Two Strikes and the Double Negative:

The Intersections of Gender and Race

in the Cases of Female Jazz Saxophonists
Yoko Suzuki

On January 1, 2012, I was invited to a party at my friends house in Brook-

lyn, New York, where about ten jazz musicians gathered and celebrated the
New Year over food and drinks. They knew me both as a jazz saxophonist
who worked from the late 1990s to the early 2000s and as a researcher who
conducted fieldwork in the late 2000s in New York City. Some of them
helped me to connect with female jazz saxophonists to interview for my
dissertation research. After talking about my research and several female
saxophonists remarkable success in recent years, a white male (and friend)
mentioned, You know, white guys are the least favored in the scene. Yes,
thats very true, another white male immediately responded. According
to those two men, black musicians are more appreciated and female musi-
cians attract more attention. In a similar way, one of my musician friends
in Pittsburgh told me recently, Youre a hot commodity because youre
a woman sax player. Im a white guy, nobody cares. These white male
musicians comments suggest that two different systems of preference are
at work here: black musicians over white musicians because of authentic-
ity, and female musicians over male musicians because of novelty. As a
result, they perceive a certain hierarchy in the jazz scene: black men, black
women, white (nonblack) women, and white (nonblack) men. This grad-
ing, whether valid or not, is different from the ones seen in many areas in
American society where white males are often ranked the highest. More
importantly, their comments demonstrate that the instrumental jazz scene is
a site where both gender and race merge in complex dialogues that involve
authenticity, belonging, and career advancement.

Jazz saxophonist and ethnomusicologist Yoko Suzuki received the Ph.D. in ethnomusicology
from the University of Pittsburgh. Currently, Dr. Suzuki teaches jazz history, jazz arranging,
and jazz ensemble at the University of Pittsburgh.

Black Music Research Journal Vol. 33, No. 2, Fall 2013

2013 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
208 bmr journal

This article explores how such issues, surrounding gender and race, in-
tersect in the experiences of female jazz saxophonists. Based on interviews
with female jazz saxophonists who are active in New York City, I draw
attention to how African-American cultural identity affects female saxo-
phonists employment and the way they perform gender in the context
of jazz. Specifically, I examine the meanings of these racial and cultural
issues for African-American and non-African-American women who play
jazz. How do these women talk about these issues in the context of their
lives as performers? Why are there so few African-American female jazz
instrumentalists in the current jazz scene? These questions and interviews
frame this study, which shows the complexity of how African-American
and white women experience jazz and demonstrates how gender issues in
jazz can be shaped by race, especially various notions about blackness.
The first part of the article focuses on issues of authenticity and jazz perfor-
mance, especially as viewed by white female saxophonists, both American
and European. The second part addresses practical, employment matters,
chiefly the roles race and gender play in the employment of white female
musicians and their interactions with male musicians. The third and fourth
sections draw attention to the views of African-American women on simi-
lar subjects as previously mentioned and explores issues surrounding the
scarcity of African-American female instrumentalists.
My ideas of gender and race, as well as the use of intersectionality as an
analytical framework, should be explained further. I subscribe to Stuart
Halls definition of cultural identity that consists of two seemingly oppos-
ing views: a fixed, unchanging, cultural essence, yet not something which
already exists, transcending place, time, history, and culture but rather
constantly undergoes transformation (Hall 1989, 6970). In his discussion
of Afro-Caribbean cinema, Hall posits that cultural identity belongs to
the future as much as to the past (Hall 1989, 6970). I also draw on Judith
Butlers concept of gender performativity; I consider categories of identity
performative (Butler 1990). In other words, there is no essential quality for
any identity category. Instead, the categories are constructed through re-
petitive performances, which create a normalized notion or a norm of each
category. In addition, each identity category cannot be defined separately
because gender, sexuality, race, nationality, age, class, and so on as identity
categories, respectively, are mutually constituted. This leads to the idea
of intersectionality, which emerged as a major framework of research in
feminist theory and womens studies because of the limitations of gender
as a single analytical category (McCall 2005, 1771). Leslie McCall recog-
nizes three different types of intersectional analysis in recent scholarship
depending on the approach to the complexity of intersectionality in social
life (McCall 2005). This article adopts what McCall calls an intracategori-
Suzuki Two Strikes and the Double Negative 209

