanna play. And so it just stuck with me. But Candy Dulfer, you know, my dad came home, I had started playing saxophone. I was like fifth grade, and he brought this cassette tape home of Candy Dulfer and said, here I found a female saxophone player. It was because even, you know, growing up in bands, I didn’t have a lot of female role models.
I did have some female band directors, but as far as saxophone went, I didn’t have a lot. And quite frequently, even now, when we are thinking about bringing in a guest artist or we’re thinking about, you know, bringing in somebody to be featured, or even the posters that we hang on our walls of famous musicians, they tend to be male musicians.
The narrative I really feel is changing, but it’s taken a lot of effort. I’m really excited. The tunes that I am playing on my recital are all coming from this project that started with Terry Lynn Carrington. Terry Lynn Carrington is a jazz drummer. She lives in New York. She teaches in Berkeley, and she started this institute, I’m gonna flip my page so I get it right.
It’s the Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice at Berkeley College of Music.
Mike Landess: That sounds like something from Berkeley .
Sarah Roberts: Yeah, it really does. but it’s really shining a light on, like, we’re talking about all of these stories of women who played an integral role in jazz, but we haven’t heard about their stories or they’re not mainstream.
And so she actually published, earlier this year, she published a book that has all lead sheets of, it’s a hundred jazz tunes written by women. And so all of the pieces that I’m playing are coming out of that book.
Mike Landess: Oh, that’s amazing. And your book, I mean, by the time you get your book and find…
Sarah Roberts: There you go … it’ll be exactly fantastic.
Our final concerts for UT Tyler Jazz are happening in April. So, our final big band concert is April 20, and so just invite everybody to that. And if they have any questions, come to uttyler.edu/music or find us on Facebook or Instagram.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been UT Tyler Associate Professor of Saxophone and Jazz, Dr. Sarah Roberts. To find out more about “Girls Don’t Play Jazz,” you’ll find a link on our website, KVUT.org. And there you’ll also find this interview to hear again or to share. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
