The March Toward Equity & Inclusion

By Kira Grunenberg I Sep. 28, 2023

“It’s really important that students see themselves and faculty in leadership,” says Aja Burrell Wood, managing director of the Institute.
(Photo: Jerris Madison)
Halley Elwell, program coordinator for the Institute, encountered many hurdles in her pursuit of a jazz performance career.
(Photo: Courtesy Halley Elwell)
Terri Lyne Carrington, founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, stresses solidarity for all societal shortcomings.
(Photo: Michael Goldman)
“For so long I just ignored the idea of gender and music,” says Chris Davis, associate program director of creative development. “I just wanted to be far away from connecting my gender to the music in any way.”
(Photo: Michael Jackson)
“[Jazz writers] will either say, ‘Women are so embattled,’ or say, ‘Things are getting better for women,’ and it’s not at all evidence-based and that’s highly problematic,” says journalist, educator and ethnomusicologist Lara Pellegrinelli.
(Photo: Courtesy Lara Pellegrinelli)

The idea that someone isn’t just a number in a class is often interpreted as a teacher’s ability to connect with students beyond the bare minimum. It’s about simply being accounted for versus being acknowledged for more of one’s personhood. Yet sometimes a statistic is the very form of identification that can lead to deeper levels of acknowledgment in a social demographic.

Lara Pellegrinelli — freelance journalist, educator and ethnomusicologist — recognized one such valuable opportunity for analyzing statistical data in 2018. Reflecting on the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll led Pellegrinelli to question the definitive status of gender equity in jazz performance, outside of a timeframe that may have been perpetuating disproportion around the reality of equity in jazz.

This curiosity led to a multi-year research project wherein Pellegrinelli and a team of independent reporters analyzed every recording given a vote in polls for 2017–’19. The results from that study, “Equal At Last? Women In Jazz, By The Numbers,” and the thought process that created it, inspired Pellegrinelli to contemplate similar questions regarding gender equity around jazz, higher education and administration.

“It’s systemic inequity. … How can you move the dial on gender, on equity, if you don’t even know where you’re starting?” says Pellegrinelli. “What do I need? In this case, we need numbers or else we can never claim progress, and I don’t think we’ll ever be able to claim equity unless we have a place to start measuring from.”

The fruit of these questions grew over two years (2019–’21) from Pellegrinelli’s Music Journalism and Criticism course at The New School’s Eugene Lang College. Pellegrinelli worked with students on a methodology for collecting quantitative data on faculty within jazz-specific educational roles along with gender data derived from public information. Due to the lack of existing data accounting for these aspects together, DownBeat magazine’s annual jazz education guide “Where To Study Jazz” served as a core source. With 222 schools listed across 44 states, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), the list served as the foundation for 3,014 individual entries. Those entries are the foundation for an analysis of gender equity in jazz education that Pellegrinelli says is much needed — notably due to a tendency of writers and readers to latch onto a false sense of change.

“[Jazz writers] will either say, ‘Women are so embattled,’ or say, ‘Things are getting better for women,’ and it’s not at all evidence-based and that’s highly problematic,” Pellegrinelli says. “You have a duty as a reporter to make sure that what you’re saying is actually true.”

Wanting the study to reach more people and leave a stronger impression, Pellegrinelli approached the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, proposing collaboration and funding for the study, the findings for which Pellegrinelli and the Institute are in the process of developing. Still, numbers for some of the study’s most prominent categories illuminate immediate need for improvement — 6% of people who are directors of jazz programs are female-identifying individuals; only 16% of women are administrators of higher education. Considering a world where the ratio of men to women is roughly 50-50, the picture is disparaging, even knowing parameters were kept rather open.

“We were not going to decide if someone is a jazz musician,” Pellegrinelli says. “If it was in their bio and they said they were a jazz musician … then it was good enough for us. We were trying to cast the widest net possible and try to get a picture of female-identified artists. If anything, the parameters probably helped the numbers.”

Though the study focuses on women in jazz higher education and administration, Pellegrinelli and the institute are aware other conversations exist, which would examine challenges faced by individuals across gender and minority spectrums. Aja Burrell Wood, managing director of the Institute, notes the significance of students identifying with educators and administrators in their daily studies.

“It’s really important that students see themselves and faculty in leadership,” Burrell Wood says. “It’s also important that it’s not only that female identifying students that need to see female-identified faculty and staff. Male-identified students also need to see female-identified faculty and staff. It benefits all because it normalizes that.”

Terri Lyne Carrington, the Institute’s founder and artistic director, expands on this mentality directly with her students, stressing solidarity for all societal shortcomings.

“I think everyone has to look in the mirror and look at their values and understand intersectionality,” Carrington says. “I [tell] my students, ‘You can’t be concerned with gender justice or racial justice or any of that without thinking about ableism or environmental justice because what kind of person are you if you’re only concerned about your own group?’”

Noticing the nuances of different social groups is a skill and value almost signature to Carrington, as her 40-year performing career has given her what she describes as a “cross-generation of experience.”

“It has given me the understanding of where [and] how gender fits in, [and] the problems with it in jazz because I’ve had such vast experience with so many different people from different sides,” Carrington says.

