Subjective (Re)positioning in Musical Improvisation: Analyzing the Work of Five Female Improvisers * Marc Hannaford NOTE: The examples for the (text-only) PDF version of this item are available online at: h+p:,,www.mtosmt.org,issues,mto.10.12.1,mto.17.12.1.hanna ord.php 4E5WORDS: Feminist music theory, gender, improvisation, jazz, Shannon 7arne+, Caroline Davis, Ingrid 9aubrock, 9inda Oh, Anna Webber A7STRACT: This article analyzes the music o :ve emale improvisers. I employ these women’s lived experiences o discrimination as a basis or my analysis o improvisation in terms o what I call subjective (re)positioning. Given these women’s experiences o discrimination, trust means something ar richer than musically working together during per ormance. Trusting improvising partners create a conceptual space in which musicians are able to position and reposition themselves, thus expressing agency. Received March 2016 Volume 23, Number 2, June 2010 Copyright © 2017 Society for Music Theory A/B At a recent per ormance o improvised music at a venue in New 5ork, some musicians and I noticed that the cover o the March 2015 DWomen’s Eistory Month” issue o The New York Jazz Record eatured male pianist Vijay Iyer on the cover. Our jokes about dishpan hands soon gave way to melancholy: it seems that, despite some jazz progressivists, neo-classicists, and academics arguing that jazz is a site or the realization o egalitarian or democratic ideals ( 7urns 2004 , Fischlin 2012 , Nicholls 1012 ), there is still work to be done. (1) A1B This article analyzes music by composer,improvisers Shannon 7arne+, Caroline Davis, Ingrid 9aubrock, 9inda Oh, and Anna Webber in conjunction with interviews I conducted with each o them ( 7arne+ 1015 , Davis 2015 , 9aubrock 2015 , Oh 2015 , Webber 2015 ). My analytical methodology draws primarily on the work o Paul Steinbeck and JeHrey Taylor. I argue that the per ormances in this article by 7arne+, Davis, 9aubrock, Oh, and Webber can be heard in terms o what I call 1 of 26 “subjective (re)positioning.” “Subjective (re)positioning” is an aural demonstration o agency. In these per ormances it testi:es to the trust between ensemble members. 7arne+, Davis, 9aubrock, Oh, and Webber have, in diHerent ways, experienced gender-based discrimination in their pro essional lives as musicians. Trust and subjective (re)positioning there ore signi y on each o their lived histories o discriminatory aitudes. (2) With practice, one can hear the kinds o subjective (re)positionings that I describe in this article and could also detect their occurrence in other contexts. A2B Paul Steinbeck and, to a lesser extent, Marion A. Guck provide the impetus or my inclusion o biographical and ethnographic elements as part o my analyses. For Steinbeck, to analyze improvised music is to tell :ction, in Guck’s sense that “an analyst directs the reader’s a+ention toward a way o hearing” ( Guck 2006 , 201). Steinbeck develops this line o thinking in relation to improvised music, asking, D-hich stories or :ctions do we tell when we analyze musical improvisationJ” ( Steinbeck 1013 , A2B). Scholars should critically consider the implicit and explicit claims analysis makes regarding musical improvisation in terms o chosen subject ma+er, conceptual rame, and mode o writing, he contends (A/1B). Elsewhere, he argues that analysts o improvised music can “account or the musicians’ expectations o one another, the physical and social dimensions o per ormance, and other inside-the-music topics” through a combination o ethnography and musical analysis ( Steinbeck 2008 , 403). (3) While not concerned with gender as such, Steinbeck’s theoretical extension o Guck’s argument is an important precedent or including ethnography as part o my analyses. AGB JeHrey Taylor, in his essay “With 9ovie and 9il: Rediscovering Two Chicago Pianists o the 1920s,” presents an analysis o musical improvisation that takes on a ar richer meaning in conjunction with his discussions o gender and jazz history ( Taylor 2008 ). 9illian Eardin is usually positioned in the jazz canon—i she appears at all—either as 9ouis Armstrong’s wi e or as a predecessor to Earl Eines, the virtuosic modernist (2008 , 58). Rather than regarding Eardin’s understated accompaniment on Armstrong’s 1927 cut “Wild Man 7lues” as lacking technical, rhythmic, or harmonic virtuosity, which would place her in the shadow o Earl Eines, or as gendered subservience, which would place her in the shadow o her husband, Taylor argues that one can hear Eardin’s accompaniment in terms o what it enables (59). In this light, Armstrong makes his virtuosic soloistic statements with the cooperation o Eardin. Their per ormance together rests on a oundation o mutual trust that enables us to hear Eardin’s accompaniment as “the kind o unobtrusive, rock-solid oundation Armstrong adored and which accompanies many o his most brilliant solo Nights” (58). Taylor’s analysis may still be a D:ction” in the sense explicated by Steinbeck, but it is one that aims to redress the typical narrative o masculinized modernism that o ten silences women improvisers. (4) Methodology ACB My desire to discuss music that I know and love, as well as talk to people who trust me, acted as the germinal idea or this research. 