We've assembled a reading list of titles of multiple genres on a variety of topics and subjects, but all related to Jazz and the women who've contributed to this incredible art form.
All purchases are through REPARATIONS CLUB— a Black-owned, woman-owned, independent bookstore in Los Angeles, CA.
Whether you purchase here or elsewhere, we encourage you support local, independent businesses in your community.
- Thank you, TWN
Special thanks to '22 Mentor Lara Pellegrinelli for sharing this curated reading list.
- TWN
LARA PELLEGRINELLI
Lara Pellegrinelli is a freelance journalist and scholar with bylines in The New York Times and the Village Voice. She has been the commissioned writer for Columbia University's Miller Theatre and its Composer Portrait series since 2018.
Pellegrinelli began reporting locally in New York for WNYC and producing segments for its daily music talk show, SoundCheck. She has been a contributor to NPR's arts coverage since 2008, reporting stories that have been heard on Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. From 2011 to 2014, she was the coordinator for educational outreach and audience development for NPR's Live from the Village Vanguard and wrote regularly for A Blog Supreme. In 2021, Pellegrinelli led a team of reporters in a data analysis of the NPR Music Jazz Critics poll, published on NPR Music as "Equal at Last? Women In Jazz, By The Numbers."
An ethnomusicologist by training, Pellegrinelli received her Ph. D. in music from Harvard University. Her dissertation, "The Song is Who? Locating Singers on the Jazz Scene," is the first ethnographic study of jazz singing. She currently teaches at The New School in New York City.
Jazzwomen, 1900 to the Present: Their Worlds, Lives and Music
by Sally Placksin
Available via online retailers and resellers.
Available for pre-order at Routledge and online retailers
ARTICLES
By Lara...
Women in Jazz: Blues and the Objectifying Truth, National Sawdust Log
Dig Boy Dig, The Village Voice
Naomi André: Engaging Black Experience in Opera, National Sawdust Log
On Gender Bias...
BU Research: A Riddle Reveals Depth of Gender Bias, Boston University
What Art by Neanderthals Teaches Us About Our Own Gender Bias, Hyperallergic
Other things Lara is reading...
‘He made sure that she got nothing’: The sad story of Astrud Gilberto, the face of bossa nova, Independent
Why the Word “Forgotten” Isn’t Helping Women Artists, Hyperallergic
Beyond Jazz...
How the jumprope got its rhythm by Kira Gaunt