DIVA-DOGS: SOUNDING WOMEN IMPROVISING by JULIE DAWN SMITH B.A. Specialized Honours Music, York University, 1981 Diploma Jazz Studies, Humber College, 1990 M.A. Interdisciplinary Arts, Columbia College, 1992 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (INDIVIDUAL INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES GRADUATE PROGRAM) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UN^^SfTY OF BRIJTISH COLUMBIA ^ June 2001 © Julie Dawn Smith, 2001 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study- I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Abstract As an exploration of sound and improvisation in relation to corporeality, subjectivity and culture Diva-dogs: Sounding Women Improvising contests the visual bias of representation. This interdisciplinary investigation of women improvisers engages a somewhat unorthodox and improvisational methodology that approaches theory as a gathering together of disparate disciplinary fragments to create a kaleidoscopic and intertextual polyphony. Sound writes upon the exterior surfaces and interior substances of the body with an invisible ink that leaves its mark as it evaporates and disappears. The invisible presence of sound complicates the visual basis of intelligibility to underscore the corporeal as an improvisational process of sounding, audition, (re)writing and transformation. Sonic polyvalence defies singularity, unity and identity calling us to rethink matter, body, text, sexuality and subjectivity entirely. Sound problematizes representation by confounding the boundaries of interior and exterior space and as such becomes abject, an ambiguous disturbance of symbolic order and somatic signification. Woman is marked as sonic difference in the symbolic, a mark that positions her sexed, raced and classed body precariously in relation to language and meaning. In the practice of free improvisation women play with the sounds, linguistic excesses and abject noises of difference that hover at the border of representation, harmony, language and music to perform a sonic and corporeal voicing of women's subjectivity. To be "woman" is to be engaged in a constant state of improvisation. Abstract ii Acknowledgements v Dedication vii INTRODUCTION Woman in a Constant State of Improvisation 1 CHAPTER 1 A Riant Spaciousness: Sound Matters 29 CHAPTER 2 Music is a Scrubwoman: The Sonic Abject 72 CHAPTER 3 Playing Like a Girl: The Queer Laughter of the Feminist Improvising Group 107 CHAPTER 4 Noise About Nothing: Hysteria and the Cry as Sonic Pathology and Protest 141 CHAPTER 5 Perverse Hysterics: The Strange Cri of Les Diaboliques 179 CONCLUSION Theory in a Constant State of Improvisation 215 iii Bibliography 220 Appendix 1 Interview Excerpts • 233 1:1 Lindsay Cooper 233 1:2 Joelle Leandre 238 1:3 Les Diaboliques 243 1:4 Maggie Nicols 251 1:5 Maggie Nicols (Telephone) ....259 1:6 Annemarie Roelofs 263 1:7 Irene Schweizer 270 Appendix 2 Selected Discography 275 Appendix 3 Audio and Video Excerpts 3:1 The Feminist Improvising Group Audiocassette 3:2 Les Diaboliques Videocassette iv Acknowledgements My interest in the lives, struggles and artistic practices of women musicians probably began in utero when my mother's passion for music was transmitted to me. Music has been the source of great pleasure and great pain in my life—but always an ever-present focus. This project bears traces of the sonic and rhythmic textures of my life's musical journey. I was extremely fortunate to convince such a stellar group of scholars to be part of my doctoral committee at the University of British Columbia—Sneja Gunew (supervisor), Kevin McNeilly, David Metzer and Becki Ross—who, with their generous support and expertise, propelled my academic explorations farther than I could have imagined. I also wish to thank the staff, faculty and students of IISGP headed by chair Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe, Wes Pue (acting chair 2000-2001) and administrator Leah Postman. I cannot even begin to thank the women improvisers who were the inspiration for this project and who so willingly participated—Lindsay Cooper, Joelle Leandre, Maggie Nicols, Annemarie Roelofs, Irene Schweizer—my respect for your artistry and my fondness for each of you is eternal. Thanks also to Eugene Chadbourne for consenting to be interviewed. Kudos to Ken Pickering artistic director, and Robert Kerr executive director, of Coastal Jazz and Blues Society for bringing Les Diaboliques to Vancouver, and for their willingness to support women players. Thanks