Live & Local: Sister Swing Jazz

This portion of the interview above has been edited for length and clarity:

Steve: All right. Leave it to organist from New Zealand, Adrienne Fenemor to get a feminine jazz swing going here this morning. On the morning set, Steve with Abby. And we have guests in the studio that are going to break down for us, the sister swing, summer jazz camp for girls and non-binary youth. This is the most amazing thing. Room full of women playing jazz. Oh my goodness.

Abi: Yes, yes, yes.

Steve: And you're starting them younger and younger. La Paloma, Paloma Rose here in studio with us. Hey, how are you?

Paloma: I'm so good. How are you?

Steve: I'm good. I'm going to get better when I hear more about this summer camp. It started with the girls in jazz operation. Mariella Franklin- Trumpeter, is also here. Hey, good morning.

Mariella: Yes, Hello.

Steve: That's right. You got to get close like that. Let's start with the finish line, the camp, what is it and where and when.

Mariella: Yeah, so our sister swing camp is going to be all throughout July. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we're going to have a total of 10 sessions. It's at the MSU Kalamath Jazz Building downtown. And it's from-

Steve: Eighth & Klamath, right? That's the one? Okay. Okay.

Mariella: Yes, exactly. And it's from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Abi: Okay. It starts in July, officially.

Mariella: It starts in July the first,

Abi: And I was reading, this is like, the only of its kind as far as a women and non-binary youth-focused, or I guess 'girls' focused summer camp. Talk to me about why there's a need for that as two women who have grown up doing jazz.

Paloma: Well, so for me personally, I remember being probably high school is when I first started getting into jazz, just because it's such a mature genre of music. And usually these days, your first experience with it is through education of some kind, whether it's your high school jazz band or whether it's programs like CCJA, something like that. And I did all of those. I did my high school jazz band. I did CCJA for a session. And one of the big things is that I was the only girl consistently. And It's really hard when music is so vulnerable and your instrument and you don't know any of this. And also for me, coming from a background that you know, wasn't financially wealthy, so having access to things like music, education, private lessons, doing even these jazz camps was just not, financially, an option for me. So here I am in a room full of people who've been doing this since they were probably eight at this point. And I'm just getting into it and I feel so alone. And so it's continued all the way up until college when I was one of the few girls in the program, let alone an instrumentalist, because you're always assumed to be either a vocalist or a piano player, Which is okay. It's okay to be just a vocalist and a piano player. Those are wonderful things, but the assumption that that's all that you can be is really frustrating. So you always feel like you have to prove yourself. However, being in college, I did meet a girl, Addie Hemley, who's incredible. She's one of my best friends, and she was one of the only girls in the music program that also was an instrumentalist. And so it was my first time being with another girl and being not nervous, feeling like I can be myself, feeling like I can take musical risks and not feeling judged. So that was really important to me with this camp of creating a space where people can feel like they can take risks where they're not going to be judged, where they can be encouraged, and where they're not the minority.

Abi: Absolutely. That's so important because it's definitely a thing that all, as a musician myself, that women go through that you are the only one. So you're building these lifelong, you know, friendships now with young girls and young non-binary youth, that's so awesome.

Paloma: Yes.

Steve: So, as a trumpeter. Mariella, Paloma mentioned, proving yourself. I think that's something musicians.. just do. You walk in, it's not per se, competitive. It is artistic, but you still kind of, walk in and want to show what you got, or learn something so you can really excel.

Mariella: Yes. No, I was part of Colorado's Allstate jazz band for high schoolers this year, and I was the only female in the entire trumpet section. And I just really wish that there was a community for me of female musicians of all instruments, trumpets too, that I could talk to and we can communicate and empower each other. And I always wanted that.

Steve: Talk to me about some of the stuff you were seeing at International- Girls- the first day that you guys had planned back in February.

Mariella: Yes. It was amazing. Paloma led an empowerment session where we all got to share our experiences as being the only females in bands or one of the only, and it was so surprising girls who hadn't talked the whole day, raised their hands and said, I was the only girl in my school's jazz band, and I felt so lonely. And they felt like they did have something to prove. And so it was amazing for all of us to share experiences and empathize with each other and empower everyone.

