Close your eyes and imagine seeing a jazz band playing live.
There’s a good chance you were imagining a group of men performing. Women jazz musicians are relatively rare. Denver based jazz pianist Annie Booth is doing something about it.
In 2017, Booth created the SheBop Young Women in Jazz Workshop through the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts. The program is a two-day workshop including small group and big band playing, masterclasses, jam sessions and group activities, culminating in a live performance.
The program is open to all female instrumentalists and vocalists of any ability level ages 10-18. Its intent is to provide young female jazz musicians high-quality educational experiences in an environment that gives them a sense of belonging and community, a safe place to explore their artistic shelves, and extra support and enlarged context for the role of women in jazz.
SheBop takes place Friday and Saturday at Carbondale Middle School. The workshop is 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday; 8:30 to 5 p.m. Saturday and the concert starts at 7 p.m.
Financial aid is available and the concert is free to the public.
In addition to Booth, the workshop will be led by an all-star faculty of accomplished women musicians/composers including Alex Loran (saxophone and vocalist) and Dani Garcia (bass).
In the last seven years, Booth has done 10 workshops across Colorado. This weekend’s program will be the second one in the Roaring Fork Valley (the first was in 2019).
“This program was informed by my experience as a female jazz musician,” Booth said. “Growing up, I had no peers. I didn’t have any mentors who were women. If you want to get young women to play jazz and stick with the art form, it’s hard to do something If you can’t see yourself in mentorship.”
For Jazz Aspen Snowmass, working with Booth and SheBop was a perfect fit for their educational programing.
“JAS began exploring initiatives aimed at female students after noticing how few women were being represented in our programming across all levels,” said Andrea Beard, chief operating officer of JAS. “From JAS Café bands, to headliners for Labor Day, the majority of all JAS performers have been male. When looking over the applicants for the JAS Academy Summer residency, primarily consisting of musicians ages 18-25, only 14% were women in 2024. We know there are so many talented young women in our local schools. With SheBop we hope to encourage and expand that talent, while creating a new community of young female musicians throughout the Western Slope.”
Booth expects roughly 20 participants at the workshop. She will divide the group up into three smaller groups and the activities include learning by ear, a look at famous women in jazz, a rhythm workshop, a big band exercise and improvisation.
Booth views improvisation as the most important element in jazz music. Many of her participants have never improvised before. The key to success is creating a safe space to experiment.
“We started out by saying, ‘What would happen if we created this homogeneous environment for young women to learn about jazz and to learn how to improvise and express themselves?’ And it was all about creating a really comfortable, really welcoming space where the girls could just be themselves,” Booth said. “Not that they can’t be in their school bands, but you know, improvising is a very vulnerable thing. So it requires a very supportive environment. And my favorite thing about it is that many of these young women are experiencing jazz improvisation for the very first time.
“At first, many of them are like, ‘No, no, no, no, don’t make me do that.’ But then, by the time the concert rolls around, they’re improvising and having fun and smiling and interacting. That’s the coolest thing. They’re making stuff up on the spot. And they’re telling stories through their instruments. It’s a really beautiful thing for them.”
When asked what she hoped participants will take away from the SheBop program, Booth replied, “Confidence, self-confidence, and just knowing that their voice matters and that can carry to whatever they do. It’s lovely when I find out about some participants who have gone on to keep playing music, and they study music in college, maybe, or they become professionals. But I think there’s so much that we can learn from our participation in music, even if we don’t end up sticking with it. I want them to know that their voice matters and they can express themselves if that is with music that’s awesome, if that’s with other types of art that’s great but to know that their voice matters. That’s the biggest takeaway for me.”
The cost for the program is $150 per student. JAS will be offering full scholarships for those who need the assistance. Program details and scholarship application can be found at JazzAspenSnowmass.org.
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