to Ken for sharing his vast knowledge of music with all of us over the years. I am grateful to Chris Fedina, Jim Coverdale, Lynn Buhler, Nou Dadoun and Sarah Ballantyne for their enthusiasm for, and commitment to, improvised music and for making sure we "did" brunch. Thanks to v all the folks at the Jazz Festival, especially Rainbow Robert and Jennifer Wyss who provided technical support, and Greg Fruno, Thomas Jones and Matthijus van Daal for the laugh track. Ron Gaskin, Patrick Darby and Dolores Brach facilitated Les Diaboliques' Canadian tour. Thanks to videographer Marlene Madison for her good eye and willingness to help. My extended family has supported me emotionally and financially throughout my transitory life, and this I know, has been no easy task. Hats off to Jannifer, Lexie & lan Smith-Rubenzahl, Don Smith & Jackie van Vugt, Clara Henderson, Les & Lila Kerr, and Jean Kerr for being there. To the friends I've met mostly through music: Bill Smith, Sheila Macpherson, Trimpin, Cheryl, Eddie Prevost, Jean Prevost, Val Wilmer, Danna Ephland, John Ephland, Philip Caldwell, Stephen Hudecki, Denise Oakie, Dan Ouellette, Murray Krantz, Pete Farrell, Cate Poynton, Tadahiko Imada, DB Boyko, Ed Oleksiuk. Thanks to Maggie's mum for tea. I am grateful to Dr. Larry Chan, Dawn Carpenter and Mary Trokenberg for keeping me together—body, mind and soul. To the "women of the new jazz"—Susan Gooding, Marguerite Horberg, Lauren Deutsch—I miss you all! Of course none of this would have been possible without my partner Robert Kerr, who helped in any and every way he could, and who continues to provide a solid backbeat. Schwing with me Robert. vi To Stella, Alice, Jannifer and Lexie. The past, present and future that sustains me. vii Introduction Woman in a Constant State of Improvisation Unless she improvises, her own performance is always already scripted —Richard Leppeif When I sat down to interview improvising bassist Joelle Leandre, the conversation began as she posed the first question, tongue-in-cheek: "Did you prepare everything, all of your questions?" I replied with playful indignation: "Of course!" and she responded: "I don't know, maybe it's a pure improvisation!" Although Leandre's comment was meant somewhat facetiously, her intuition was right—my methodology and my interview "style" were improvisational. In fact this entire project has been an improvisation. On the surface this statement seems like a confession, tantamount to an admission of incompetence. Isn't improvisation merely a blind groping for something concrete to hang on to, a contingency plan that muddles through until something finally takes shape and becomes a text? How can I admit to this lack of preparation, knowledge and integrity, especially within the academy? Indeed, western culture has positioned improvisation as lack—lack of form, lack of intention, lack of discipline, lack of authority—an inferior and deficient practice that should be viewed with skepticism. Derek Bailey agrees that the suspicion surrounding improvisation exists because it seems to be "something without preparation and without consideration, a completely ad hoc activity, frivolous and inconsequential, lacking in design and method" (xii). Improvisation is kaleidoscopic and unpredictable, and it is precisely these qualitites that present several challenges to representation. To begin with, improvisation 1 disrupts our spatial, theoretical and methodological orientation because it questions the authority of notation, the parameters of specialized technique and the power invested in musical formalism. Similarly, any attempts to represent improvisation, whether through the development of a theory or a method of transcription, will always be a misrepresentation. As Derek Bailey explains, the academic impetus to define and confine improvisation to either theory or transcription is merely a distraction that "far from being an aid to understanding improvisation, deflects attention towards peripheral considerations" (xi). Working apart from the surveillance of the score means that improvisation acquires a certain fluidity, an ability to resonate with the vibrations of body, sound and gesture. Finally, improvising with sound raises deeper issues concerning western culture's dependence on the visual and its assumption of wholeness, questioning the notion that the recognition of our intact image is the singular defining moment of subjectivity. Improvising Theory Can sonic improvisation resonate where theory and representation are concerned?