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Indaba Music Women's Music Summit

Indaba Music Women's Music Summit
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In Texas you'll often hear someone who's being asked why they've been out of touch for a long time respond with an old saying. The conversation is this:

"Where've you been?"
"Oh, to Hell and back."

Well, since my last column, my husband (guitarist Jackie King) and I have suffered the loss of our oldest son, our parents, a grandchild, and some of our closest and dearest friends, so that old saying rings especially true for us just now, but so does the best part of the saying, the last half : we're back! And it feels good.

Jackie will be starting his Improvise! column soon and here I am—the Jazz Wench—excited to be writing for All About Jazz again, and doing my little bit to document the lives of women jazz instrumentalist past, present, and future!

This month's column is particularly exciting because, in addition to introducing you to three new women musicians few of you have heard of, I am going to let you know about an opportunity that will benefit you or any woman musician/composer/singer you may know. It's an exciting event, a scholarship to the event, and a contest to win the scholarship. This contest deadline is coming up really fast so you'll have to act quickly to enter, but there's another old saying I'm sure you're already familiar with: "Where there's a will, there's a way," right? Maybe you've got something already recorded you can send in as your entry, but if not, IndabaMusic.com has everything you need to share your music with the world and, most importantly, benefit from the process.

Let's back it up a little and I'll tell you just a little about what this month's column is all about. First, you'll have to check out IndabaMusic.com—a site that's revolutionizing the ability of musician's to collaborate in the creation of music via the internet—and they're doing something right at Indaba Music because the site already has over 700,000 members and, I'll admit it, I love the fact that Queen Latifah is on their board. You can check them out at their site and while you're there, get the information you need about past, present, and future opportunities to further your career. Every one adds up, right? And while this opportunity is just for women, not all are, so everyone might want to check it out what Indaba Music is all about.

So here's the information for the sisters: Indaba Music decided to create/sponsor the first annual Women's Music Summit, with some generosity thrown in by Dean Markley, who's offering a full scholarship to the event to one lucky (and talented) woman. Judges for this opportunity include: Meshell Ndgeocello, Marni Stern, Malina Moye, Bibi McGill, Kaki King, Melissa Auf Der Maur, and Laura B. Whitmore. The Women's Music Summit is an intense, week-long program consisting of instructional workshops, masters classes, round table panels, group dinners, jam sessions, social gatherings, and perhaps most importantly, a chance to network/connect with other women musicians at various stages of their careers. Among the teachers are: Kaki King, Meshell Ndegeocello, Melissa Auf der Maur (Hole, Smashing Pumpkins), Marnie Stern, Malina Moye, and Bibi McGill (Beyoncé, Pink). Industry panelists include Laura Taylor of Guitar Center and Laura B. Whitmore, Summit co-producer and columnist for Guitar World. It's scheduled for August 27-31 at the Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY.

Most important date for you to remember: May 28, 2012 at 5:00 PM EDT. That's when your entry is due. Just a few days away!

All the rest of the details are up to you to find out through Indaba Music. My main concern here is getting the word out to the women at AllAboutJazz.com that the event exists and there's a scholarship available if you need help participating in it, as I just heard about it myself and it sounds like it's going to be a great summit.

(Note to publicists: I'm seeing visions of my mailbox being deluged with not-so-meaningful PR releases—please don't—let's keep it real. AllAboutJazz.com has all kinds of ways, paid and free, for you to promote your clients' events. This column is about women jazz instrumentalists with the occasional vocalist—in fact this is the first time I've featured vocalists, and if these three women weren't also instrumentalists, I wouldn't write about them. I'm not into promoting events but this sounds like a really good opportunity that will benefit my readers. Thanks for understanding!)

So, OK now. During the entry process we won't have an opportunity to hear the other contestants' entries, except for the three that I'm going to introduce here in my column. And I'm really excited about sharing these talented women with you.

I tend to prefer writing about women jazz instrumentalists because when I first started doing this, there was not much documentation they ever did, or do now, exist. One tended to think of jazz vocalists over instrumentalists when the topic of women and jazz came up. It's just the way it was, and in many scenarios, still is. Women and jazz? Ella Fitzgerald. Carmen McRae. See what I mean? But I'm happy to say this situation has changed a lot in the last 10+ years. And while the three women I am going to introduce you to today may have a scholarship contest entry that is not traditionally classified as jazz, and they feature their vocals, they have all had extensive training and experience in playing jazz (with one who also had extensive vocal training in jazz) and you can hear it in their musical interpretations.