7oth Sherrie Tucker and Dana Reason Myers have, in diHerent ways, drawn aention to the power struggles between interviewer and interviewee that may arise during scholars’ ethnographic work or journalists’ interviews, particularly in relation to gender and improvisation ( Tucker 2002 O Reason AMyersB 2002 , I2P0/). The issues that these authors outline made me realize the primary importance o trust between interviewer and interviewee. AIB I sent out an initial call or participation via email to eight emale musicians whom I knew personally or whose music I knew. Rather than ormulate a :xed line o questioning or each interview, I suggested themes or discussion. Four musicians replied to my email (trombonist 7arne+, saxophonist 9aubrock, bassist Oh, and saxophonist Webber). At the end o our discussion, Webber suggested I contact saxophonist Davis. In that instance, Webber stated that she would 2 of 26 D ouch” or me and thus helped to establish the trust necessary or a ree-Nowing and open conversation between Davis and mysel . Every interviewee in this group is a pro essional musician who regularly per orms, tours internationally, and records. They each have received or been nominated or numerous awards and grants, and are recognized by peers and critics as established per ormers in their respective music scenes. (5) That said, I could not guarantee that my own gender did not affect what and how the interviewees shared with me. Davis made an arresting point at the end o our discussion when she called aention to the relatively unusual occurrence o a straight white male engaged in discussions o gender, jazz, and improvisation. Rn ortunately, she went on to explain, conversations about discrimination rarely include people who are not part o the group who is being discriminated against. Every interviewee also re erred to my own experience with improvisation during the course o our conversation—I am an improvising pianist and had previously per ormed with each o the interviewees except o DavisM-hich probably helped establish a common ground or our discussions. A0B I met in person with our o the participants. I talked with 7arne+, who lives in Cologne, Germany, via Skype video chat. The conversations ranged in length rom 55 to 90 minutes, with only one being shorter than 60 minutes. I asked each interviewee at the end o our conversation to suggest some o their music (scores, recordings, or both) that they elt exempli:ed some o the themes that arose during our conversation. Some musicians correlated pieces o their music with speci:c parts o our conversation and others included no commentary. A8] I transcribed the conversations and began to pick out common themes among them. The dominant discourse around jazz/improvised music and gender was a strong and recurring theme in our discussions. Race also sur aced in my discussion with Oh, whose parents are o Chinese descent (the other our participants are white). I choose to ocus on gender, the central aspect o identity that arose during our conversations. Future research would adopt a more intersectional point o view. (6) The ways in which improvisation provides these musicians with a conceptual space in which to assert themselves on their own terms and resist rei ying and normalizing modes o reception was a striking theme in our conversations. Trust also emerged as an important accompanying theme. ALB The interviewees had multiple opportunities to comment on my ideas and analyses. Four o the interviewees oHered nuances to parts o my argument and,or analyses at multiple stages o writing. The content o this article, while my own, was thus also ormulated in consultation with the musicians whose work I discuss. Subjective (Re)Positioning and Trust A10] I use the term “subjective (re)positioning” to describe how, during musical improvisation, musicians inhabit (that is, position themselves) and,or move through (that is, reposition themselves) a conceptual space that comprises various conceptions o identity, which are given by dominant discourses. This conceptual space includes, amongst others, musical qualities such as the sonic or visual projection o strength or vulnerability in per ormance. For example, a smaller-than- average woman who improvises in a more assertive ashion than expected, given the ( alse) assumption that a per ormers’s gender and size correlates with certain musical qualities, is “subjectively positioning” hersel within a conceptual space in a way that critiques normative associations between gender, the body, and affective musical qualities. Improvisers can also move between positions—they can “reposition” themselves.