We publish a new playlist each month and try to share a wide range of women from across the world - new releases, legacy artists, new and established artists and also some women we think you should know about but maybe don't! 

This month we have a ‘special edition’ playlist, highlighting the incredible music of the 13 artists playing at our EFG London Jazz Festival events from the 14th- 19th of November!  You can listen on Spotify here or You Tube here - as always we would encourage you to purchase music directly from the artist through the links below.

Find out more about each event and get your tickets here: https://womeninjazzmedia.com/events/ 

Lara De Belder   Amy Gadiaga

Monika Herzig   Migdalia Van Der Hoven

Esther Bennett   Big Mama

Ashaine White   Mary Sho

RYBES   Olympia Vitalis

Alexis Cole   London Gay Big Band   Charlotte Keeffe

Welcome to the third episode of our podcast series’ The Notes Between’ with Lara Eidi. Conversations exploring everything behind and about the world of songwriting! Our theme music ‘Opened Eyes’ is from Lara Eidi herself available here

In this third episode, Lara talks to songwriter Kate Smith. Available on Spotify Apple and Anchor

Once declared the “singing madame” of Beijing’s cabaret scene (Global Times), Kate Smith has travelled the globe, crossing borders and musical genres alike, continually defying labels. With experience performing professionally in classical, folk, pop rock, improvisation, musical theatre and more, Kate eventually landed in London, studying classical singing and earning her MMus in Leadership at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she also began developing The Embodied Voice. Since then, Kate has become an in-demand performer and maker in British vocal theatre. She is passionate about transforming our relationship to the body by creating music - and facilitating collective music-making - for voices and bodies in motion.

Kate’s practice draws on many influences including yoga, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method®, Body-Mind Centering®, mindfulness, contact improv, dance, and theatre. She has studied with Meredith Monk, Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen (BMC), Seke Chimutengwende, Robert Sussuma (Vocal Learning Systems), Margaret Pikes (Roy Hart Theatre), Grzegorz Braal (Song of the Goat), Guillermo Horta (VABAS), and more. She is a 200hr Yoga-Alliance certified teacher of Authentic Flow Yoga. She earned her Guildhall Certificate in Coaching & Mentoring, Accredited by the European Mentoring & Coaching Council in 2019.

Kate specialises in projects that bring together movement, voice, and improvisation. She is a cast member of Verity Standen’s acclaimed Undersong and Artistic Director of THAT! Ensemble. She has performed in singer-instrumentalist opera (Re:Sound Music Theatre), choral street theatre (Totally Themes), folk opera (Spitalfields Music) and more. She improvises with The Improvisers’ Choir (TIC), electro-acoustic trio AR|RA, and vocal collective, Anthropos. She is also a founding member of El Parnaso Hyspano, performing early music from Latin America. Kate is currently working on writing a song cycle for voice and movement, Songs from the Body.

Kate has taught workshops on creative music and The Embodied Voice for a range of communities and clients, working with participants in hospitals, mental-health centres, prisons, schools, conservatories and art galleries. Her clients have included BBC Creative Learning, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, The Barbican Creative Learning, CREATE, Harvard University, Whitechapel Gallery, Aldeburgh Young Musicians, Found Sound Nation, and more. She provides voice and movement consultation for dance and theatre companies, and was the director of Hackney One Voice, an inter-generational community choir. As the founder of Curiosa, Kate has led residencies and workshops on cross-arts collaboration in China, Portugal and Malta. 

Lara Eidi is an artist that thrives on being different.  Born in Athens Lebanese- Canadian parents, her entire life and career is that of a singer-songwriter , multidisciplinary artist, educator and writer. Undefined by style, Lara’s music has earned her own unique place in the music world as a storyteller, jazz and folk singer, composer and recording artist heard at venues in London including the Barbican, St Martins in the Fields, Green Note, Edinburgh Festival, Beirut International Festival to name a few. Born in Athens to Lebanese-Canadian parents, her music has gained her critical acclaim as an artist with a truly unique voice (BBC Artist, 2020- 2021), who manages to shift between musical styles and vocations owed to her diverse background as a singer ( Guildhall School of Music and Drama ) ; writer ( English Literature from the University of St. Andrews) and educator. Lara's passion and artistry comes from a pure and authentic drive to connect with audience members as well as students, creating a space where the healing power of music can be felt by all.  Recently supported by Hawkwood College and the Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust, Lara is set to record her new album in Spring 2023, and has just launched her very first podcast on songwriting 'The Notes Between' with Women in Jazz Media.  Finally, her passion for music as a life choice has led her to become an in demand educator, offering workshops at leading music institutions as well as community spaces in Europe. 
"Lara Eidi is one of those singers who connects with the audience as soon as she starts to sing. Perhaps psychologists can explain the gift – and it is a gift "Sandy Brown Jazz- London