So let me now introduce you to three talented women who have entered Indaba Music Women's Music Summit—The Dean Markley Scholarship Opportunity:

Kaela Bratcher

Kaela Bratcher is a senior in the Jazz Studies program at the University of North Texas, and will be graduating in June. She's a five-time winner of the prestigious Downbeat Student Music Award. She's been singing for sixteen years, playing piano for thirteen and playing guitar for four. She was recently chosen as a winner of the Kerrville University Songwriters Competition, was a finalist with the Grammy Jazz Choir, a winner of the Berklee Performing Singer/Songwriter Summer Competition, performed with the University of North Texas Jazz Singers at the Kennedy Center alongside The Manhattan Transfer and Jon Hendricks, and has worked with top musicians in the music business in New York, Boston, Miami, Nashville, LA, Austin, and Dallas. Her profile on IndabaMusic states:

"I started singing when I was very young, and started writing songs when I was eight years old, the same year I began playing piano. I learned and grew at a performing arts high school, with special interests in vocal jazz and advanced music theory (I will be graduating UNT with a minor in music theory), performed at several music festivals in Florida, signed to a local label when I was sixteen, and recorded an album in Nashville with a group that has since disbanded, Cherryhill, produced by Bob McGilpin."

Bratcher is currently working on a debut album of original music, which is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2012. Wow! I don't know about you, but I'm expecting great things from this young woman. Kaela Bratcher: remember that name. You can check out her entry, "Mean To Me," at Indaba Music and her own MySpace page.

Allison Gray

Allison Gray sat down for her first piano lesson at the age of three in Dallas, Texas, finding that which was to give her life purpose and direction. Music was the only constant in her life as her family moved from city to city throughout her formative years. But it was also in those years that Gray intensely studied both ballet and singing opera, in addition to piano. Perhaps it was those frequent moves in childhood that sparked a wandering, also, in her quest for artistic expression, because even in vocalizing she was not happy to study opera alone; she also trained in vocal jazz, musical theater and pop music.

Gray's early pattern of continuously moving in her youth also gave ease to her musical drive and dedication, as she traversed the United States, performing at numerous festivals and competitions, singing the National Anthem for the Oakland A's, performing at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and at the famed Benaroya Hall in Seattle, WA (the city that had finally become home)—all before graduating high school! Not bad, Allison.

Having accomplished this, what else was there to do? Move, of course. Only this move was different: she was moving alone to Los Angeles. There she would fine-tune her skills as a songwriter and vocalist by working as a session singer and songwriter for some of the biggest names in the music industry. And she created her debut EP, Off My Mind.

Listening to her entry, "Break Me," I can tell that she has the capability to move audiences to the emotional states she wants them to experience. Moving herself is no longer enough for Allison Gray; she wants to, and does, take her audiences along with her on an emotionally charged musical journey. So be prepared, should you have the chance to see Gray perform—just sit back and soar—you're in the hands of a young but seasoned traveler. You can hear her entry, "Break Me," at Indaba Music and check out her own website.

Sonia Montez

Singer-songwriter Montez began her musical career at age six, joining the world renowned children's choir, El Coro de Ninos de San Juan. She studied voice and violin, and later taught herself to play guitar. Still a child, Montez even won the attention of famed producer Full Force, with whom she worked until 2000. At the age of fourteen, Montez began playing the New York City open mic scene, sharing the stage with legendary songwriter Chip Taylor, and opened shows for Matt Nathanson / Jessie Bailyn and Kaki King / The Mountain Goats. Over the years she's honed her songwriting skills and vocal style and eventually she released her debut EP, Of Tears and Honey on Radian Records.

Currently, Montez performs with a group that consists of amazing session players who dominate the late night NYC music scene. I love her Kickstart video: a rallying cry to help her prove the entrenched music establishment wrong in their judgment of her as "unmarketable." Actually, that judgment—which no doubt feels like a curse to her now—is actually a blessing, as it raises her to the ranks of many legendary artists whose platinum records were hard fought and originally denounced as unmarketable. I'd like to see her persevere. Check out her entry, "Red Moon," at Indaba Music and her own FaceBook page.

Like I said, it's good to be back at All About Jazz—without a doubt the best jazz site on the internet! I can't wait for you to hear Kaela, Allison, and Sonia—such promising talent! I hope to hear more of them in the future, and, of course, I hope to hear some of their jazzier recordings as they get the opportunity to record them, as that's where their talents will really shine to their fullest. It's a delight to hear such fresh, unspoiled talent. And kudos go out to Indaba Music for putting together this opportunity, and their sponsors for helping—especially Dean Markley for enabling at least one woman to attend this first annual Indaba Music Women's Music Summit who may not otherwise be able to. And my gratitude to the wonderful, hardworking editors of All About Jazz—Michael Ricci and John Kelman—for pushing the deadline to get news of this opportunity to AAJ readers in time to enter the scholarship contest!

My best wishes go out to all the women at AAJ who read this in time to win the scholarship, as well as to those who've already entered!

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