by Giovanni Russonello
Editorial board

This Wednesday, star drummer and D.C. native Allison Miller will bring her hard-hitting fluidity to the Atlas Performing Arts Center, sounding the opening shot of the second annual Washington Women in Jazz Festival.

There is much to recommend this year’s festival. It’s a seven-day extravaganza, with widely varied performances occurring across all of the city’s four quadrants. There will be a show every night, sometimes two a day. And festival organizer Amy K. Bormet, a pianist and vocalist who plays every Monday in the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, has made variety the main motif: She’ll be spotlighting vocalists, instrumentalists, even tap dancers – and whereas last year’s festival consisted almost entirely of weekly performances at Twins Jazz, this time around no two shows occur at the same venue. (Find the full schedule with links to CapitalBop’s calendar listings at the bottom of this article, or click here for the WWJF website’s version.)

As Bormet explains in the interview below, her mission with the WWJF is to demonstrate how deeply female performers have integrated themselves into the jazz world. While she’s at it, she hopes all the female faces on the bandstand will encourage more women to become involved as listeners.

CapitalBop: The WWJF is a bit of a different operation this year. Things are both expanded and condensed: The shows are in a bunch of different venues, but they’re happening over the course of just one week. In terms of the venues, what made you decide to spread the wealth?

Amy Bormet: I wanted stuff to be more accessible, so that people could come at different times, for different price points, and see different kinds of things: tap dancing, vocals, big band. Allison Miller, Ingrid Jensen. [Jensen performs in the festival’s only Baltimore show, this Thursday.] I’ll have stuff for both jazz aficionados and people who are new to jazz. I’ve used every quadrant of the city, and picked some of my favorite D.C. venues….

CB: What are the benefits of giving all those points of entry?

AB: I really want to attract more women to jazz, in terms of not only playing the music – as we’re doing with the Young Artists Competition – but also bringing the audience in. A large portion of the [jazz] audience tends to be male. I think part of the problem is that there aren’t enough women on the bandstand that the audience can identify with. So that’s what I wanted to do: bring in women, bring a younger crowd, have events where you could have your kids, too. We’re doing Westminster [Presbyterian Church] – that’s, like, the most kid-friendly spot ever. There’s macaroni and cheese in the basement! I wanted it to be open to a much broader audience than the typical jazz festival….

CB: And then how did you decide to condense it into a single week?

AB: The weekly thing was cool last year, and that gave me a lot of time to breathe in between and put all the materials together and promote each event separately, but this time I really wanted to have something I could hit people over the head with. It really is a force that can’t be ignored when you have a solid week of awesome jazz events…. It’s more of a traditional festival. And [it accommodates] people who want to come from out of town.… I’m hoping that with the cherry blossoms, there will be a lot of tourists in town, a lot of people who can leave D.C. knowing that we have really good female musicians and a really good jazz scene here.

CB: Something on the upcoming schedule that piqued my interest was the Ladies Night with the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra. You’re taking something that’s already established as a fixture on the jazz scene – in this case, the Monday night performance of the BCJO – and adding some x chromosomes to it. The idea here seems to be, “We can do this as a female thing without changing its identity entirely.”

AB: First off, I would never schedule anything against my precious Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra. So, of course, I wanted to bring all those cats in. And I also wanted the people who are normally there in the audience every week to get something really special, while also bringing in an outside crowd. It’s double exposure, both for the band and for the female artists. And I think it’s also important to concentrate on other aspects: A lot of jazz women have been remarkable arrangers, and [BCJO co-director] Brad Linde was interested in performing charts from Mary Lou Williams and more from Maria Schneider. It just all came together nicely.

CB: What did you learn last year and how have you applied those lessons to organizing this year’s festival?

AB: Last year, I didn’t really know how to be a manager and how to ask other people for help in putting something huge together. And this year, making it even bigger and having even more people and venues to communicate with, I had to get some more help. Obviously, my incredibly good-looking husband [guitarist Matt Dievendorf] has been a lot of help, and he’s done a lot of design and flyers and the website and all those kinds of things for me. I’ve also got some interns; they’ve been fabulous, Tweeting and Facebooking and picture-taking and all of that….

CB: I see a lot of people on this year’s schedule whose stars are rising in the D.C. jazz scene – in part thanks to exposure they got in last year’s festival. Who are you most excited about introducing to us?

AB: I’m hyper-excited about my Young Artist Competition, and I’ve got six people coming for that – four vocalists and two instrumentalists. I’m really excited about it, and it’s all women under 21. They’re mostly in high school, and some are in college.

CB: How did you put that together?

AB: Mostly from people that I know who teach in the community. Also, I put up some stuff on the website, and I had my interns Tweeting and contacting local schools. I had a form that you could fill out on the website, and you had to submit a SoundCloud clip. I listened to the clips and picked the finalists, and now I’ve got some finalists….

They’ll be backed up by me and Lydia [Lewis on drums] and Karine [Chapdelaine on bass]. Afterwards, we’ll have a big open jam session. I really want the whole community to come out and really support these women, and check out the new troops on the closing night of the festival.

Schedule

Click an event to read the description

• Wednesday, March 21: Allison Miller at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 8 p.m. ($20)
• Thursday, March 22: Ellen Rowe, Ingrid Jensen, Mary Ann McSweeney at An Die Musik (Baltimore), 8 & 9:30 p.m. ($20)
• Friday, March 23: Shannon Gunn & the Bullettes, Westminster Presbyterian, 6 p.m. ($5)
• Saturday, March 24: Rhythm Summit feat. Lydia Lewis Trio & Tap Dancers, BloomBars, 8 p.m. ($10)
• Sunday, March 25: Jessica Boykin-Settles’ Tribute to Abbey Lincoln, Anacostia Community Museum, 2 p.m. (free)
• Sunday, March 25: Vocal Showcase feat. Howard U. Alumnae, The Hamilton, 7 p.m. ($20)
• Monday, March 26: Ladies Night with the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, Bohemian Caverns, 8 p.m. ($7)
• Tuesday, March 27: Young Artist Competition and Jam Session, HR-57, 7 p.m. ($10, $5 for musicians)

Comments

comments