Summary of a Panel Discussion:
Pamela Wise (piano), Akua Dixon (cello) and Adela Dalto (vocals)
Written by Alissa Roedig on May 16, 2000 as part of Dr. Karlton E. Hester's course: AS&RC489 - African American Musical Innovators (Cornell University) and the 9th Annual Cornell University "Jazz" Festival.
This panel discussion took place on March 20, 2000 at the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. The discussion was in context of the 9th Annual Cornell University “Jazz” Festival Women In “Jazz”. There was an open question and answer session at the end. Pamela Wise, Akua Dixon and Adela Dalto are each accomplished and recognized musicians in their field and have enjoyed long careers in music playing with many reknowned “jazz” musicians. In this discussion the focus was in particular on the role of being a woman in “jazz".
Pamela Wise currently lives in Detroit and aside from performing and composing she runs a music business together with her husband Wendell Harrison. She started paying piano at age 9, following the encouragement of her father who is also a musician. Akua Dixon is a cellist now living in New York and married to trombonist Steve Turre. She started studying music seriously and performs both European and “jazz” repertoire. Adela Dalto was born in Texas to Mexican parents and started singing Brazilian music when she was asked to substitute for a local artist in the town she lived in. Since then she has been performing various styles of Latin American music and “jazz”. Until recently she was married to the late pianist Jorge Dalto.
In the beginning of the discussion each artist took some time to introduce herself and tell a little about the musical path they have been pursuing. One of the most striking aspects was that each woman had a very different story to recount and each had found her own personal way of succeeding. They all have in common that they are (or were) married to successful male musicians and in each case the personal and musical relationship was very different.
Pamela Wise met Wendell Harrison by coincidence she was recording some of her compositions. Harrison was already an established musician and became interested in her music. For some time she learned from him, but has meanwhile followed her own musical path. Each produce their own albums, but feature each other and each other’s compositions on their recordings. Since 1978 they have been running Rebirth Records and WenHaJazz together through which they market their CDs as well as present concerts and workshops. Their fields of work seem to overlap strongly and it seems that they take care of each other’s business with mutual cooperation. This seems to be the same for the way they approach music.
Akua Dixon had already established her own position and career in New York when she met her husband Steve Turre. Accordingly their musical worlds seem to remain more separate although they do play together. Each take care of their own business work and in fact have separate phone-lines. Akua pointed out that she will not answer calls for her husband, but instead forwards them to his number. Aside from being involved in music and the business related to it they also have several children and split up responsibilities. Akua cooks, but has also hired help to take care some of the cooking and other tasks.
Adela Dalto married very young and was not yet pursuing a musical career. It was her husband Jorge who inspired her to do so. Yet he was more often on the road than at home and Adela stayed behind and watched the children. Meanwhile she started training herself in music listening to Jorge’s records and practicing late at night after her children were put to bed. She mentioned that she considered it her task as a woman to take care of the children (I am not sure she said this directly, but it was implicitly clear). This is a very different approach from Akua Dixon’s. Adela also pointed out that while her husband was gone and she was performing with men on stage (usually all men) she considered it being on a date with five men and enjoyed dressing up for performances as if it were her night out. It seems that she and her husband had very separate musical paths and never even recorded together - he is not featured on any of her albums. Currently she says of herself that she is for the first time in her life taking a day-job not related to music and learning about life outside of the music world. Like Akua and Pam she is taking advantage of the internet and even pursuing the stock market. Adela says that now, where she is together with a non-musician, she enjoys stepping back a little from the rush of the music world.
Adela also had much to say about the position of being a vocalist (usually held by females). She said that at first it was hard to find bands to sing with because the men had agreements with their wives not to travel with female musicians and vocalists are often in the position of being the only female musician in the band. Meanwhile this has loosened up a bit and Adela has also put together her own groups. She is now trying to put together a group of all female musicians and is very encouraging of female instrumentalists, especially those who play instruments predominantly played by males. On the other hand she remarked that in her opinion females are physically not capable of playing conga drums with the same fire and strength as do male players and that she is very partial towards female drummers. She explained that she thought it is due to the fact that playing congas is very hard on female hands. When asked about expectations she is faced with as a singer she said that it is important that a vocalist be able to scat sing. Akua also commented that instrumentalists are very biased towards vocalists and have high demands.
When I asked Akua about her experience being a cellist in “jazz” she confirmed my suspicion that she is often asked whether or not she plays bass also. In fact, as she mentioned earlier, many bassists simply play cello by changing its tuning. She agreed that it is odd that the “jazz” world more readily accepts a male bassist trying to play cello (such as Ron Carter) than an actual (female) cellist playing primarily cello. She pointed out that females are often subjected to severer tests than males are. One time when she was playing with a male “jazz” band and was new to the ensemble she remembers asking the director to make sure that she could be heard, cello being a soft instruments. The director assured her that there would be no problem and in fact the orchestra dropped out completely when the time came for her solo leaving her alone unexpectedly.
Yet Akua has also resolved this situation. She has not confined herself to playing in a typical string quartet playing only European music or trying to battle with typical “jazz” ensembles that have to place for cellists. She has formed her own groups and has also played in her husband’s group where he substituted the typical horn line-up with cello, trombone and violin (?). I also asked her about the problems with amplification. She has solved this problem by using an electric cello. Yet she has also experienced the common problems softer instruments face with bad amplification the microphone being set too soft or too quiet or feeding back.
In talking about the difficulties of being a woman in music, Akua Dixon pointed out that aside from being a female musician it is even harder to be a person of color. Later she mentioned that although females are fairly represented in orchestras playing European music (as opposed to female representation in “jazz”), African Americans are grossly underrepresented if at all present. In fact, many seats reserved for minorities and other underrepresented groups are then filled by women, but not African Americans. Yet she has performed both European music as an African American and played “jazz” as a female and a cellist.
These are just some of the important points that were discussed at this meeting. Given that it is very rare that three successful female “jazz” musicians are brought together to give a discussion like this one there were many more questions and information not touched upon here. Each woman had a very different story to tell, but there were also many experiences they had in common. Although being a woman in “jazz” faces much adversity, none of the women drew back from pursuing their paths. In addition none of them stepped back in any way from being a woman. In summary, all three women acknowledged that the paths they have taken have been hard work, but that it has been well worth it and certainly possible to succeed. Each one of them had duties and work to take care of outside of excelling in music such as being married, raising a family, taking care of business and being pregnant difficulties which keep the majority of women from reaching their goals.
Living Encyclopedia
of Global African Music
Received: Spring 2000
Posted: 07/24/2002