cal approach, which falls between anticategorical and intercategorical

approaches.1 I do not subscribe completely to the idea of neatly divided
multiple identity categories, because these categories are not completely
separated but mutually comprised within each individual. However, my
examinations of the experiences and ideas expressed by my informants who
belong to certain categories sometimes compelled me to carefully navigate
between defined categories.
My analysis of gender and race in jazz does not involve music itself.
Rather, I focus on how my informants talk about music and their musical
performances. The work of performance studies scholars such as Dwight
Conquergood and E. Patrick Johnson are particularly relevant here, as
I consider ethnographic fieldwork an important site where gender and
race are performed. Utilizing Clifford Geertzs notion of fragile fiction,
Johnson suggests that the idea of ethnographic practice as acted out or
performed liberates us from the assumption that the informant is a
fixed object and therefore inferior to the ethnographer. Instead, Johnson
asserts, the informant is recognized as a thinking, theorizing, and culture-
processing human being (Johnson 2003, 10). In the following sections, my
interlocutors often analyze and theorize the norms of gender and race in
jazz while engaging in dialogues with me.
I conducted interviews with thirteen women who are active, perform-
ing saxophonists in New York City. The interviews were conducted be-
tween July 2008 and October 2010 in New York City. I employed partially
structured interviews that began with open-ended questions. Interview
questions covered topics such as how they have learned to become jazz
saxophonists, how difficult and/or advantageous it is to be a female jazz
saxophonist, how they want to sound, and how they present themselves in
public performance. Each interview lasted about an hour. Of the thirteen
women interviewed, two were white European, nine were white American,
and two were African American. (Three African-American women were
contacted but one refused to be interviewed.)
A wide array of views and experiences were captured in the ways the
female saxophonists talked about gender and race, which are inseparable.
My research and the ideas discussed herein raise far more questions than
1. This article involves three analytical categories: gender, race, and age. Since each cat-
egory has two groups in this article (women/men, black/nonblack, and young/old), an in-
tercategorical approach would compare eight groups (young black women, young nonblack
women, young black men, young nonblack men, old black women, old nonblack women,
old black men, old nonblack men). Instead, this essay, using the intracategorial approach, fo-
cuses on young white women, old white women, and young black women, exploring differ-
ent attitudes among women within the same groups. While an anticategorical approach aims
at deconstructing identity categories, the intercategorical approach compares all the possible
groups comprised of multiple categories, assuming that each of these groups is homogenous.
210 bmr journal

can be answered regarding race, gender, intersectionality, and the perfor-

mance of identity in jazz. Rather than seeking to answer such questions
definitively, I have chosen to allow my informants to speak for themselves
and to privilege their voices over those of the analyst or cultural interpreter.

Performing Identities and Authenticity

Almost unquestioningly, both black and white, American and European
female saxophonists maintained some notion of authenticitythat certain
ways of performing jazz and certain musical expressions were more au-
thentic than others. This authenticity was linked to constructions of black-
ness from varying perspectives. For Swedish alto saxophonist Amanda
Sedgwick, who respects and embraces the African-American roots of jazz,
authenticity lay in jazzs origins and direct connection to African Americans.
She visited New York City several times in the late 1990s, lived in Atlanta
from 2004 to 2006, went back to Sweden, made three long visits to New
York City between 2007 and 2009, and finally moved there in early 2010.
She has more performance opportunities in Sweden, but she wants to be
in New York City: I am here because I wanna learn jazz from the original
culture. I asked her how she feels about being a foreigner who plays jazz.
Sedgwick answered,
I know that I can never become an insider by virtue of my birth and where I
was brought up. But its like for me, its a conscious decision ... because I re-
ally love the culture where this music comes from, I wanna take as big a part
of it as I can as an outsider, thats why I consciously ... I dont wanna live
in a white neighborhood, it might sound really strange, but to me, America
is so divided, white and black. And I mean, culturally and historically, white
America is always mainstream. And jazz, first of all, its black music, by nature,
its not mainstream. (Sedgwick 2010)

Because she was born and brought up in Sweden, she thinks that she can
never be a true insider of jazz. Though slightly hesitant, she suggested that
she consciously made a decision to live in a black neighborhood because she
wants to immerse herself in the culture from which jazz emerged. Sedgwick
then added, We all sound who we are. Thats gonna come out from our
instruments, all the experiences (Sedgwick 2010). The term experience was
frequently used in my conversation with musicians to signify something
closely tied to an individuals personal sound, and improvisation is often
considered to reveal who you are. Experience, therefore, is paramount for
Sedgwick, who sought both musical and personal experiences in New York.
While Sedgwick values the African-American origins of jazz and ex-
presses her affinity for black culture without hesitation, the majority of
Suzuki Two Strikes and the Double Negative 211

my interviewees think that being African American has nothing to do with

the authenticity of jazz. White American saxophonist Sharel Cassity, who
frequently plays with such notable African-American musicians as Jim-
my Heath and Roy Hargrove, believes that a performers being African
American does not guarantee the authenticity of jazz performance. She
asserted, Music doesnt have anything to do with skin color. It has to do
with experiences, and so today, you see a lot of young people of all races
really embracing our music, and what makes the music authentic or not
is how deep theyve gone into the history of it (Cassity 2008). Here, Cas-
sity is referring to the experience of performing and spending time with
legendary musicians and learning the history of jazz. She does not believe
in biological determinism, but she does seem to follow the idea that the
experience of hanging out and playing with the jazz greats confers some
sort of authenticity. Experience and immersion in black culture are often
closely connected to the authenticating strategies (Hess 2005, 380) in
African-American music. Mickey Hesss discussion of how white hip-hop
musicians construct their authenticity within the black expressive culture
of hip-hop is relevant here. Hess suggests that being true to yourself and
to your lived experiences, immersion in black culture, and the connec-
tion/interaction with and acceptance by black hip-hop artists are some of
the ways for white hip-hop artists to authenticate themselves (Hess 2005,
375380). These strategies are also applicable to jazz and are closely aligned
to Sedgwicks and Cassitys comments.
Saxophonist Erica von Kleist concurs, yet offers another viewpoint that
rejects any need for African-Americanor any other racially or culturally
based, for that matterauthenticity. Von Kleist regularly plays with Arturo
OFarrills Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and has played as a substitute a few
times in Wynton Marsaliss Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. She claimed,
All that matters is how much study you give towards musicthere are African
Americans and Latinos who know less about rhythms than I do. Even though I
am white I still am influenced by where I am, New York City. I am influence by
all the music in my culture. ... My music is authentic to me. (von Kleist 2008)

