ON STAGE
What: Maria Manna Celebrates International Women’s Day
Where: hermannsjazz.com/livestream
When: Sunday March 7, 7 p.m.
Tickets: By donation
The all-women senior team at Hermann’s Jazz Club — manager Nichola Walkden, booking manager Ashley Wey and communications co-ordinator Samantha Duerksen — stands out.
And that means gender parity in professional music is not where it should be, says Walkden.
“It’s still an industry where it’s not equal,” she said. “Musicians from Toronto do note [the all-women team] when they come here to play a show, because it is uncommon. I don’t deal with women very often in what I do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it, simply because we’re women.”
A concert set for Hermann’s on Sunday will illuminate the point. Timed to recognize International Women’s Day, which falls on Monday this year, the event was conceived by local singer Maria Manna as a showcase by, for and about the women who make a lot of their living playing music professionally in Victoria.
Manna will be joined by Wey on piano, Zoe Guigueno on bass, Sherry Clayton on drums and Monik Nordine on saxophone. The all-female band will perform a set that includes songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn, Betty Carter and other women who paved the way for female musicians decades ago.
“We are in tough times right now and when these women were breaking into the industry, they, too, had their struggles,” Manna said in a statement. “Sharing their stories will remind us of their strengths and encourage us to stay strong, together.”
Walkden says she just wants women to have a level playing field on which to operate.
“The cause of women in jazz is actually a cause. It is such a male-dominated profession. I am the only woman I know in this city who runs a club on a day-to-day basis and that is not how it should be.”
