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!

The third episode in our new podcast series ‘On The Bookcase’, featuring female authors from across the world, with host Fiona Ross, with original music from Hannah Horton. In this episode we welcome Jordannah Elizabeth. Listen here

Jordannah Elizabeth is an American journalist, commentator lecturer, music critic, author and founder of the literary organization and independent Small press, Publik / Private and author of recently published ‘She raised Her Voice! 50 Black Women who sang their way into Music History’

Elizabeth started her professional writing career by earning bylines in Vice Magazine, Nerve.com and Bitch Media in March 2013. In October 2013, she was brought on as a regular contributing writer and entertainment reporter for New York Amsterdam News arts and entertainment section where she has conducted high profile interviews with African American leaders of their fields like producer, Teddy Riley, Walter Williams of The O'Jays and Black Girls Code founder, Kimberly Bryant. As a national journalist, Jordannah wrote for a number of Bay Area publications in 2014 such as San Francisco Bay Guardian, East Bay Express, SF Weekly and worked as the associate editor of The Deli Magazine San Francisco from 2013 to 2017. Jordannah expanded her reach as a global journalist, writing for MTV Iggy, MTV’s (now defunct) world music blog and covering global Women’s and Girl’s Rights for Ms. Magazine.

From 2015 through 2018, Jordannah’s work became more focused on literature, jazz criticism and global feminist reporting,Elizabeth has shared panels with esteemed journalists like Greg Tate, Lara Pellegrinelli and Michelle Mercer. Her bylines have expanded to Chicago Reader, DownBeat, LA Weekly, Hearst Magazines, NPR Music, Popsugar and other publications. Elizabeth’s writing ranges from interviews, music journalism, personal essays, articles on healing in relationships and trauma to literary journalism. Her broad voice has made her an active teacher and lecturer,teaching writing and journalism workshops at institutions like Maryland Institute College of Art and Center for New Music in San Francisco.

She has lectured at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, De Montfort University in Leicester, England, and was invited as a guest journalist at Harvard University’s Black Lives Matter: Music, Race, and Justice Conference in February 2017. She has also moderated panels on literature and film at Baltimore Book Festival and Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD. Jordannah is the author of an anthology of 40 of her articles entitled, “Don’t Lose Track Vol 1: 40 Articles, Essays and Q&As published by UK based publisher Zero Books” and the existential chapbook series, “The Warmest Low” published by Publik / Private Small Press. https://jewriting.com

She Raised Her Voice: 50 Black Women who sang their way into Music History

Here is the link to the book Jordannah recommends: Where and When I Enter

The second episode in our new podcast series 'Knocking Down the Door' with partners Céline Peterson and Black Lives in Music, produced and hosted by Ashaine White is out now!

In our second episode, we have Ifelayo guest hosting her first ever podcast and speaking to the inspirational Camilla George.

Camilla George is a London based saxophone player, improviser, composer and teacher.She began playing when she was 11 years old where she won a music lesson and as a result, won saxophone lessons. Camilla has studied with many jazz greats such as sax giant, Jean Toussaint (of Art Blakey fame), Tony Kofi, Christian Brewer, Julian Siegal and Martin Speake. In 2012 she graduated with a Masters in Jazz from Trinity College of Music where she also won the Archer Scholarship for outstanding performance.Since 2004 Camilla has been working with both Tomorrows Warriors and the Nu Civilisation Orchestra (including a UK tour performing at many prestigious venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall), as well as leading workshops for the younger members of The Warriors family.

In 2009 she joined award winning band, Jazz Jamaica whose alumni have included Jason Yarde, Soweto Kinch and Nathaniel Facey. In October 2009 she performed with Jazz Jamaica and Ernest Ranglin at London’s Ronnie Scotts jazz club. In 2013 Jazz Jamaica were nominated for a MOBO award for Jazz Performance. Most recently in October 2014, Camilla performed at Ronnie Scott’s for 3 consecutive nights with Jazz Jamaica. The performance received rave reviews and was a sell out performance. In 2014 she also joined Courtney Pine's Venus Warriors, an all female super group who had their debut gig at The Hideaway jazz club.