Lara Eidi website

Welcome to our podcast series ‘On The Bookcase’, featuring female authors from across the world, with host Fiona Ross and original music from Hannah Horton. You can find our podcasts at number 9 in the top 60 Best Jazz Podcasts in FeedSpot!  In this episode we welcome Stephanie Stein Crease, to talk about her new book, Rhythm Man: Chick Webb and the Beat that Changed America

You can listen to the episode on Spotify Apple Player FM

Stephanie Stein Crease is a jazz historian, author, editor, and former Senior Jazz Coordinator for the Jazz Arts Program, Manhattan School of Music. Her books include Gil Evans: Out of the Cool (2002 ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award), and Duke Ellington: His Life in Jazz (2009). She was literary editor for the Grammy-a warded Duke Ellington Centennial Edition. She was a 2020 Scholar-in Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYPL, and 2018 Berger-Benny Carter-Berger Research Fellow at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University.

Rhythm Man: Chick Webb and the Beat that Changed America, a biography of Chick Webb, one of the first jazz drum virtuosos, and the innovative Harlem bandleader whose music helped launch the Swing Era of the 1930s. The book paints a nuanced portrait of Webb's life, from his early years in Baltimore, to top bandleader in Harlem during the Great Depression, and on to national fame as big band swing music swept across the country. Features previously unpublished material that sheds new light on the early jazz and dance scene in Baltimore, New York and Harlem during the 1920s, the Swing Era, and Webb's interactions with his family and many noted musicians.

Available to purchase here

Our new Women in Jazz Media Playlist is now out: Volume 28!

We publish a new playlist each month and try to share a wide range of women from across the world - new releases, legacy artists, new and established artists and also some women we think you should know about but maybe don't!  We keep it to 15 artists per playlist to give you time to discover, listen and share these incredible women. 

You can listen to this month playlist here on Spotify or here on You Tube

Do please get in touch if you have music you would like us to include - either your own or recommendations. We are especially keen to share music from female instrumentalists and composers. If you have been in touch and you are not on a playlist yet, please don't worry, you will be on soon! We appreciate you sharing your music with us.

As always we would encourage you to buy directly from the artist where possible, and all the links are on our site here: 

June Yun   Lara Eidi  Charlotte Keeffe  Masumi Ormandy   Leslie Vincent  Aline Homzy

Regina Carter   Jenny Bray   Sanah KadouraTania Maria   Cherise  Pureum Jin 

Tricia Evy   Rosie Turton   Cleo Brown

Welcome to our latest episode of ‘In Conversation With’ featuring music from Hannah Horton! You can find our podcasts at number 9 in the top 60 Best Jazz Podcasts in FeedSpot! In this episode, host Hannah Horton welcomes the award winning JSteps!

You can listen on Spotify here

You can listen on Google podcasts here

You can listen on Apple Podcasts here

J Steps are a jazz ensemble led by Hannah Horton for female and non binary improvising musicians and this will be there first performance since winning the Parliamentary Jazz Education Award. The players are grade 6 and above and are taught jazz harmony and improvisation, playing standards and originals. J Steps have performed at EFG London Jazz Festival and Saffron Hall foyer.

Hannah Horton is a British Female Jazz Saxophonist whose music is rooted in jazz, folk and funk. She has performed with many great jazz artists including Ian Shaw, Amy Winehouse, John Etheridge, Tina May, Georgia Mancio, Polly Gibbons, Natalie Williams, Esther Bennett and Irene Serra; and at venues including Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express Dean St, The 606, The Pheasantry, Love Supreme Jazz Festival, Royal Festival Hall and The Barbican. She has also toured in Europe and USA with her own and other groups. Her latest album has been going down a storm across the world. “Hannah makes the big beast of a baritone sax sound like an angel” – Ian Shaw. Hannah Horton website

Welcome to our monthly team news! We like to share some of the work the team have been doing both inside and outside of their Women in Jazz Media work and we have all been very busy as always.

