Excited to launch a brand new podcast series 'Sticks and Thrones' with guest host Migdalia Van Der Hoven. Migdalia's first guest is British drummer Ciara Chinniah and the episode is available here with music 'Girl Facing South' by Migdalia!

Migdalia van der Hoven is an International Award winning Mexican drummer currently touring with SIX the Musical across the UK. She is also a Vater Drumsticks, Bosphorus Cymbals and RTOM Corporation artist and a Berklee College of Music graduate (where she studied and performed with Jackie Santos, Terri Lynn Carrington, Victor Mendoza and Mark Walker). She is known for her groove, sensitivity and versatility across multiple genres such as funk, jazz, fusion, latin jazz, pop and world music. She became the first Mexican Female drummer to ever perform at Ronnie Scott’s and the EFG London Jazz Festival. Migdalia has become “Woman of the year 2022” in Mexico in arts and culture for her contribution in music nationally and internationally. Migdalia's Website

Ciara Chinniah is a British Drummer and Educator from Essex in the UK.
With a love of Odd Time signatures, Ciara has been described as a Pop/Rock drummer with a progressive/fusion edge. Upon graduating from the ACM, Ciara has played many theatre shows, performed in bands across the UK, Europe and America. Everything from folk, fusion and blues to Rock, pop and metal! Aside from ACM, Ciara went on to study intensively at LAMA in LA under Ralph Humphrey and Joe Porcaro. Subsequently she returned and studied with the great Jazz drummer Bob Armstrong. Ciara currently has a busy schedule, teaching and recording from her home studio in Essex.

She is the co-host of the Podcast ‘Drum Education Live’ and 'Drummer Mamas' a podcast opening up the conversation about juggling parenthood and a career in drums.Ciara plays for Electro Pop duo The Penelopes who regularly gig in Paris and London. Whilst she explores her love of odd meters with her band Red Monster and on her social media. Ciara endorses NickyMoon cymbals. Ciara's website

This special edition of ‘On The Bookcase’ is a live recording of the inspirational Maxine Gordon, in conversation with Fiona Ross during the ‘Sophisticated Giants’ event held on June 4th, 2022 at Jazz Cafe Posk, London to celebrate her incredible work. The event was a rare UK visit from Maxine Gordon and an opportunity for a Q&A couldn’t be missed! The first part of the event was dedicated to her award-winning book ‘Sophisticated Giant’ and her life with Dexter Gordon, with a special set of his music performed by an incredible line up of saxophonists Tony Kofi and rising stars Emma Rawicz and Hannah Horton. The second part of the evening with pianist Wendy Kirkland, vocalist Vimala Rowe and trombonist Laura Impallomeni, explored the rarely heard music of Shirley Scott, Velma Middleton, Melba Liston, Maxine Sullivan, the focus of Maxine’s next book, Jazz Quartette. Photo by Bob Barkany

You can listen here

Maxine Gordon is an award-winning Arts Advocate, Jazz Historian, Archivist, Scholar, Manager & Producer and Legend. Author of Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, (which was awarded Book of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association) and forthcoming book, Jazz Quartette: Shirley Scott, Velma Middleton, Melba Liston, Maxine Sullivan. Maxine is the President of The Dexter Gordon Society, consultant at the Bronx Music Heritage Centre, Jazz Researcher at the Bronx African American History Project, archivist for The Dexter Gordon Collections, Library of Congress and so much more…

https://www.maxinegordon.com/

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.

We were absolutely thrilled with the success of our ‘Sophisticated Giants’ event on June held 4th, held at Jazz Café Posk. Celebrating the work of our patron Maxine Gordon, it was an incredible night with incredible performances! Huge thank you to everyone involved! Here are a few photos from our Monika S Jakubowska

We are busy working on our next magazine, coming out in July including a special article about Tina May from Aydenne Simone, mental health and wellbeing from Fiona Mactaggart and some great interviews. Watch this space!

Tatiana Gorilovsky has been out and about in London doing incredible work, as per usual. Here are some photos of her recent work with Ayanna Witter-Johnson at Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London.

Isabel Marquez is now leading on our playlists, with the new one out now and available here. Please do email us on playlist@womeninjazzmedia.com for inclusion or questions. Isabel is also working on some articles and will have her first piece published with us in our upcoming magazine!

Jasna Jovićević has been doing brilliant work in many areas and recently took part in the Educational Higher Education Program: ‘Women’s Studies After 25 years’ in Hungary, link here and Jasna was also ‘so excited to take part in artistic research on the various preparation strategies in jazz at the Gustav Mahler Private University in Klagenfurt, together with some of my heroes and sheroes: Marcel Cobussen, Vincent Meelberg, Chris Stover,Tracy McMullen, Monika Herzig, Michael Kahr, and Chats Devroop’

Hannah Horton spoke to Emma Rawicz for our recent ‘In Conversation with…’ podcast and is busy working on the next one. As always, Hannah is busy gigging and her next gig is 24th June, performing as a member of the all female Chichester All Stars at the Chichester Jazz Club which is part of the Chichester Festival, 7.45pm. Do check Hannah’s site here for tickets for all her gigs. Hannah is also spending time on her weekly ‘Jazz Bites’ zoom sessions:

‘Ideal for anyone wanting to grow and develop their jazz playing and knowledge. ‘Jazz Bites’ is a weekly (during term time) zoom session on Tuesday evenings 7.45-8.25pm. Each week we look at a different jazz standard and the theory behind it and how to navigate our way around it with choice of notes. I’ve structured this 40 mins Jazz Bites to supplement and enhance jazz improvisation and chord skills. When we learn jazz we are naturally hesitant and unsure about improvisation as there are no ‘written out’ notes so we can’t tell if what we are playing is right or wrong. Jazz Bites will give you more insight into jazz charts and their chords using standards, theory and originals. The more we look and play jazz improvisation the more confidence we gain and the more we get out of our own practice. Building up your chord vocab this way will make it way easier to improvise as you progress.

