For those of you who would like to follow our team, here is our monthly team update to highlight some of the teams work both inside and outside of Women in Jazz Media. Our group is all volunteer based, so as you can imagine, everyone is working very hard doing their thing!

We are looking forward to publishing our magazine shortly, with a huge range of articles from the team including Fiona MacTaggart, Wendy Kirkland, Kim Cypher, Mirian Arbalejo, Erminia Yardley, Fiona Ross, Ashaine White, Lara Eidi, poetry from Fausta Joly and Charlotte Keefe and photography from Monika S Jakubowska. Our last magazine was published in March of this year, in celebration of International Women's Day and we hope you will enjoy our second one! Watch this space!

Wendy Kirkland is excited to be releasing a new album on Christmas Eve: Latin Lowdown Live!

'Sizzling, uplifting Brazilian and Afrocuban jazz, a sparkling mix of samba, bossa nova and mambo classics plus thrilling original material from Wendy Kirkland's latin sextet, featuring special guest vibraphone virtuoso Roger Beaujolais at the helm. The music has been arranged and/or composed by jazz guitarist Pat Sprakes and also features Wayne Matthews on bass guitar, Steve Wyndham on drums and Jon Richmond on latin percussion. The natural culmination and recording of their Latin Lowdown Live tour of 2021 which began as live streamed concerts then developed into in-person performances and was funded by the Arts Council, this recording is completely live and documents the concert which was attended by enthusiastic patrons, the energy palpable in the mix of music and dedication to the latin repertoire of Brazil and Cuba. To quote two audience members at the concert "We were transported...it was great and life-affirming. The sextet is 'something else'." and "A privilege being part of the recording. What draws me to the band is an admiration for how you create and work together on a shared passion."

Here's a teaser: Latin Lockdown Live Teaser

You can pre order here: Latin Lockdown Live

It's been a busy year for Kim Cypher and here she shares some of her highlights with us:

Despite all the craziness and uncertainty of the past year, there have been some real highlights for me in 2021 including: Performing a sell-out debut on the main stage at world renowned Ronnie Scott's jazz club; Performing a sell-out debut at London's 'Crazy Coqs' venue with one of my all-time saxophone heroes Barbara Thompson MBE in the audience - that was a truly special and memorable moment I will treasure forever; Performing for the launch of 'Red Flags and High Heels' album by the amazing Fiona Ross at Pizza Epress live Soho; Becoming a team member of Women in Jazz Media; Performing in the EFG London Jazz Festival as part of the Women in Jazz Media team night and sharing the stage with fellow team members Wendy Kirkland and Esther Bennett; Interview with award-winning jazz vocalist Ian Shaw on Jazz FM's Ronnie Scott's Radio; Receiving a personal letter of thanks from US pianist Herbie Hancock for being part of the 10th anniversary of International Jazz Day with my live-streamed performance from London's Toulouse Lautrec jazz venue; Performing on the main stage at a packed Town Hall in my hometown of Cheltenham; Becoming more involved in my writing and radio show hosting including album reviews, features and interviews published on Jazz in Europe, Kind of Jazz, The Jazz Journalists Association plus monthly radio show, 'The Big Jazz Hullabaloo', broadcast worldwide on JazzBites Radio; Getting a shout-out on Channel 5's Jeremy Vine TV Show for my original track and music video 'Crazy Times'; Getting back into the studio and recording with US guitarist B.D. Lenz and the amazing CK Gospel choir directed by Harlano Weekes.

As for next year, the main focus early on is a charity single as part of my fundraising project 'Bring Your Own Sunshine' in honour of Karen Jackson and raising money for cancer charity Maggie's. The song is due for release on 1st February and is an anthem for Maggie's Centre in Cheltenham and their centres across the world. The uplifting gospel inspired track will share love, hope and positivity to all cancer patients and their friends and families. Also, a couple of original tracks inspired and composed during lockdown will be released as we look towards a brighter tomorrow.

 Beyond that, who knows...more tour dates and more music!

Aside from doing an incredible job with our London Jazz Festival event, Lara Jones has been incredibly busy:

'I am absolutely delighted to announce that I’ll be releasing and then touring my new solo album ‘flow’ in February!! This will be my first solo tour and I couldn’t be happier to be playing in these spaces, working with the most brilliant promoters. I am so excited to share more of this new music with you, it’s been so much fun digging deep into production and electronics. Huge thanks to Help Musicians UK for all the support through the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award. I’ll be adding more dates for the tour in the new year and super excited to share more about the incredible support lined up. Ticket link: https://linktr.ee/larr95

I’ll be releasing my new single ‘Pillow’ alongside a super weird but really fun video on the 28th Jan. Stay tuned for pre-save links, artwork and teaser vids. What a way to end the year!