Von Kleist clearly dismisses the idea of ones having African roots be-
ing a marker of authenticity. She denies essentialist assumptions, claiming
that being African American or Afro-Caribbean does not guarantee a better
rhythmic sense or knowledge and emphasizes that anyone can play jazz
authentically through serious study. On the themes of race, gender, and
authenticity of jazz, saxophonist Janelle Reichman commented, You know,
one of the greatest compliments I have ever gotten was, I was playing at a
jazz club in Cincinnati and I was playing this ballad, and this person yelled
out from the back of the room, You sound like an old black man! [laugh], I
212 bmr journal

thought that it was really great (Reichman 2008). Considering the context of
our conversation, she meant that she could sound authentic even though
she is a young white woman. In addition, her excitement in receiving this
greatest compliment shows that she is aware of the discourse of jazz: a
strong connection between a great jazz performance and the (heterosexual)
black male body. While she thinks, If I love this music, I immerse myself
in it, its not gonna be any less authentic than if a young African-American
boy does the same thing (Reichman 2008), she also feels complimented
about sounding like an old black man. In other words, she expresses her
contradictory feelings about blackness: her confidence as a white female
jazz saxophonist and the excitement of being associated with an older black
male. More importantly, in jazz instrumental performances, authenticity is
associated not only with blackness but also with masculinity and maturity.
Interestingly, von Kleist received a similar comment when she played at a
jam session on a cruise ship: a guy came up to her and said, Oh Erica,
you play so beautifully, you play like a big black man. She commented,
He meant it in the nicest possible way, he was just hilarious. Its a compli-
ment, I think (von Kleist 2008). Her attitude was slightly different from
that of Reichman, who showed her excitement without hesitation. Yet von
Kleist also is aware of the discourses in jazz performance and history. She
seemed to be happy to receive the comment despite strongly denying the
connection between blackness and jazz authenticity.
Although dismissing such a connection, some welcome direct comparison
to African-American male musicians and are encouraged by such favor-
able compliments, viewing this as a marker of accomplishment and profes-
sional and artistic standing. This adds another dimension to the discourse
of authenticity, gender, and race. Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen has a different
take. Stating that she does not believe that a white person and a black per-
son sound different, Jensen related this story: [Trumpeter] Bobby Shew
said after he heard me playing while he was backstage at a band festival,
Damn, girl, I thought you were an old black guy playin like that up there.
What a surprise to see a young white chick. I blushed and took it as a real
compliment at the time, being fourteen years old and all that (Enstice and
Stockhouse 2004, 156). Jensen implies that she would not take it as a com-
pliment now because she is confident that she is a white woman and [she]
can swing (Enstice and Stockhouse 2004, 156). I am not suggesting that
Reichman and von Kleist fell into the trap of the dominant discourses and
dialogues in jazz. It is possible that these women, consciously or uncon-
sciously, are conforming to and reinforcing dominant norms in jazz, which
encompass long-held traditions with regard to gender, race, and age. It is also
possible, however, that they may additionally be manipulating or playing on
the norms to achieve more notoriety in jazz performance circles. Categories
Suzuki Two Strikes and the Double Negative 213

of race, gender, and age notwithstanding, it can be said that playing like an
old black manor that a performance being perceived as suchcould
be viewed as a performance of gender and race.
Yet despite their position, white female jazz musicians express concern
about being stereotyped, regardless of whether or not they choose to follow
the norms. Whereas she believes that immersing herself in the music and
being surrounded by great musicians give her the experience to become a
good jazz musician, Sharel Cassity is still concerned about the stereotypical
image of the black male jazz musician. I had a lot of people come up and tell
me, You dont look anything like a jazz musician. Theyre probably think-
ing someone black, someone male ... so there are bands I would love to be
a part of, maybe I wouldnt be accepted, based on one of these two factors.
Im not perceived as a jazz artist by the public or a lot of people. [Someone
will have to] take a chance to hire me because of that (Cassity 2008). Her
statement resonates with views expressed by Monique Guillory in her article,
Black Bodies Swingin: Race, Gender, and Jazz. She states, The image of
black masculinity that circulates within these cultural arenas symbolizes a
stock prerequisite of the trade and allows for few radical deviations from
the norm that fans come to anticipate and demand. These constructs remain
consistent and are woven into the very fabric of the culture. ... Thus, it is
difficult to imagine a white woman as a jazz musician (Guillory 1998, 213).
While black and male are mere stereotypes of the jazz musician, they are
also deeply embedded in American culture (in some artistic circles as well)
and function as the norm, as Guillory suggests. Cassity further stated, On
the musicians side of it, not in the business side, people are more likely to
hire black musicians, I think. Because they think it gives a certain authentic-
ity (Cassity 2008). Her statement confirms that some twenty-first-century
practitioners still have a tendency to believe in the connection between au-
thenticity and blackness. Reichman, von Kleist, and Cassitywhite females in
their twentiesall demonstrated mixed sentiments when talking about race,
gender, and jazz. Although each is confident that being white and female does
not make their performance inauthentic, they are also keenly aware of black
masculinist discourses in jazz that, as Cassity suggested, might negatively
affect their status as performers.

