The Jezebel Flute: Female Flute Players, Black Feminism and "The Masculine Jazz Spectrum"

This thesis explores concepts of Black feminism and sexism in Jazz, and the gendered perception of the flute. Historically, women instrumentalists have been excluded from the Jazz canon. While scholars have documented the lives and music of successful women Jazz instrumentalists, almost none have written about female flute players. In order to understand the lived experiences of these musicians, I conducted seven interviews with professional female flute players from around the world. I examined primary sources from Linda Dahl’s interviews, as well as scholarly analysis from Nicole Rustin-Paschal, Sherrie Tucker, Sarah Pellegrinelli and Sally Placksin. The global context provided by my interviewees’ testimony created a new data set which I compared with current scholarship on women in Jazz. This research led me to three conclusions. First, I developed the concept of “The Masculine Jazz Spectrum” which explains the perceived range of instrumental and artistic roles in the Jazz ensemble from most masculine to most feminine, the most feminine being the vocalist. Second, I find that the flute resides closest to the vocalist on this spectrum, as the flute is generally perceived as feminine due to its pitch and cultural association despite its history of being largely performed by men. Finally, the flute’s proximity to the role of the vocalist exaggerates the hyperfeminization and hypersexualization of its player, and thus the kind of harassment female flute players experience in Jazz is based around those dynamics, rather than exclusion or competition, as is the case with women who play more masculine instruments, like the trombone. This is an interdisciplinary thesis that responds to concepts analyzed through my debut album, “Jezebel: Rewritten”. This album attempts to encapsulate my experience as a Black female flute player, and draws inspiration from the testimony of the women I interviewed and my extensive research. It is passionate, unique and inquisitive.

Read final paper here.