We are working on many projects at the moment and of course, celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8th. Do keep in touch with our news and updates and get in touch if you would like to know more! A few of you have been asking about everyone roles within the team, so we will shortly be sharing some more info on the work everyone does in the team.

As always, the team have been busy with various different projects both inside and outside of our WIJM work:

Our newest team member Diana Torti was invited to lecture to voice teachers and students of several Conservatories and Music Academies. The lecture title was: “The First Sound: Images and Thoughts about Voice and Identity”. The lecture was inspired by her own personal research entitled “The expressive urgency of the first sound”, and it is about the voice phenomenon, its intimate connection with everyone’s own internal reality, and the universality of human sound. The lecture was included in the VoCon program. VoCon is a Europe-wide platform for vocal Jazz, Pop, and all interested teachers in higher music education. It provides the need for sharing good practice, thoughts on education, and differences in vision and mission in the various European countries. The event was part of The AEC Pop and Jazz Platform meeting 2022 and took place at Akademia Muzyczna im. Grazyny i Kiejstuta Bacewiczow in Łódź, Poland, on 13th February 2022. 

At the end of January, Diana released a CD where she collaborated as a vocalist, “Lo racconta il mare” (Tales from the sea). The project is a musical work by the composer and guitarist Sabino de Bari dedicated to his own born town Molfetta (South Italy). It gives a voice to the sea, whose presence for people of that place is essential, making him tell the memories of an almost forgotten past: stories of tarantella, emigration, nursery rhymes, and so on up to echo themes of Molfetta's sacred music. The engine that drove the entire project was to give voice to memories that have been lost or that are being lost in the contemporary culture of the little Italian town. All vocal pieces are sung in the dialect of the town.

The CD is on sale here: www.sabinodebari.com and ‘All that jazz’ section on the https://www.jazzviews.net online shop.

Fiona Mactaggart has been busy running the brilliant Scottish Jazz Space but has also found the time to form a new organisation - Jazz Forward. Jazz Forward is a new Scottish Jazz Collective of three established jazz musicians/songwriters/composers and a jazz journalist. Promoting positivity, we aim to bring live jazz performances that celebrate a wide spectrum of creative music to communities across Scotland. Fiona tells us 'As you can see, Jazz Forward is a collective of 3 experienced jazz musicians - Sophie Bancroft, Marianne McGregor, Malcolm MacFarlane -plus myself. We hope to take jazz to the parts of Scotland that don't get to see live music very often. In time, we aim to enlarge our collective so as to support regular touring across Scotland for as many of the great jazzers here in Scotland as possible! We're applying for grants and setting up gigs at present which will hopefully start this May' For further info or to offer support do get in touch with this wonderful initiative!

Fausta Joly is working with us on a brilliant project for International Women's Day

Kim Cypher is busy with several exciting music projects. Following the release of her charity single 'Bring Your Own Sunshine' on 1st February, over £300 has been added to the continuing fundraising project which has now raised over £3000 for cancer charity Maggie's. You can listen to the track and find out more here: Bring Your Own Sunshine. Next up is the song video featuring US guitarist B.D. Lenz and London-based CK Gospel Choir. The video will be filmed in London in New York. Kim also has new music coming soon in the form of a selection of original pieces celebrating the Arts following the devastation of covid and lockdowns. The music is very much influenced by looking towards a brighter tomorrow. Keep an eye out for this later in the year. Finally, Kim is incredibly excited and honoured to be invited to spend an afternoon with one of her all-time saxophone heroes, the incredible Barbara Thompson MBE to chat about her life and browse through memorabilia. This will be featured soon by Women in Jazz Media.

 Aydenne Simone is back at the Piano Bar, Soho in London. Not to be missed! Tickets here

Wendy Kirkland is busy working on some brilliant articles for our next magazine and enjoying amazing reviws of her recent album 'Latin Lowdown Live' available here. She is also back at Ronnie Scotts on Feb 21st. Tickets here

Monika S Jakubowska has been working all over London taking incredible photos and her work was recently featured in The Telegraph and on the American NBC Today Show

And last but not least Esther Bennett! Esther has some brilliant gigs lined up for her Duncan Lamont Songbook project. 'For almost a decade, singer Esther Bennett and Duncan had been touring The Duncan Lamont Songbook in the UK with guest vocalists including Tina May, Norma Winstone, Sarah Moule, Daniela Clynes and Beverley Beirne' Esther tell us "It was in the 606 Club bar that I bumped into saxophonist & composer Duncan Lamont again. After a long chat about jazz and singers he suggested that I sing some of his songs. This sowed the seed for what was to become almost a decade of touring a project I performed in and ran called “The Duncan Lamont Songbook. Duncan sadly passed away in 2019, but I am continuing the project with his son Duncan Lamont Jnr." 

You can see Esther perform along with Daniela Clynes, Duncan Lamont Jnr on flute & saxes, Terence Collie on piano and Richard Sadler on bass at the Bulls Head, London on March 13th, tickets here and on March 23rd at The Red House with Aled Thomas on piano, Alexander Keen on bass and band leader John Withers on drums. Tickets here.

Beautiful shot of Esther at her recent Pizza Express gig by our Monika!