White and Female Equals Two Strikes?

These notions of performing race and gender, and the perception by their
peers and audiences of whether and how these female saxophonists per-
form race and gender according to accepted norms, has direct bearing
on professional advancement with respect to performance opportunities,
networking, and individual musical development. Whereas the prior
214 bmr journal

iscussion addressed issues of authenticity and jazz performance, the

d
focus here is on even more practical matters as I examine how norms of
race and gender affect white female musicians experiences with regard to
employment and interactions with male musicians. When posing related
questions to my interviewees, saxophonist Laura Dreyer answered, When
I first started playing [in New York City], African-American musicians were
most welcoming to me. They were the ones who hired me for gigs, more
than a lot of white musicians [did] (Dreyer 2008). She thought that she
was accepted by African-American musicians more for being a woman
because they did not feel threatened by her and sympathized with her
being a minority in the jazz scene. White male jazz musicians may have
been perceived as threatening to African-American jazz musicians because
they have always controlled the music industry and have appropriated
and commercialized what African Americans originally created.2 Dreyers
experience demonstrates that her gender worked favorably for her get-
ting work in this context. Similarly, saxophonist/singer Lily White said,
I think Ive gotten more attention being a white woman, instead of a
white man. But there is also a flipside of that, you get more attention, but
you get more resentment if you get gigs (White 2008). She shared a story
of a white male musician who said that she received an award from the
National Endowment for the Arts for her jazz composition because she
was the right sex. In addition, White recalled, White males are the ones
the quickest to judge and quickest to make me feel horrible about who I
am because Im the only thing lower than they are (White 2008). In this
statement, White implies a power structure that is different than the one
posed in my introductory anecdotes, namely, black male, black female,
white male, and white female. Her story suggests that white males are
resentful toward her because she would potentially subvert the hierarchy,
as my white male musician friends claimed.
In the 1990s, White worked with such legendary African-American and
Cuban-American musicians as pianist/singer Jay McShann (19162006),
trumpeters Mario Bauza (19111993), Dizzy Gillespie (19171993), and or-
ganists Jimmy McGriff (19362008) and Jack McDuff (19262001). Partly
because of her experiences playing with these musicians, she developed a
distinctive style with a gutsy and throaty sound imbued with bluesy and
soulful feelings, which are considered by some to be signifiers of blackness.
She said, Thats the thing Im good at. Im not the right color, and laughed.
She implied that her saxophone playing does not match her beautiful me-

2. White appropriation/commercialization of African-American creation can be seen in in-

stances such as Benny Goodmans commercial success using Fletcher Hendersons arrange-
ments and Elvis Presleys remake of Willie Mae Big Mama Thorntons Hound Dog.
Suzuki Two Strikes and the Double Negative 215

dium long blond hair, light brown eyes, and fair skin. White continued,
I had a guy come up to me saying, You should be playing stuff like Joni
Mitchell. You should get back to your roots (White 2008). This male (race
unidentified) was surprised (and possibly disturbed) because Whites per-
formance sounded black despite her being a white female. Taking into
account Whites story, the white male musicians she encountered were
discouraging, hostile, and competitive with white female musicians due to
inferiority complexes based on authenticity and the idea of jazz as black
music. Therefore, both Dreyer and Whitewhite, blond-haired women in
their late 40shave performed more with nonwhite male musicians. In
the same way, saxophonist Carol Sudhalter stated, When I first moved
to New York, the first people who were my mentors and supporters were
generally older black sax players, who didnt feel threatened or competitive
with me, whereas some young white male players werent so encouraging
(Sudhalter 2009). Sudhalters account confirms that a number of white male
musicians shared the same attitude toward white female musicians that
Dreyer and White described.
Dreyer, White, and Sudhalter were associated more with African-Amer-
ican musicians than with white male ones, but Austrian saxophonist Karo-
lina stated, Ive always been in all kinds of circles [in New York], musically,
Latin music, black musicians ... but of course mostly I circulate within
white people, thats natural, I guess, maybe not (Strassmayer 2009). She
expressed a lot of hesitation when approaching this topic. Similarly, Janelle
Reichman recognizes the racial divisions that made it hard for her to break
into the New York jazz community. There are numerous cliques that mainly
differ according to styles of jazz in the current New York jazz scene, and
some of them are dominated by a single race or nationality. Reichman
mentioned her experience after she moved to New York City in 2006: In
jazz music, of course, its all about the hang, so its just gonna be harder
for me to break into a group of people, like all black men, because they
have similar experiences (Reichman 2008). Therefore, she plays with more
white male musicians than African-American ones. The difficulty Reichman
feels is perhaps due to the cultural capital she lacks as a white woman.
Sally Ann Davies-Netzley, drawing on Pierre Bourdieus notion of cultural
capital, suggests that successful women in the corporate world attempt to
display the forms of cultural capital that fit best with the male-dominated
corporate scene (Davies-Netzley 1998, 349). She states that these women
talk sports, politics, read the Wall Street Journal, and bring up topics in which
other male elites will be interested. In addition, some corporate women
feel that being white is essential to fitting into the frequently allwhite
male environment. In Reichmans case, being white can be an obstacle to
fitting into a group of all black males. Sudhalters, Dreyers, and Whites
216 bmr journal

