Goethe-Institut Boston To Host JAZZ & GENDER JUSTICE Conversation and Concert, November 5

The Goethe-Institut Boston and Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice (JGJ) partner on a  Concert and Conversation that sheds an international spotlight on the topic of Jazz and Gender Justice.  

To start, jazz pianist and Berklee professor Kris Davis performs with a student ensemble from the Berklee Institute of  Jazz and Gender Justice featuring compositions from 'New Standards', a book featuring compositions by 101 women  composers. The book was released by the Institute in September of 2022 as a supplement and alternative to the jazz standards canon that has served students, teachers, and professionals for decades.   

In a hybrid panel to follow, JGJ Founder, Artistic Director and renowned jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, Managing  Director and musicologist Aja Burrell Wood, Kris Davis and German jazz singer and activist Johanna Schneider look at  the present situation and the obstacles encountered when trying to improve grievances in gender discrimination in jazz.  They share strategies that are working as well as strategies that should be given greater consideration in the future.  

According to a NPR Music Jazz Critics poll in 2019, women make up only 16 per cent of the core band personnel for  ranked albums — in fact, the majority include no women musicians at all. Out of the top 50 albums in the poll, only 21  per cent were led or co-led by women. Similar structures exist in Germany: the jazz scene is still largely dominated by  men. According to a 2016 Jazz Study, women make up only one-fifth of jazz musicians in Germany. It is also striking that  only 12% of instrumentalists are women, as opposed to 86% of singers. With this in mind, in 2018 the UDJ (Union of  German Jazz Musicians) published a "Joint Declaration on Gender Equality in Jazz", in which it demanded gender-neutral  language, the fair distribution of functions and offices, and gender-balanced pedagogy. Also in 2018, Berklee College of  Music launched the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice (JGJ), which celebrates the contributions women have 

made to the development of the art form with a focus on equity in the jazz field and on the role that jazz can play in the  larger struggle for gender justice.  

  

Kris Davis is a GRAMMY award-winning pianist and composer described by The New York Times as a beacon  for “deciding where to hear jazz [in New York] on a given night.” Davis has released 24 recordings as a leader or co leader and collaborated with artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid  Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey and Esperanza Spalding.  She was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist alongside Wayne Shorter  and Danilo Perez, Pianist of the Year by DownBeat magazine in 2022 and 2020, and Pianist and Composer of the Year by  the Jazz Journalists Association in 2021.  In 2019, Kris Davis' “Diatom Ribbons” was named jazz album of the year by both  the New York Times and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll.  The album draws from the musical worlds of free improvisation,  spoken word, electronica, mainstream jazz, R&B and rock.  In September 2023, Davis released ‘Diatom Ribbons - Live at  the Village Vanguard' featuring Grammy winner and NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington on drums, Julian Lage on  guitar, Val Jeanty on turntables and electronics, and Trevor Dunn on bass.  Davis is the Associate Program Director of  Creative Development at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and the founder of Pyroclastic Records. Davis is  a Steinway Artist.   

  

NEA Jazz Master and four-time GRAMMY award-winning drummer, producer and educator, Terri Lyne Carrington started her professional career in Massachusetts at 10 years old. After studying under a full scholarship at Berklee  College of Music, Carrington worked as an in-demand musician in New York City, and later moved to Los Angeles, where  she gained recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for both the Arsenio Hall Show and Quincy Jones' VIBE TV  show, hosted by Sinbad. To date, Ms. Carrington has performed on over 100 recordings and has been a role model and  advocate for young women and men internationally through her teaching and touring careers. She has toured or  recorded with luminary artists such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, Woody Shaw, Clark Terry,  Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, James Moody, Yellowjackets, Esperanza Spalding, Chaka Khan, Natalie  Cole, and Nancy Wilson.  Carrington is the founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender  Justice, which recruits, teaches, mentors, and advocates for musicians seeking to study jazz with racial justice and  gender justice as guiding principles.  

  

Johanna Schneider studied jazz singing at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and at the Folkwang  University of the Arts Essen. In 2009 she founded the Johanna Schneider Quartet with Tizian Jost, Andreas Kurz and  Bastian Jütte, for which she also composes and with which she has recorded two albums so far with the participation of  guest musicians Ack van Rooyen, Tony Lakatos, Paul Heller & Florian Hoheisel. In addition to her own artistic work, she is  also active as a singer in other band projects and as co-organizer of the PENG Festival, as well as a curator, juror and  vocal coach. In 2021 she joined the board of the German Jazz Union.  

  

Schneider has toured in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, USA, Cyprus, Turkey, Finland, Estonia, France, as well as  Ethiopia, among others, and most recently traveled to Kyrgyzstan at the invitation of the German Embassy. As a singer of  the JugendJazzOrchester NRW she was awarded the WDR Jazz Prize in 2013 and as co-initiator of the feminist  "Jazzkollektiv PENG" in 2021. She has worked with Rick Margitza, Kevin Mahogany, Romy Camerun, Laia Genc, Sabine  Kühlich, Alex Morsey, Bob Degen, Marc Brenken, Dietmar Fuhr, Silvio Morger, Luciano Biondini, Mareike Wiening, Nicole  Johänntgen, Martin Sasse, Martin Scales, Guido May, Christian Lettner, Thomas Hufschmidt or Biboul Darouiche, among  others.  

  

Aja Burrell Wood is the managing director for Berklee's Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. 

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Wood is an ethnomusicologist, educator, and curator with a background in  development and violin performance. She has taught courses on music, history, and culture at the City University of New  York (CUNY), City College, and Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music. Her work includes research on musical  community among black classical musicians, women in jazz, jazz in the digital era, music and civic engagement in  Harlem, and other related genres of the African diaspora such as blues, hip-hop, soul, and West African traditions. She  has been a visiting fellow at the New School in addition to her role as guest lecturer at New York University and various  institutions throughout New York City.  

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