Learning from my personal jazz journey I actively shied away from practicing improvisation as I felt so under confident with it and as though I didn’t get how to look inside the piece or chords. As you know I am passionate about music and helping others to ‘get it’ so this group session will help you all in a relaxed yet structured weekly group session from the comfort of home. All you’ll need is a device to access zoom and your instrument. I will email any pdf’s you’ll need to print off in advance. Sessions run weekly (during term time) on Tuesday evenings 7.45-8.25pm and are recorded for you to access them again or catch up if you miss. The link for more info: https://hannahhorton.com/education/’

Kim Cypher has some brand-new original music coming soon as part of her 'Brighter Tomorrow' project - A Tribute to The Arts. Two tracks 'Gonna Be Alright, Gonna Be OK' and 'Tomorrow's Song' express changing emotions during lockdown, with a desperate need initially for reassurance that everything is going to be alright, leading to hope as we head towards a brighter tomorrow. Both tracks release on: Music | Kim Cypher (bandcamp.com) on Friday 8th July, the same date the project launches at fabulous venue Zédel's in London. Kim would be absolutely thrilled if you'd join her for the launch and help her kick-start this wonderful celebration of The Arts. Grab tickets here

More news coming soon about the project and how ALL OF YOU can get involved and join Kim by sharing and celebrating anyone and anything fabulous and creative in The Arts #brightertomorrowforthearts

And finally, Esther Bennett is taking a little time out in Spain. Here are some pics!

Our new Women in Jazz Media Playlist is now out: Volume 14! 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. 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. This month we have published our playlist on both You Tube and Spotify

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

Alina Bzhezhinska Betty Accorsi Germana Stella La Sorsa Emma Smith Dee Alexander Ni Maxine

Isobella Burnham Barbara Thompson Lara Eidi Charu Suri Destiny Muhammad Natalie Greffel

Duchess Trio Artemis Ivy Benson

In this episode, the first with Hannah Horton as our official host, we have guest Emma Rawicz. Available here

We are also thrilled to have one of Hannah's tracks from her album 'Inside Out' as the new theme for this podcast series! A great track called 'Nardis'.

Emma Rawicz is an award winning young saxophonist and composer, already making waves on the UK music scene. She has been described as 'a force to be reckoned with' (Jazzwise) and 'a fast rising star' (London Jazz News). At the age of 20 she has already recorded her eagerly awaited debut album featuring Ant Law, made up entirely of her original compositions, the first single Voodoo was released in February and the second Mantra in April. The album Incantation is due to be released in May 2022. Emma has also created a name for herself both as a bandleader and a sideman. A new arrival on the scene, she has already made an impact, regularly playing at major London jazz venues with a wide range of established musicians. Emma is a recipient of the 2021 Drake Yolanda Award.

 Emma's influences range from modern jazz and fusion to folk and soul, key figures in her musical development including Chris Potter, Ari Hoenig, Kenny Jarrett, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea and more.  Growing up in rural North Devon, Emma didn't discover jazz until the age of 15, and didn't pick up a tenor saxophone until a year later, but had spent her childhood otherwise immersed in largely folk and classical music. Emma is a natural performer. Her music has a unique sound, fusing all her many influences, and her compositions range from lilting Afro Cuban inspired grooves to hard hitting modern jazz and funk numbers.

 https://www.emmarawicz.com/

Ladies that do so much than Lunch! The 3rd session in our new zoom series with special guest Aydenne Simone is on Friday June 17th 12pm to 1pm BST. Email us here to book a place!

One of the key things we hear from women is that they feel alone and unsupported. Wondering if their experiences are the same as others, from small things to big things – who does your PR, how do you get gigs, how do you find the time, juggling life and work, can we really do it all… sharing experiences and having the opportunity to ask questions in an open and transparent environment is vital.

Each session is an opportunity to meet other women working in the jazz industry, ask questions and share experiences and stories, very relaxed and open. We will have a special guest for each session and will begin with a Q&A with our guest to get the conversations started.

Finding a time when everyone is available is of course, impossible, so we will run these sessions at different times and different days, every couple of months, so hopefully, if you are interested, you will be able to attend one, some or all! Each session is a stand-alone session, so you can attend any, whenever you would like to.

Dress Code: Dress how you feel! Onesies, ballgowns, jeans – dress up or dress down. Wear whatever makes you feel you. Don’t feel like being on camera? No pressure to have it on – up to you.

Refreshments: Tea, coffee, smoothie, champagne, whisky – come prepared with anything you would like to raise a glass/mug with!

Please note these sessions will not be recorded and will not be public. Zoom link will be sent once you book place. Email us here to book a place!