experiences occurred between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, but the
situation in the New York jazz scene might have changed over the past
twenty years. Thus, white women may be perceived as less threatening pro-
fessionally to white male musicians today compared to twenty years ago.
Yet some women still feel disadvantaged when it comes to race and gender
as mentioned in the accounts above. It may be too optimistic to determine
that the jazz scene is more integrated than in the 1980s and the early 1990s,
but relationships between all races and genders may have improved. The
connection between African-American musicians and authentic jazz has
gradually become weaker, at least on the surface. Of course, the origins of
jazz are well documented and accepted, but the contributions of nonblack
musicians are much more appreciated in some circles and contexts than
twenty years ago.3
Some white women, on the other hand, feel that being white or a woman
does not matter and say they have not felt an issue with who they are.
Saxophonist Sue Terry said, I played with many many black musicians,
Ive played in venues where I was the only white person in the whole place
including the audience and the band (Terry 2008). Her remark suggests
that she had no problems playing with African-American musicians. Saxo-
phonist Claire Daly stated, Ive thought about the fact that the origins of
what I love are so different from what I look like. But music speaks to the
soul. It doesnt speak to my heritage. The music grabbed me fully the first
time I heard it. Sometimes there are difficulties because youre female or
Irish or ... sometimes thats gonna work for you or against you (Daly
2009). She mentioned experiences in which she was unfairly treated or
made invisible and felt deep anger. However, she tries not to personalize
these incidents but attempts instead to work with people who appreciate
her. Saxophonist Virginia Mayhews attitude is similar to Dalys. Two
strikes [being a white woman] [laugh]. But you have to just go and do
it. Surround yourself with people that dont have those kinds of issues
[regarding gender and race] (Mayhew 2009). These three women in their
early fifties have been active in the New York jazz scene since the 1980s, and
their shared experiences over the past twenty years reveal similar attitudes
and outlooks. They are aware that there may be gender or racial issues in
jazz, but they are determined to be unaffected. I consider their attitudes
situating themselves in personal spaces where there are no normsa way
of performing gender and race in jazz. By dismissing race and gender as if

3. See Richard Sudhalter, Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915
1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), and Randy Sandke, Where the Dark and the
Light Folks Meet: Race and the Mythology, Politics, and Business of Jazz (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow
Press, 2010).
Suzuki Two Strikes and the Double Negative 217

they have no effect on them, they are creating room for themselves in jazz
performance circles.

Its Something in the Blood:

Black Cultural Identity and Jazz
When I discussed with my interviewees how race and gender intersect
in their experiences as jazz saxophonists, I often shared my experience in
Japan. When I worked as a jazz saxophonist there in the early 1990s, I felt
a strong bonding and camaraderie with my fellow male jazz musicians. We
equally felt a sort of authenticity complex because we were culturally
and geographically far away from the United States, where jazz was born.4
The distance felt even greater without the internet or advanced computer
technology. As a result, cultural/racial differences were so overwhelming
that gender differences did not seem to be a serious issue, although I was
always a minority. As soon as I finished my thought, African-American
saxophonist Tia Fuller said, Id like to comment on that:
I dont wanna say its gender specific, but the fact that jazz music has come
out of African-American classic music, African drums, I know African Ameri-
cans we feel that ... because culturally weve been connected to it, because
its been the foundation of whats happened culturally and socially during
slavery, a lot of the spiritual hymns came from that, which was the root of a
lot of jazz music of today, so, because culturally, thats where we were coming
from, as a people, we feel extremely connected, sometimes, possessive of it,
because its our music, because it came out of the African-American experi-
ence. Now, of course, Western society and other cultures have integrated,
have helped to enhance it, like the Latin culture, Asian culture, the Western
culture, but being an African American, this is the music that we have, and
that has come from our roots. ... Of course, its all inclusive like a melting
pot, but I think culturally everybody brings their own thing to it, which is a
beautiful thing, and I can say that at times, when Ive heard different people,
if I close my eyes, and I listen to them, and if its like a white guy, white girl,
and Im like, Hmmm, Im wondering if theyre white. Just because its
certain thing. Once again, its cultural, its something thats in the blood. If
youre able to listen and study the music long enough, you might be able to
rid of that thing, but its so deeply ingrained. I think its one of the beautiful
things about jazz is that you could bring whatever roots you have to it, and
still be as killing as the next. But I do know that African-American culture,
my culture, we feel extremely connected to it because its rooted out of our
struggle as black people. (Fuller 2008)

4. See E. Taylor Atkins, Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan (Durham, N.C.: Duke Uni-
versity Press, 2001).
218 bmr journal