Camilla’s love of fusing African and Western Music to make her own unique style is a key reason why she is a firm fixture on the new London Jazz scene alongside peers such as Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings and Zara McFarlane. Her music is a hypnotizing blend of Afrofuturism, hip hop and jazz. Camilla’s music is politically minded and heavily linked with African history and in particular slavery. Her latest album looks at tales that slaves passed onto their children through generations and whilst full of sorrow, is essentially a story of hope for black people and mankind that we can one day live together in harmony.  

Camilla George Website

Black Lives in Music website

Celine Peterson website

We are thrilled to have tempted back Hannah Horton as a special guest host for our latest 'In Conversation with...' and also thrilled to welcome her guest Claire Martin OBE In Conversation with...episode 9

Hannah is a British Female Jazz Saxophonist who’s 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 latets 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 https://hannahhorton.com/

‘One of the finest jazz singers in the world today’ Jazz Journal. Linn recording artist Claire Martin has to worldwide critical acclaim established herself as a tour de force on the UK jazz scene gaining many awards, including winning the British Jazz Awards eight times during her career which spans over three decades. At the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2011 Claire was delighted to be awarded an OBE for her Services to Jazz and in 2018 she was the proud recipient of the BASCA Gold Badge Award for her contribution to jazz. Full her full biography and to find out more about her work please visit: https://clairemartinjazz.co.uk/

Claire Martin OBE and Chris Traves have vast combined knowledge from over 60 successful years in the music industry and have joined forces to provide a state of the art recording facility for both singers and instrumentalists.Soup to Nuts Productions offers the perfect package to turn an initial idea for a recording project into the end result of placing a mixed and mastered CD in your hands.From advice on repertoire, arrangers and arrangements, booking and suggesting musicians, vocal tuition before and during studio sessions, the whole journey of making a recording is seamless and professionally delivered so that the artist can just concentrate on making music. https://souptonuts.productions/

We hope everyone had a wonderful break over the holiday period – we are back and ready for 2022. We are working on many projects this year that will be announced over the next couple of months 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!

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

Lara Jones has an incredible year planned already and launches her new album on Feb 24th at Servant Jazz Quarters in London before her tour. Tickets available here: Lara Jones at Servant Jazz

Lara was also interviewed by Lara Eidi in our latest magazine which you can read here

Rouhangeze is performing at Toulouse Lautrec London, on Feb 12th in ‘A Celebration of Love’: 'Come enjoy a romantic “Love Set” with your chosen one for a Valentine’s evening to remember with Rouhangeze and her band. A singer of depth encased with a velvet tone, sensuality and by far, uniquely different from the flock. She teams up with polish piano extraordinaire and composer Tomasz Bura. His spirited and playful energy effortlessly supports the singing of Rouhangeze, with an interesting twist, interaction and complicity. Also joining this electric duo on stage, we have Tom Mason on Bass (Ghostpoet, Lily Allen, Questlove). They will take you on a beautiful journey tickling your senses with a sensitive, giving and passionate approach as they offer a wide genre of stylistic interpretation. Rouhangeze covers an ethnic diversity beautifully articulate in various languages, ranging from Jazz, soul, and indigenous folk influences. For this special occasion, their repertoire will include poetry and famous love songs across various genres moulded in jazz, with a few surprises'

Tickets available here: A Celebration of Love

Ashaine White's next gig is Feb 15th following on from the success of her brilliant EP launch. Tickets here: Folklore: Ashaine White

You can also read all about Ashaine's conversation with Celine Peterson and Roger Wilson, exploring our new podcast series ‘Knocking Down the Door’ in our latest magazine here

Kim Cypher has been working on incredible projects and recently interviewed Ami Oprenova which is included in our latest magazine. You can read the article here

Kim shares this with us all:

On 1st February my brand-new Gospel-inspired song 'Bring Your Own Sunshine' will release as a charity single for Maggie's cancer care charity. Cancer affects many people's lives. It can be a frightening, daunting and lonely experience. With centres across the UK and worldwide, Maggie's provides a welcoming 'home from home' for anyone affected by cancer. In honour of my beautiful friend Karen Jackson, who fought a long, brave battle with cancer, 'Bring Your Own Sunshine' features phenomenal US guitarist B.D. Lenz and the incredible CK Gospel Choir, composed as an anthem for Maggie's to spread hope, positivity and sunshine just like Karen did.

