The Evolution of Women in Jazz in Wales

This exciting performance features an all-female line up of jazz musicians from Wales, performing original compositions and jazz standards by female artists and composers. The show will explore the story of women in jazz in Wales past and present through film, narration and music.

Thursday February 9th 2023 Tickets available here

As a result of the 2020 COVID lockdown, James Chadwick, jazz guitarist and educator based in Cardiff, who had set up a Facebook page called Jazz in South Wales, started asking jazz musicians to send recording of themselves playing, which he then posted as daily performances for 18 months. This stimulated connections and reconnections between musicians in the community and led to a Zoom meeting to discuss the state of Jazz in South Wales before COVID and what it might look like afterwards. It was decided that with the support of the RWCMD, an application to ACW would be made to run a Connect and Flourish, Research and Development project for a year. The successful application resulted in Archwilwyr Jazz Explorers, a year-long project running in North, West and South Wales, each with a different focus- community, education and diversity, but all with the aim of developing links, partnerships and work opportunities for Wales based jazz musicians. The project began in July, with a partnership with Aberystwyth Music Festival who piloted a fringe jazz line up to their Classical programme. In September, an education project was launched in North Wales, working with three music services, Galeri in Caernarfon and a group of recent RWCMD graduates, exploring jazz concepts, improvisation and performance. The final element is the Women in Jazz project, delivered through a partnership between Black Mountain Jazz and the newly refurbished Borough Theatre in Abergavenny.

Black Mountain Jazz are a very active focal point for jazz performances in Abergavenny and the Borough Theatre is an important venue that has been closed for a considerable refurbishment investment. Bringing together these two organisations has been a positive experience for both parties and has led to the development of the Women in Jazz showcase, which will take place at the Borough Theatre on 9th Feb. This exciting performance features an all-female line up of jazz musicians from Wales, performing original compositions and some jazz standards by female artists and composers. The show will explore the story of women in jazz in Wales, past and present through film, narration and music. The performance features a range of musicians from those established on the jazz scene, to those just starting out and include Head of Jazz at RWCMD, Paula Gardiner, Bass and guitar; Liz Exell, Drums; Llanelli based Deborah Glenister, Piano/Sax; North Wales based Maria Lamburn, Bass clarinet/Viola; Xenia Porteous, Violin; Jane Williams, voice/ukulele; Siobhan Waters, voice. The musicians were selected from an open call-out and were chosen for their skills and experience as performers and composers. The resulting group of musicians has produced a non-standard line-up affording some unusual instrumental and vocal combinations. Through discussion, it has emerged that new music, written and improvised by the musicians, will be the main element of the performance in February. The performance will be underpinned by a film exploring the musicians’ personal jazz journeys and supported by an exhibition looking at the history of Women in Jazz in Wales, written by Nigel Jarrett and including display elements from Jazz Heritage Wales.