I quote her statement at length because she expressed her views so el-
oquently. Her emotional response to my experience demonstrates her
strong identification with being African American as a people rather than a
woman. Her idea strongly suggests an essential notion of cultural identity.
While she repeats that the difference is cultural, she also implies biologi-
cal determinism: it is in the blood. This particular idea resonates with
Stuart Halls notion of a fixed, unchanging cultural essence (Hall 1989,
69). She implies that musicians from different cultures naturally sound
different and that the ability to understand jazz and persistent study of the
music might be able to remove this cultural signifier from non-African-
Americans musical sound. Fullers insistence that she can hear different
ethnicities in non-African-American musicians performance is relevant
to Deborah Wongs discussion of Asian-American jazz musicians. Wongs
interview subject, an African-American historian, could detect the ab-
sence of an African American musicking body in the music performed by
an Asian-American experimental jazz group (Wong 2004, 174). Although
they fundamentally claim the same thingthat African Americans and
non-African Americans sound differentthey employ different rationales.
While Fuller can identify a cultural signifier in non-African-American
musicians sound, the African-American historian can sense the lack of
African American signifiers. Therefore, Fuller never talks about the inad-
equacy of non-African-Americans performances: she simply insists that
they sound different. She appreciates different cultural elements in jazz
rather than dismissing such amalgamations as inauthentic. Yet she feels
that African-American people have a special connection to music because
of their black experience.
Fuller emphasized her strong racial identification as an African American,
but it does not mean that she feels no difference between men and women
playing jazz. In fact, her band has long been all female, and she emphasized
a special connection among women with whom she performs, which
she brought up when we discussed the advantages of being a female jazz
musician. Fuller commented,
What is the most important of what Ive experienced, because my quartet is all
female, theres a certain connection in playing with other women that are also
accomplished. Like you can call it an innate connection, an internal connection
we have with each other. Its the same thing as Beyonces band, we are con-
nected in a very special way. Its in a way that Im not really able to express,
but I know what it is because I can feel it. I dont know if its an ability to give
birth. There is something that is extremely special that I really think its an
advantage of being a woman because we are able to feel in different places,
not to say that men cant. (Fuller 2008)
Suzuki Two Strikes and the Double Negative 219

Considering this statement, she suggests that her being a woman, biologi-
cally, is an advantage in performance settings because women are more in
tune with their bodies than men. Her two statements and the contexts in
which she raised these issues suggest that gender and race are not separable
in her identity but one is emphasized more than the other depending on
the context.
Subsequently, I asked Fuller about her ideas of the music industry and
race. From discussions with other musicians, my own observation of the
New York jazz scene, and representations of musicians in major jazz maga-
zines and radio stations, I see two tendencies: (1) promoting white musicians
because of the white-controlled industry, and (2) promoting African-Ameri-
can musicians to preserve the essence of jazz. Fuller sees the former more:
As far as the industry, record companies, people that are putting jazz out
there, they are pushing more the Caucasian, the Western influenced [jazz].
Its a sensitive subject (Fuller 2008). She continued, mentioning that the
black community saw a problem with the International Association for Jazz
Education (IAJE) before it went bankrupt in 2008, in that the schools and
educators involved and performers presented at their annual conferences
were predominantly white. That was a large issue, just maintaining the
essence of the culture, black culture of the music and not getting twisted
(Fuller 2008). Here, Fuller is more outspoken about what African-American
musicians culturally possess and how it is significant in preserving the es-
sence of black culture in jazz.5
Although Fullers notion of cultural identity is strongly connected to
being African American, not all African Americans share this idea. In
contrast to Fuller, another young African-American saxophonist, Lakecia
Benjamin, possesses a somewhat carefree but cautious attitude. Before
starting the interview, she blurted out, I dont know ... I dont think it
matters what gender or race you are (Benjamin 2009). In fact, she was
hesitant to be interviewed, perhaps because she was uncomfortable talking
about gender and racial issues in the context of jazz performance. When
I asked her if there are any difficulties in being an African-American fe-
male jazz musician, Benjamin seemed to be bothered and stated, Thats
only in your brain (Benjamin 2009), suggesting that negativity derives
from oneself, not from the society or situations. She insisted that she never
thought of her race or gender in the context of playing music. Further,
knowing that I am a jazz saxophonist, she added, If somebody tells you,

5. The notion of the essence of jazz and the African-American signifier has been chal-
lenged by many scholars. See Monique Guillory (1998), George Lewis (2002), and Ronald
Radano (2003).
220 bmr journal

you cant play jazz because youre Japanese and a woman? [Do not worry
about it.] If you play good and youre a nice person, you will be fine
(Benjamin 2009). Of course, this statement does not assure that she nev-
er experienced negativity because of her gender or race. Her statement
shows, rather, her attitudes toward gender and race: she chooses not to
concentrate on them nor does she want to talk about them in the context
of jazz performance. Based on her knowledge about the norms regarding
gender and race in jazz, Fuller expresses her ideas and sturdily identifies
with African Americans as well as with women. Benjamin, in contrast,
negates and stays aloof from the norms. Their different approaches to
voicing (or not voicing) concerns and sentiments about gender and race
constitute performances of some sort, performances that challenge es-
sentialist claims from within the core culture, privilege womanhood in
performance contexts, and turn their backs to audiences that perpetuate
those categories in their brains.

