The improvised music scene seems to be dominated by men, not exclusive, but there does seem to be a lack of 'support' or gender comraderie for women experimenting/exploring these realms.

Here improvisor Joelle Landre touches on this. Her words do not necessarily reflect the views of this poster but empathically may mirror his own. This hopes to incite more diaogue.


From Joelle Leandre (paris - double bass) on
music/women :


You guys, among yourselves, share fraternity.
We should have something
like a 'sorority', but that doesn't exist among
us.. . guys support
eachother, convince one another, get the gigs
thanks to this fraternity;
they don't try to be great or anything, they just
do it - call each other,
chat each other up, create a gig. For centuries,
men have done things among
themselves. They start bt playing marbles
together and end up at the bar
together. For historical reasons, women have been
less apt at structuring
things, organizing things, defining themselves. .
. In the musical realm,
they've been relegated to the harp, or flute, or
guitar, or voice. . . and
the centuries go on like that. . . so there are
no precendents, my examples,
my models have been guys. . . Women don't work
enough or nor in the field,
that's a man's world. . . so it's up to the guys
too to open a few doors, to
ask themselves some questions and say, "hey,
let's try something else, let's
see, why don't we call. . . why don't we play
with this or that woman?" . .
. but, it just doesn't happen, the guys don't
take that initiative. . .And a
lot of women are too shy, because our social
structure is that way. You've
always got to be the best, the biggest, the
coolest and those are masculine
terms - be up front, number one, have the power,
have a lot of dough. . .
that's not a feminine thing. . . We're not
interested in power. . . But, I
do believe however that in improvisation, it is
possible to meet, precisely
because there's no set hierarchy. . .

editor's note : Her approach to the issue is
factual and workable - it isn't
based on ideaologies, but on the contrary on the
everyday working situation
of the musician.

editor's note : Her approach to the issue is
factual and workable - it isn't
based on ideaologies, but on the contrary on the
everyday working situation
of the musician.

more from Joelle's Discography book :
The first Canaille festival took place in
Frankfurt in 1985. It developed
out of the work of the Feminist Improvising Group
(1979-1981), a pool of
players from Great Britain, Holland and
Switzerland whose stylistic approach
encompassed free jazz, performance art, women's
music (OVA) and experimental
rock (Henry Cow). The FIG/Canaille group included
the English
bassoonist/composer Lindsay Cooper, who is know
for her participation in
Henry Cow and a number of other avant-rock
projects, as well as composing
music for feminist filmmaker Sally Potter's The
Golddiggers and Rags. Other
FIG/Canaille members were Irene Schweizer, Swiss
pianist, drummer and
founderof the European Women Improvising Group
(EWIG); the English singer
Maggie Nicols; and Anne-Marie Roelofs, a Dutch
trombonist and violinist. The
group was not only committed to radical musical
experimentation, but also
trying to articulate feminist aesthetics in music
and to exploring ways of
working together in a free and collaborative
musical environment. They were
later joined by a number of other women,
including French double bassist
Joelle Leandre, and Swiss saxophonist Co Streiff.
It was this group of women
(minus Lindsay Cooper, unfortunately) that
participated in the Montreal
Canaille. The ensuing concert was a passionate
example of how these ideals
can work to make excited and committed music.
Watching the interaction of
the palyers in this totally improvisatory and yet
democratic musical
environment, their mutual respect and sense of
solidarity was as obvious as
the high level of musicianship. They communicated
to the audience and to
each other with imagination and a sense of humor.
In addition to their
musical committment, it was clear from Maggie
Nicols' plea to the audience
to help stop the recent anti-gay bill being
launched in Britain that music
is part of their daily life and struggles as
feminists and political
activists, not held apart on some rarefied
artistic plane.
- Susan Sturman, Fuse