(Reprinted from the March 2021 issue of New York City Jazz Record)
In November 2000, writer and musicologist Lara Pellegrinelli published an article in The Village Voice that took Wynton Marsalis to task for the dearth of female instrumentalists in the famed JALC orchestra. The historic piece, thorough and thoughtful, still stands as a clarion call for gender equity, even as several of the players mentioned—pianist Renee Rosnes, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington—have set strong precedents for women in jazz. Further, in the years since the article was published, Marsalis has opened up the JALC orchestra to female instrumentalists, and in 2018 he gave a permanent chair in the ensemble to a woman for the first time. That player—saxophonist Camille Thurman—is also a kickass jazz vocalist.
Thurman is not the only jazz singer who excels at an instrument typically championed by virtuosic male players, the elite against whom all other jazz musicians are measured. The contributions of singer-instrumentalists like Esperanza Spalding (bass), Bria Skonberg (trumpet) and Nicki Parrott (bass), to name three out of scores, have long challenged the tired tropes that women players are not good musicians, and that singers are perhaps not musicians at all.
Curiously, around the time that Pellegrinelli was calling attention to the jazz world’s sins of omission, some of today’s most promising newcomers were first picking up their instruments—and the mic. Though just 25, singer/trombonist Hailey Brinnel has already played several prominent stages like Dizzy’s and The Kennedy Center, often alongside ground-breaking musicians like Sherrie Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra. Her debut as a leader, I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles (Outside In Music), reveals why Brinnel was tapped for these early honors: Her mastery of these two instruments defies expectations for one so young. Or, perhaps, sets new expectations.
The opening track, “Orange-Colored Sky,” introduces the listener to Brinnel’s judicious use of back-phrasing and her relaxed approach to a lyric, and the ballad “You Go To My Head” or the blues tune “What’s The Use In Getting Sober” shows off how expressively Brinell wields her delightful voice. But it’s when she scats on “Give Me The Simple Life”, a bass-voice duet, that the sophisticated understanding of jazz is fully unveiled, with her precise enunciation, clever allusions, and intricate vocal improvisations. Brinell will release the new album via Facebook and Instagram Live on March 13.
Brinell’s clear talent has landed her a spot the finalists’ circle for the 9th annual Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, one of five selected from dozens upon dozens of contenders. These five finalists usually square off in November, but that didn’t happen in 2020, when performance venues throughout the New York metro area remained closed owing to the pandemic. The competition was slated instead for this month, but then was bumped again, to June 6. This year, Brinell isn’t the only horn player on the ticket: New York-based trumpeter Benny Benack III, a finalist in the 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition, will also compete—the third male singer ever to do so.
The shifting composition of winners in these high-profile competitions indicates that pretty soon we’re going to have to stop noting when musicians demonstrate excellence across genders and instruments and genres. Consider that Thurman placed as a finalist in the Sarah Vaughan competition in 2013, its second year, and that other singer-horn players have followed—trombonist/pianist Tatiana LadyMay Mayfield, for instance, and trumpeter Christine Fawson, who’s competed twice. For these up-and-coming musicians, such fluid excellence is simply de rigueur.
Three Grammy-nominated singers offer online concerts this month: Jazzmeia Horn performs in the Live From Dizzy’s Club series, filmed on the Rose Hall stage, on March 4, a pay-what-you-wish event. Thana Alexa, whose self-produced album Ona is up for two Grammy awards this year, reprises the album on March 7 via livestream from Shapeshifter Lab, a week before the Grammy broadcast. And Jane Monheit launches Come What May (Club 44), a celebration of her 20-year career, with a virtual concert at Feinstein’s at Vitello’s on March 12.
In honor of Women’s History Month, free improviser Judi Silvano joins Cheryl Pyle’s Musique Libre Femmes ensemble as part of the 19th annual Lady Got Chops Festival on March 7. This gig follows on the heels of the release of Unity (Muse-Eek), an explosion of vibrant ambient sound by Sonic Twist, Silvano’s masterfully eclectic duo with guitarist Bruce Arnold.