Why Are There So Few African-American

Female Jazz Saxophonists?
In conducting searches for female jazz saxophonists actively working in
the New York area for my interviews, I discovered that most were white
and foreign. In addition, among fifty-seven alumnae of the Sisters in Jazz
Collegiate Competition (sponsored by the International Association for
Jazz Education) from 1998 to 2008, only four were African American, two
Hispanic American, and three Asians from overseas (two Japanese and one
Chinese Australian). The scarcity of Asian, Asian-American, and Hispanic-
American musicians (both men and women) is predictable because they
have traditionally been minorities in the American jazz scene, with the
exception of Hispanic males in Latin jazz scenes. Considering the pres-
ence of black female jazz instrumentalists in prior decades in bands such
as the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, why are there fewer African-
American women now when the proportion of female instrumentalists
on the whole has risen in recent years? I asked Fuller about the scarcity of
African-American female jazz instrumentalists. Fuller said,
This is another sensitive subject. This is how I feel and a lot of my friends and
my mentors agree. I think being a black woman, its almost a double negative
in the industry, even though it hasnt been my experience because Im trying to
be optimistic. I think if I were white, and doing what I do, similar to what Miles
Davis said in his book, if he was white he would have been a lot further along.
Theres a truth in it. In this Western-based society, being a black woman, its a
little bit more challenging, whereas if I were a white woman with blond hair
Suzuki Two Strikes and the Double Negative 221

blue eyes, it might be a little easier to be accepted. Why? I honestly dont know.
(Fuller 2008)

Although Fuller feels it advantageous to be a woman and believes she holds

a significant connection to jazz as an African American, she thinks that
these two factors work negatively in the white-controlled music industry.
Her statement also suggests a small concession, as Fuller acknowledges
certain obstacles that occur in a mainstream, white-controlled society; these
impediments, for Fuller, confirm and complicate the norms of gender and
race in jazz. Whereas the white American and foreign female jazz musicians
I interviewed often used the term two strikes when referring to being
a woman and nonblack in jazz circuits, Fuller perceives being an African-
American woman as a double negative in the music industry. Her idea of
double negative is frequently discussed in critical race and gender scholar-
ship as African-American womens double burden and a special kind of
oppression.6 Although African-American women may experience a single
burden or even double positive (in Fullers account) within the discourse
of jazz as African-American music, a long-standing idea of double burden
in the context of the white-driven music industry may discourage black
women from choosing jazz as a career.
Regarding current attitudes toward jazz within the African-American
community, Randy Sandke observes an interesting discrepancy: while a
number of jazz musicians notice the scarcity of black audiences, a survey of
jazz audiences in 1992 showed that a large percentage of the black popula-
tion liked jazz and attended live performances. (Sandke 2010, 161163).
Sandke speculates that the survey shows the importance of jazz in the
black psyche as a source of racial pride (Sandke 2010, 162), although this
may not reflect black peoples involvement with the music. In fact, pianist
and educator Billy Taylor had lamented six years earlier that those of us
who belong to the ethnic group which created jazz should be concerned
about the fact that jazz is being studied, analyzed, documented, defined,
and supported in white schools and communities, while being virtually
ignored in black schools (Taylor 1986, 25). This may offer part of the expla-
nation as to why there may be fewer opportunities for an institutionalized
jazz education for the African-American population, but it does not explain
why African-American male jazz instrumentalists greatly outnumber their
female counterparts. Here, Kimberle Crenshaws idea of intersectionality, in
which she claims that African-American women tend to be invisible at the
intersection of feminist and anti-racist interests, may be useful. She s uggests

6. See St. Jean Yanic and Joe R. Feagin, Double Burden: Black Women and Everyday Racism
(Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1998).
222 bmr journal

that feminism is concerned mainly with the interests of white women and
that antiracism is concerned with black men (Crenshaw 1989). In the field
of jazz, African-American women might feel heavy pressure not to com-
pete with African-American men since working as a jazz musician ...
came to represent both symbolic and concrete proof of African American
manhood (Porter 2002, 28). In other words, African-American women, in
racial solidarity may tend to avoid creating tensions that would result from
competing directly with African-American men where they might be seen
as subverting power structures within the African-American community.
Moreover, in a women in jazz scene or context, nonblack women might
be encouraged and supported more because African-American women are
considered to be privileged due to their perceived cultural connections to
the genre.
Also, the financial instability faced by jazz musicians might be another
reason for African-American women to avoid making professional jazz
musician a career choice. Many of my interviewees mentioned the financial
difficulties of being a jazz musician. During the 1940s, however, being a
musician who traveled on the road was more attractive than being an office
worker, as Sherrie Tucker suggests (Tucker 2000, 55). For black women, who
did not have as many career choices as white women, working as a musi-
cian was a worthwhile option. Tucker also illustrates in her study of the
Prairie View Colleges all-women jazz band that joining the jazz band was
the only way to receive a college education for a small number of African-
American women at that time. Thus, the families of the young women were
supportive of the choice of becoming a jazz instrumentalist. Performing jazz
after 1960 has not been as financially profitable as it was during the 1940s
because jazz is commercially less sustainable. Sue Terry noted that jazz as
a profession does not attract many people in general because it is very
difficult to learn the skills that are required to be a jazz musician (Terry
2008). Linda Williams also points out the highly specialized and advanced
skills required to become a jazz musician and the financial issues involved
in acquiring them in the African-American community: Opportunities
to major in jazz performance studies at the college level abound; unfortu-
nately, many young aspiring musicians who might otherwise be interested
in pursuing this path cannot afford to participate in the music-related (and
extracurricular) activities that would prepare them for studies at the un-
dergraduate level. (Williams 2007, 130). Female jazz instrumentalists in
previous eras learned how to play jazz mainly through their performance
experiences at churches and clubs instead of in school. All the female saxo-
phonists I interviewed, with the exception of Carol Sudhalter, had formal
training in collegiate jazz programs. Although African-American women
Suzuki Two Strikes and the Double Negative 223