Our Women in Jazz Media July magazine has been launched with contributions from team members Sandra Booker Isabel Marquez Kim Cypher Tatiana Gorilovsky  Germana Stella La Sorsa  Paulette Jackson Migdalia Van Der Hoven Hannah Horton Fiona Ross and Monika S Jakubowska Click on the name and it will take you straight there!

We have just announced our event schedule for the rest of the year and are very excited to support so many incredible artists. Do check out our events page here

Image by Andy Porter. After two years from her debut album VapourGermana Stella La Sorsa is ready to release an exciting new work. Primary Colours will be released at the beginning of 2024 and she’ll drop three singles, starting from this Autumn so keep an eye on her website and socials – click here She’ll also preview some of her new music at Toulouse Lautrec on the 22nd of September and you can buy your tickets here

ALIVE! in the studio is the name of Charlotte Keeffe’s second album as band leader featuring her Right Here, Right Now Quartet; Ashley John Long on double bass, Ben Handysides on drums, Moss Freed on guitar and herself on Sound Brushes (her trumpet and flugelhorn) and compositions. 

ALIVE! will be released on Friday 22nd September on the epic Discus Music record label - it’ll be available to buy on all platforms! Keep a close eye on Charlotte’s social media pages (@CharlotteKeeffeMusic on Facebook and Instagram) for special ALIVE! release announcements including a Listening Party on release day/Friday 22nd September, an exciting feature/interview on BBC Radio 3’s Freeness show on Sunday 8th October and details of lots of live performances and musical gatherings to celebrate the music and the joy of just being… ALIVE!

Big Mama, Aydenne Simone is performing at Toulouse Lautrec on Sept 16th which promises to be an amazing night. Tickets available here

Diana Torti's new album is going down a storm! Album cover photo by our very own Monika S Jakubowska, you can purchase the album here and buy tickets for her next gig at Karamel Club on September 21st here

Lara Eidi releases her much anticipated debut album Sun, after receiving critical acclaim for the first single 'Breathe Love'. Recently signed to Pastiche Records, Lara continues to challenge the notion of a singer-songwriter, with exciting new concerts and news after the album comes out on September the 4th. Her first single from the album 'Breathe Love' saw huge success in the UK, Canada and Europe. Canadian Beats said “Breathe Love is about embracing every single side of oneself. The shy, the free, the brave, the timid, the wanderer, the observer, the giver and the receiver,” says Eidi. A highly versatile multi - instrumentalist. Eidi composes in a manner that builds on drawing the listener's attention starting with the simple to the highly complex. `Starting with a piano riff, Eidi's dexterity as a pianist set the foundation for the development of 'Breathe Love' . Influenced by the diversity of artists such as Jose James, Chet Faker and Laila Biali , she managed to fuse 90s dub feels with enlisting Fatis on drums, whilst floating vocally over each beat, developing the sound by layering one vocal overlay at a time, ending with strings soaring into an emotional crescendo to juxtapose Eidi's intricate and dynamic 14 vocal harmonies."

'Sun' promises to embrace this sense of empowerment, freedom and love, journeying through every single emotion and more, coming out on all platforms on September the 4th, 2023. Lara is finally, honoured to have WIJM very own powerhouse Fiona Ross write the liner notes to the album.  Click here to check out Lara’s website to listen and support her work.

Huge congratulations to Hannah Horton who has been awarded a Develop Your Creative Practice Grant. ‘Next studio album of 100% originals here we come! This was only made possible thanks to public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England’. Hannah’s upcoming gigs are:

September 10th – Hannah Horton Trio feat. Rob Statham on bass. Online show from Jazz at the Cottage. 19:30-20:30. Tickets 
September 15th – Hannah Horton/Tony Kofi Quintet. ‘Two Baritones’. Forty Hall, Ziggy’s Jazz Club, Enfield. 8pm. Tickets 
September 16th – Hannah Horton Quartet + Heidi Vogel. ‘The Swinging Cat’ Jazz Club, Haverhill Arts Centre. Tickets 

And last but certainly not least Esther Bennett’s album Safe Places is now available as a hard copy alongside her recent album Home is Where the Art Is   Visit Esther’s website here for details on how to buy a copy!