Ashaine White has had an incredible year with the release of her EP Fairytales and many other exciting projects including performing at Union Chapel London and being a key part of the Serious London Jazz Festival team. Last gig of the year coming up on Dec 21st and tickets are available here

and last but not least Esther Bennett!

Esther is delighted to be joining the house band on a regular jazz niģht at The Red House where she will be singing favourite standards, original material with Aled Thomas on piano, Alex Keen on bass and John Withers on drums and of course; some jazzed up Christmas songs!🎄♥️🎄♥️🎄♥️🎄♥️🎄 Tickets available here

And speaking of Xmas, Esther's "A Yellow Ribbon (and Love)" is one of many Christmas songs that Blossom Dearie asked Duncan Lamont to compose and which appeared on her Christmas album "Christmas Spice So Very Nice". Claire Martin OBE said "This song is sublime" and it's available here along with a wonderful video

Esther spent a decade working and touring "The Duncan Lamont Songbook" with Duncan until he sadly passed away in 2019. She produced an EP of his songs along with Sarah Moule in 2020 called "The Songs of Duncan Lamont" available here :

We are thrilled to welcome Hannah Horton as a special guest host for our latest 'In Conversation with...' and also thrilled to welcome her guest Isabella Di Biase In Conversation with...episode 8

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/

Isabella Di Biase is a foh/monitors engineers and work in various incredible London venues (Scala, Union Chapel, Heaven, Underworld, etc). She also works as stage tech in London festivals (All Points East, British Summer Time Hyde Park) and as a merch seller for CMI. Isabella was part of a team of female sound engineers for the Women in Jazz Media event for the EFG London Jazz Festival at Toulouse Lautrec in 2021.

https://womeninlivemusic.eu/member/isabella-di-biase/

Huge thank you to Hannah for guesting presenting this episode!

We are thrilled to have the support and partnership of Jazz Views in a number of ways, including our 'Women Who Inspire' series. For our recent EFG London Jazz Festival event, we asked Nick Lea of Jazz views, to write some words to introduce Georgia Mancio:

"It is a real privilege for Jazz Views to have been asked to partner this event at this wonderful venue with Women In Jazz Media.

Over the last 12 months Women In Jazz Media, driven along by the incredible energy of founder, Fiona Ross, has worked tirelessly to give women in all aspects of the music a platform to express themselves whether it be as writers, performers, photographers, the organisation has brought to the fore the wealth of talent that has been sat right under our noses and at times unjustly not given due recognition of opportunity.

What is so inspiring is the sheer determination and positive attitude has been demonstrated time and time again by the Women In Jazz Media team, and especially their mantra that " We look for platforms and where no platforms exist, we create ones to ensure everyone can be represented." And this brings us nicely to all the incredible artists that have or will be performing at the Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival, and the concert that you are about to enjoy this evening with the Georgia Mancio Quartet.

Although she has been an important presence of the UK jazz scene for twenty years, I must to confess to being rather late for the party, and my first serious encounter with Georgia's music was in 2017 with the release of the sublime Songbook album,  with pianist and composer Alan Broadbent that has brought forth one of the most formidable song writing partnerships of the 21st century.  This incredible writing partnership has continued to flourish with the release this year of a new recording,  Quiet Is The Star, and a book that presents music and lyrics to 33 of their songs, some of which you are more than likely to hear this evening. From that moment on, when first hearing Songbook, I have been totally captivated by Georgia's music and was honoured to be invited by Women In Jazz Media to write a piece about Georgia for their series of articles on Women Who Inspire.

And talking of women who inspire, Georgia is also joined by pianist Kate Williams with who she has collaborated on many occasions, and most recently on the exceptional album Finding Home with Kate's Four Plus Three ensemble, which was quite rightly the winner in the Best Album category of the 2019 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

However, no words can prepare you for the power of music, and the inspirational Georgia Mancio and her Quartet; and on behalf of all at Jazz Views I sincerely hope you enjoy tonight's concert and I'm just sorry that I am able to attend what I'm sure will be a most memorable evening."

Photos by Nolan Regent