have shown a higher percentage of high school completion, college enroll-

ment, and college graduation rates than their male counterparts, they are
a minority in college jazz programs, perhaps because they choose majors
that lead to more secure careers.

Conclusion
I have shown that these womens views are greatly shaped by race and, in
some cases, by age. It is particularly notable that the notion of blackness
has affected white and black female saxophonists differently: its meaning
in regards to jazz is different for nonblack and black women, and there are
differences even within similar racial groups of women. The younger white
women feel that being a woman is a larger issue than being white, partly
because of general agreements that jazz has become globalized, that jazz
education has been institutionalized, and that jazzs essential connections
to African-American authenticity are currently being challenged by the
wide range of diverse voices in the mainstream. The older white women
told me that being female actually worked in their favor, perhaps because
African-American musicians did not feel threatened by white female musi-
cians. These divergent views and experiences suggest two perceptions of
blackness: (1) as an essential cultural identity dominant up to the 1980s,
and (2) as a globalized and diverse identity that has become prevalent since
the late 1990s. Such views mark a difference between these two groups. In
other words, two different views of blackness shaped these womens per-
formances of gender and race in performance circuits and in interactions
with other musicians.
Of the African-American female saxophonists I interviewed, Tia Fuller
was the most expressive and clear in explaining her views. She emphasized
that African Americans are strongly connected to jazz and that nonblacks
would sound different because they add their own cultural signifiers to
the performances. Voicing her ideas on cultural identity so strongly, she
appears to be concerned with preserving black cultural identity in jazz.
Fuller is also conscious of being a woman in the jazz scene, but she reacts
to racial issues with more passion. On the other hand, Lakecia Benjamin
asserts that she is never conscious of being a woman or African American
in playing jazz. These two women display contrasting performances of
gender and race: one carefully and consciously crafting responses about
implications of gender and race, the other very unengaged and somewhat
indifferent. Benjamin, however, is aware of the issues but chooses not to
let those issues enter into discussions about her musical performances. Yet
besides the context of musical performance, she casually talked about how
224 bmr journal

men and women may act differently. Other musicians also had a tendency
to discuss gender in somewhat essentialist ways, especially when talking
about interpersonal relationships on and off the stage. They talked about
race with relative ease when discussing music, but they became increasingly
uncomfortable when associating it with discussions about society and the
music industry.
These womens performances of race and gender recall Halls reflexive
viewpoint regarding cultural identity, which is informed by a definitive past
but does not reject future redefinition by participants from other cultural back-
grounds. Jazz, for these women, is certainly connected to African-American
roots, but it also belongs to a future that incorporates diverse cultural influenc-
es. This view shares points in common with the universalist and ethnically
assertive points of view that Ingrid Monson discusses in Saying Something:
Jazz Improvisation and Interaction (1996, 202). She suggests that these two views
often coexist in the same person and are best conceived as discourses upon
which musicians draw in particular interactive contexts (1996, 202). I have
also noticed that musicians express different views depending on the context.
For instance, musicians such as Russell Malone and Nicholas Payton, who are
vocal about the black origins of jazz, often work with and are encouraging
to non-African-American musicians. As Monson notes, African-American
musicians tend to choose an ethnically assertive position when the role of
African-American culture in jazz is underplayed (Monson 1996, 202). Such
complex racial discourses in jazz have perhaps played a role in shaping the
various ways female jazz saxophonists feel about cultural identity and, in
turn, perform gender and race. Whereas some of the women in this study
acknowledged that being a female jazz instrumentalist attracts more attention
and certain types of work (all-female groups, women-in-jazz events, and so
on), they also noted disadvantages that sometimes caused conflicting feelings
about belonging. For example, Carol Sudhalter described the disadvantage of
her gender as a general problem experienced by women in all fields. Others
described being a white woman as two strikes, while Tia Fuller mentioned
that being an African-American woman is a double negative. Such posi-
tions are related to perceptions of authenticity and the occasional distasteful
politics of the music and recording industries. In each case, these women
displayed confidence in who they were as performers, but they also spoke
in ways that demonstrated understandings of themselves through others (or
oppositional) points of view. Some of the women approached the topics as if
there were no norms or perceptions to challenge or critique. Taken together,
these womens varied expressions aid their performances of gender and race,
in which they all seek a better way to carve out spaces for themselves as jazz
performers.
Suzuki Two Strikes and the Double Negative 225

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