While Carrington accrued a first-hand connection with musicians across generations, the Institute’s staff carries an abundance of their own experiences, highlighting the disparity in jazz and jazz education for women. Ironically, for Kris Davis, associate program director of creative development, her attempt at ignoring gender entirely acted as an obstacle rather than a way to not only stand beside men but do so in a fully actualized way.

“For so long I just ignored the idea of gender and music,” Davis says. “I tried to avoid it. I remember, JazzTimes had done like a ‘Women in Jazz’ feature, and I was so upset that I was included. I just wanted to be far away from connecting my gender to the music in any way.”

Similarly, Carrington said she “wasn’t really seeing gender” early in her career. While perhaps not as conscious of a boundary as Davis, Carrington became aware that perseverance in spite of reactions to gender is often what made it possible for women to succeed in an environment unsupportive of non-male musicians.

“Most of the women that I know who are successful, they don’t want to deal with gender at all because they’ve had to just plow through, let it roll off their back like water, ignore it and just be as good as they can be,” says Carrington.

Halley Elwell, program coordinator for the Institute, encountered many hurdles in her pursuit of a jazz performance career, driven by ingrained gender norms and associated expectations.

“[There] wasn’t much encouragement,” says Elwell. “People didn’t really want to do original stuff. They mostly just wanted me to sing standards. It’s hard when you’re like, ‘OK, where would I rehearse?’” she says. “You get invited back to somebody’s house to rehearse and that’s fine for a lot of people but, if you’re by yourself in a city, and you’re not sure, it’s like, ‘I don’t know if I feel safe rehearsing at your house,’ Stuff like that where I could never really be sure. And because of that, I wasn’t ultimately that comfortable.”

The study being led by Pellegrinelli could certainly help deter these and other instances of difficulty, social pressure and denial for non-male jazz performers and educators. However, Carrington says subtler problems can persist, despite appearances of increased inclusion.

“There are people that in their heart of hearts will say and believe, ‘I’ll hire a woman in a heartbeat if she can play — if she’s good.’ You’re basically saying, ‘If she’s as good as the next guy.’ [Male jazz musicians] have a system that’s unfair, and that’s the thing that shouldn’t be left alone.”

Carrington points out that motivation and mindset are the true cornerstone to change.

“What needs to happen is really a shift in perception, in thinking about the issue,” she says. “You have to look past the numbers of who you’ve hired, [and] you have to really look at how you’re educated. You could just hire women who are somewhat patriarchal themselves, carrying on the same traditions.”

Thankfully, the institute’s entire mission and culture revolves around pursuing gender equity in every facet of jazz. “The point of the Institute [of Jazz and Gender Justice] is to educate young people who are going to be creating these opportunities, to consider diversity in gender and race, in terms of putting their groups together and having successful careers in the music,” Davis says.

It’s a lofty goal but the Institute doesn’t shy away from what’s needed to attain equity for women in educational roles, even considering the existing disadvantages, as Elwell notes.

“The structures are so old that it’s going to be a lot easier for somebody to walk into [an institution] if it was built for you,” Elwell says. “When we think about the origin of how a lot of these institutions are set up, how can [the systems] not be these hierarchies?”

Davis adds, “As there’s a shift and trying to create more diverse mentorship in the institution of jazz education, that’s a slow-going process. The only chance for change in terms of mentorship in institutions is when someone leaves a position or there’s a new position created, and it seems like a lot of the new positions are being opened up for women and people of color, which I think is great. In a way, I see education being more responsive to the moment.”

The question becomes, what needs to happen for change to occur? Is the answer more data studies? Pellegrinelli sees the bigger picture and what data like this can teach.

“[The study] was a very good lesson that we can’t be complacent, and we have to keep thinking critically. We can’t take [progress] for granted,” she says. “Hopefully [the study] is something that has much broader implications.”

One might think advocating for the Institute’s systems would be the right idea but just as statistics are influenced by motivation, it’s not as simple as making blueprints to open Berklee Institutes worldwide, as Burrell Wood and Carrington emphasize.

“Every campus has its particular culture and need,” Burrell Wood says. “When you come from a standpoint of gender justice and racial justice, essentially we’re looking at equity in education.”

“I have to believe that if you really want change, you figure out what you can do to push your institution to be more progressive,” Carrington says.

Inspiring enduring improvement continually returns to the notion of systemic change — changing the minds and hearts of those in authority and those not driven to change things for the benefit of others.

“People will have to decide, do they really want change? Are they protecting their own interests?” asks Carrington. “And you have to be willing to do extra work. It’s extra labor, it’s more time, and you’re not going to get paid for it so you have to be passionate about it.”

Burrell Wood sees the depth of these goals but finds strength in the united mentality of the institute’s team.

“With Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Linda May Han Oh, our administrative staff, and even some of our students employees as well, we’re able to be in community, to work collectively. [And] when you’re doing the work of trying to realize an equitable and present future for all, that work has to be done collectively, no one person can do it by themselves.”

Davis looks to the folks who may need to be shown why equity is a net gain for all. “It’s important for everybody to have access to different people,” she says.

And while Terri Lyne Carrington continues to lead the Institute, conceiving of new ways to move the needle of jazz toward a more equitable existence, she emphasizes yet another concept alongside the idea that one must want change because with growth can come pain. But if everyone works together, the task at hand might not be so intimidating.

“Sometimes [change] is painful. It’s not always easy but you have to have that desire because that’s what makes us function in the world at our highest level — when we’re ready and willing and able to expand.” DB