On 1st February (Karen's birthday) the song will release on my Bandcamp page and all proceeds will be donated to the fundraising project, where people can also make donations and find out more about the project: Mike Cypher is fundraising for Maggie's Centres (justgiving.com)

The project has currently raised £2800 including a series of sell-out live performances as part of the project. Filmed in London and New York, the music video will follow in the Spring when the song will be available on all music platforms. The track can be previewed in this short rehearsal video: Bring Your Own Sunshine - Kim Cypher - YouTube

The cover art (created by one of Karen's daughter's Emily). The 'sunshine' cake was baked full of love and captures Karen's happiness, positivity and sunshine. It expresses perfectly the meaning behind the track and portrays the warm welcome guaranteed at Maggie's Centres, where there is always a cake on the table. Here is a fab photo of the CK Gospel Choir too:

Esther Bennett is starting a new interview series for us, exploring new releases and helping to spread the word about some incredible new music. First interview coming soon! Esther is also very excited to be performing in London, at Pizza Express Soho ‘​WE ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT OUR GIG AT THE PIZZA EXPRESS, DEAN STREET, SOHO ON MONDAY FEBRUARY 7th, PLEASE DO JOIN US!!‘

'Esther Bennett is one of the London Jazz scene’s most experienced, highly respected and widely loved jazz vocalists, juxtaposing sensitivity with a sparky sense of humour. Her song delivery leaves audiences utterly compelled and a wonderful evening and performance is guaranteed. Tonight's gig celebrates 2 recently released EPs - 'Safe Places' featuring original material written and recorded with pianist Terence Collie, who is gaining enormous respect as a jazz pianist and from 'The Songs of Duncan Lamont' featuring Duncan Lamont Jnr on saxes & flute. Tonight, we have Richard Sadler on bass, Steve Taylor on drums, and Matt Hodge on percussion' Tickets here: Esther Bennett at Pizza Express

Monika S Jakubowska is celebrating with Tatiana Gorilovsky on their incredible achievement of being the first female photographers in the National Jazz Archive. You can view here: Monika in the National Jazz Archive She has been busy, as always, working the Jazz scene at Ronnie Scott’s and beyond, capturing some brilliant gigs:

We published new team member Fausta Joly brilliant poem in our latest magazine, especially written for our London Jazz Festival event. You can read it here

Wendy Kirkland explored the life of pianist Jutta Hipp in our latest magazine which you can read here Wendy also released her ‘Latin Lowdown Live’ album on Dec 24th which is going down a storm! Here is a little insight on: Latin Lowdown

Mirian Arbalejo shared with us her thoughts on her search for female artists in 'The Search'

and last but certainly not least, Fiona Mactaggart interviewed the inspirational Keyna Wilkins here

These are just a few highlights, but do please do support everyone’s incredible work if you can!

We are thrilled to publish our second Women in Jazz Media magazine! Click here

2021 has been an incredible year for us at Women in Jazz Media and since the publication of our first magazine in March, celebrating International Women’s Day, we have been immensely honoured to work with and support a huge range of inspirational women. It has been a huge challenge to decide on the content for this, our second magazine, which in many ways is a wonderful problem to have. There are so many women across the world, that we want to support and shout about and in fact do so on all of our social media channels as much as we can.

The front cover of our last magazine featured the legendary Dee Dee Bridgewater, photographed by Tatiana Gorilovsky, celebrating the continuing legacy of powerful, independent women in the jazz world. For this edition, we feature Jas Kayser on our cover to celebrate not only the growth of the new generation of powerful jazz women but the increased platforms now being given for female instrumentalists. The cover photo was taken by Monika S Jakubowska, the only female photographer for the world-famous Ronnie Scott’s Club in London. Photography has been a focus for us this year and we were thrilled to help facilitate the inclusion of the first female photographers in the National Jazz Archives in the UK– Tatiana Gorilovsky and Monika S Jakubowska.  You will find this magazine filled with their stunning captures along with Jess Rose who we were thrilled to work with at our LGBTQ+ event organised by Jess’s wife Lara Jones, as part of the London Jazz Festival. This trio of inspirational photographers fill this magazine with beauty, joy and truth.

I hope you enjoy our second magazine and its purpose - to highlight a very small selection of incredible women working in the jazz industry. This magazine is interactive, so do click away and it will take to you the artists pages. Please do support their work.