Skip to main content
Discordant notes on jazz
PAUL WIDDOP and SIOBHAN McANDREW report on the gender imbalance in the music and how it’s holding women back
POWER TRIO: Geri Allen, Esperanza Spalding and Terri Lyne Carrington (ACS) at Marciac Jazz Festival in France

THERE are relatively few female musicians in jazz. In the US, recordings led by women made up only one fifth of the top 50 albums in the National Public Radio jazz critics’ poll from 2017 to 2019 and this seems to be a long-term trend — a survey of British jazz musicians in 2004 suggested that only 14 per cent were female.

Rather than there being explicit barriers to entry, gender differences in preferences and socialisation are significant.

Men see concerts as a male space and male musicians are more likely to be encouraged to continue following early experience of playing with others, particularly in terms of learning improvisation and taking a solo from a young age.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
bayeux
Opinon / 20 July 2026
20 July 2026

STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error

Playtime
Jazz preview / 4 May 2026
4 May 2026

ANGUS REID recommends that you discover a uniquely intimate community venue in central Edinburgh for an evening of beer and ambitious jazz

PS
Books / 29 January 2026
29 January 2026

JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime

autism
Books / 23 December 2025
23 December 2025

JOSEPHINE BARBARO welcomes a diverse anthology of experiences by autistic women that amounts to a resounding chorus, demanding to be heard