Abi: So you liked what was happening and you wanted to make this a bigger moment for students to get involved,

Mariella: Yes. After our performance at Girls in Jazz Day, a lot of girls came up to us and said, can we do a jam session together? We really enjoyed this. Are you going to do this day again? And we knew we had to continue.

Steve: What are the ages for the upcoming sisters swing? Jazz camp?

Mariella: Yeah. It's 7th through 12th grade.

Steve: Okay so you have to at least know your instrument a little bit.

Paloma: I'd argue.... no. I think honestly, this pressure, especially with jazz, to have the chops to know all these core fundamental things, I think often can actually get in the way of what we're trying to do. Especially one of my biggest grumbling complaints about modern jazz is it has become so academic and whitewashed. And so that's something that I'm trying to fight against because when we think about music and jazz music, it's based off of people who were fully expressing their souls. And so how can we define that and limit it with all these techniques? Yes, the argument as old as time is those things are very valuable tools. But the thing is, is we keep ignoring the conversation of, okay, what if we try a different approach? Or what if you don't know a lot? How can we create sound and still have a really wonderful time without really knowing what you're doing?

Steve: That's awesome because as a parent, you want to give your kids as many opportunities as you can afford. And if you can get them to a place where they're exposed to the freedom of jazz, the improvisation of jazz, the basic blues, it's not complicated. Just walk it out, talking to a bass player here. Just walk it out.

Mariella: Exactly.

Abi: So, are you, this is going to be a band performance at the end, right. There's a showcase where they get to share their skills to their parents and their family. Is it like, in terms of the instrumentation, is it okay if you have like, five saxophonists or plus? Like is it okay if it leans heavy in one instrument or the other then?

Mariella: Absolutely. We currently are looking at three trombonists, which is going to be amazing.

Abi: Yes. The bones!

Mariella: Yes. We're really excited. Um, yeah, and we also have a performance on August 2nd at Dazzle. We're playing at 12:00 PM

Abi: Oh, nice. That's where it's going to be at. That's so cool. Yes.

Steve: Paloma Rose is with us. She's a bassist and involved with the sister swing, summer jazz camp for girls and non-binary youth, Mariella Franklin, trumpeter, from the Girls and jazz program, which was how long ago from- when was that?

Mariella: Yeah, it was last Valentine's Day, the 14th.

Steve: This year?

Mariella: This year.

Steve: You guys have gone from February to July.

Abi: My gosh.

Steve: Wow. That's a quick turn.

Abi: That's a quick turnaround.

Steve: Good hustle.

Paloma: Yeah. We really tried to pull this together. It was like immediately after Valentine's Day. I called up Mariella, just reviewing what worked, what could we do better? All of these things. And it was immediate of, okay, all the girls really wanted to continue this. Let's get on it.

Abi: I want to shout out, I see some familiar names of women, musicians, and non-binary musicians that are going to be part of this. Like Tania Nelson, Chantil Dukart, Domi Edson, Sonia Walker, Alex Lauren. So a lot of musicians in our community are going to be giving back and helping these girls and non-binary youth sparkle.

Paloma: So that was actually a really big priority in programming this with me, is that I've noticed that, again, because jazz, and this is going to be really controversial, controversial, but in my humble opinion, jazz hasn't been as diverse as it should be in the last couple years. Especially much love to a lot of the players here in Colorado, but we see the similar sorts of types of people here. And so it was a big priority of really getting diverse mentors. Tania is incredible. Chantil is incredible. And they have very different musical backgrounds. Yeah.

Steve: It's coming up. It's through July, Tuesday, and Thursday.

Mariella: Yes. And registration is still open. So if you check out our Instagram at Sister Swing Jazz, you can still register. And we have lots of scholarships available.

Steve: Way to go. Thank you. Want to hear about it and keep up the work. It's making a difference. The industry is changing. There are more and more professional female musicians, non-binary musicians out there in the wild doing that thing, and we're here for it.