Music and Gender

Hello fellow Bloggers and welcome to Today`s blog on how gender stereotypes played a major role in music and how it’s evolved over the years. In my personal experience, I played the flute in the middle school and high school band. Every person who played the flute was a female. Playing flute was labeled as almost an all-girls instrument. So, do these stereotypes still affect us now in music?

Back in the 1800s women’s positions prohibited them from performing music in public. The place of a woman was at home. When a woman gained a certain skill in playing an instrument, they would be called poison. These women were not welcomed nicely since women could only sing opera and play certain instruments. When society sees a woman, they are uncomfortable, and they are mocked for taking a male transvestite. As a result, many women in the jazz world missed many opportunities.

In the video below there is a person named Dolly Jones and in 1926 she made history by becoming the first female trumpet player to record a jazz record, as part of Albert Wynn's Gut Bucket Five. As you can see Dolly Jones was one of the most talented trumpet players in the jazz community.

Dolly Jones history: Dolly Jones was a jazz trumpeter and trombone player born on November 27, 1902, in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother, Diyaw Jones, was a trumpeter and performer known for her pre-Armstrong style and who sometimes worked as a music teacher. Dolly’s father also played the saxophone, which completed the musical family trio. Little is known about Dolly’s early life, but she evidently learned to play the trumpet at a young age. By watching her mother, she largely taught herself to play and quickly showed a great aptitude for it. As a family they formed the Jones Family Band, and in 1919 worked with dancer and later civil rights activist Josephine Baker, who would later become famous for refusing to perform for segregated audiences.

Secondly the person am going to talk about is Mary Lou Williams. Now when talking about females that sing back in the day now that was uncommon but females playing instruments in jazz, that was near impossible. But Mary Lou Williams crushed through the gender barrier and ended up being one of the greatest jazz pianists, composers, and arrangers of all time, Mary Lou Williams also devoted herself to aiding musicians in need and teaching younger generations about jazz’s rich African American 

This is a video of one of Mary Luo Williams`s first pieces of composition called "The Man I Love".

Mary Lou Williams History: Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She was born on May 8, 1910, in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was a musical prodigy and began playing the piano at the age of three. By the age of six, she was supporting her ten half-brothers and sisters by playing at parties. She became a professional musician at the age of 15 and married jazz saxophonist John Williams in November 1926