A New Wave Of Female Innovators

When the great pianist Barbara Carroll first came to New York 60 years ago, it was almost impossible for a female jazz musician, no matter how talented, to get work. As Ms. Carroll told me recently, her only way to get club gigs was a ruse: Friends and agents would sign her up under the name “Bobby” Carroll, and by the time she showed up for work, she would admit her name was actually “Bobbi.” By then it was too late for the client to hire another pianist; by the time Ms. Carroll finished playing, the clients were hooked.For decades, female instrumentalists were relegated to the margins – and horn players had it even worse than pianists. But since jazz education began to catch on 30 years ago, there has been an influx of female players; in fact, it’s rare to meet a female saxophonist, trumpeter, or drummer over 50.This month, the Women in Jazz Festival at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola features dozens of female jazz musicians, from aging legends like Ms. Carroll (who will perform September 30 and October 1) and Marian McPartland (tonight) to stars who don’t appear in New York clubs often enough, such as Helen Merrill (September 27) and Karrin Allyson and Nancy King (September 22). But the most intriguing performances may come courtesy of three emerging artists with innovative styles: singers Carolyn Leonhart (September 27) and Tessa Souter (September 18), and multi-reed player Anat Cohen (September 22).Though her father, Jay Leonhart, was the bassist of choice for such great singers as Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney, and Mel Torme, Ms. Leonhart is far from a jazz traditionalist; she spent much of her professional life as a backup singer for Steely Dan. Her singing reminds me of Silly Putty: She takes well-known melodies and stretches them, but she stops just short of tearing them apart. She finds the point of demarcation between playfulness and self-indulgence, and respects it.On her new album, “New 8th Day” (Sunnyside 1139), Ms. Leonhart seems more driven by melody than lyrics, but like Ella Fitzgerald, her embellishments make the words seem fresh and relevant as well. She doesn’t scat, though she occasionally reacts to her surroundings in a wordless but highly expressive fashion, proving that a moan can often be the most eloquent sentence of all. “New 8th Day” also features the marvelously supportive obbligatos of her husband, the tenor colossus Wayne Escoffery.Where Ms. Leonhart splits her attention between standards and originals, Tessa Souter prefers to work with material from international (Brazilian) and pop (Sting) sources. On her new album, “Listen Love” (Nara Music), she avoids the obvious earmarks of jazz style: There are no horns, little piano, and a lot of guitars and percussion.Still, Ms. Souter is undeniably a jazz singer. When she does “Caravan,” she stretches notes to suggest pentatonic chanting, accompanied by guitar and bass mimicking Middle Eastern string instruments. Contrastingly, Jimmy Rowles’s “The Peacocks” has an unfolding melody reminiscent of Billy Strayhorn. Ms. Souter has also supplied lyrics to several instrumentals, including Pat Martino’s “Willow” and Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez,” a semi-classical piece popular among modern jazzmen. Her rendition of Pharoah Sanders’s postmodern jazz hymn, “The Creator Has a Master Plan,” accompanied by bass and percussion, proves that it’s possible to be spiritual and sensual at the same time.Like Ms. Souter, Anat Cohen utilizes sounds that range from South America to the Middle East. Originally from Tel Aviv, Ms. Cohen’s first gig of note was the Israeli air force big band, and she became known to Americans as the star reed soloist with the all-female big band Diva (which will perform at Dizzy’s on September 23 & 24). She is also the primary soloist in the Choro Ensemble, a New York band that plays jazz-influenced Brazilian music.Ms. Cohen may be the first instrumentalist to seamlessly merge bebop, blues, and klezmer. On the song “Autumn and Wine” from her 2003 album “One,” Ms. Cohen displays a gorgeous translucent tone suggestive of such great Jewish saxophonic forebears as Stan Getz and Lee Konitz. Her new album, “Place and Time” (Anzic 1101), has pieces that illustrate an allegiance to John Coltrane (“Say It”) and Gerry Mulligan (“As Catch Can”), but also employ Jewish-style minor harmonies.Ms. Cohen’s partnership with her brother, the trumpeter Avishai Cohen (not to be confused with the well-known bassist), who is joining his sister at Dizzy’s, is a particularly satisfying one. If you were to listen to them in a blindfold test, you would certainly hear the Middle Eastern influence, although you would assume that the players were American jazzmen going for a mysterious, desert sound. But there’s no way you could guess which one of the two was a woman.The Diet Coke Women in Jazz Festival until October 2 (Jazz at Lincoln Center, 212-258-9595).

A New Wave Of Female Innovators

A New Wave Of Female Innovators

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