VARIOUS ARTISTS
La Guitara:Gender Bending Strings

Vanguard

While the recent box set Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar offered a nice snapshot of the breadth of jazz guitarists who have contributed to the instrument’s advancement over the years, one could not help noticing that there are no women represented. Of course, there have been very few female jazz guitarists recorded unless one counts some of the blues performers who were around early in the music’s development or who have come along more recently. Still, one hears little, even today, about talented female guitarists of the past and present. Though a single disc, La Guitara: Gender Bending Strings, compiled by executive producer Patty Larkin does an excellent job of putting the spotlight on some very talented female guitarists.

La Guitara actually begins, not with the guitar at all, but rather with pipa (pronounced pee-pah) virtuoso Wu Man. Pipa is a four-stringed, lute-like traditional Chinese instrument. Man plays both traditional Chinese music and more contemporary works by performers such as Terry Riley and Philip Glass. The track included here, “Invocation” comes from Man’s recording Pipa From a Distance and creates a very contemporary sound world, including as it does samples and audio manipulation by Abel Domingues.

Classical and traditional Spanish guitar have certainly long been considered a masculine arena, but as Larkin points out in her liner notes, “Why were there so many artistic renderings done of women playing parlor and harp guitars in the centuries before the last one, yet there were so few women who actually played?” The implication, of course, is that there were clearly women who actually played, but that they were ignored or marginalized by the male-dominated society and musical establishment, and who could argue with such a point? Listen here to Sharon Isbin, a classically trained guitarist since age 9, a student of Segovia, who has recorded some 25 albums and can readily and beautifully play music ranging from baroque, classical Spanish guitar, jazz fusion, and contemporary styles. Or check out Brazilian Badi Assad, who has assiduously explored the traditions of Brazilian music and now includes more world influences and neo-classical performances like “Preludio e Toccatina,” heard here, in her repertoire. These women provide a clear message that not only is great and innovative guitar work not confined to male performers, it is also unrestricted geographically.

Female jazz and blues guitar heroes are easier to come by these days, but they were always around, though largely unrecognized. Two historic figures who are featured here are Memphis Minnie and Elizabeth Cotton. Cotton surfaced during the folk/blues revival of the early ‘60s. Hailing from North Caroline, Cotton developed a picking and chordal style by laying the guitar flat on her lap. Her “Wilson Rag” demonstrates that she was an accomplished guitarist and folk composer as well. Memphis Minnie is well known as a seminal blues musician who moved from rural Mississipi to Chicago, and the evolution of her music parallels that of the blues themselves. Here she is heard in duet with her husband, Kansas Joe. Rory Block is a modern female blues performer who is widely regarded as a top interpreter of country blues. The very brief “Guitar Ditty 1” demonstrates Block’s mastery of the slide guitar. On the jazz side of things is Mimi Fox, who plays an equally brief selection, “Lady Byrd.” Fox is a fantastic jazz guitarist, equally at home on steel string and hollow body guitar. Her work can remind listeners of jazz guitar greats from Wes Montgomery to Joe Pass and Herb Ellis.

Then there are a number of genre-defying guitarists who just do what they do—and woe to the listener who seeks to pigeonhole them. Kaki King, who comes from Atlanta but currently resides in NY City, uses a highly percussive technique to get a wide array of sounds from her guitar. The track heard here, “Kewpie Station” is probably unlike any solo guitar work you’ve heard before. Ellen McIlwaine has been recording since 1969, and is an acknowledged master of slide guitar. She’s done lots of traditional blues and rock, and her more recent work (including the track here, “Sidu [Grandmother]) brings Indian ragas to the slide guitar, with striking results. Ottowa, Canada native Alex Houghton provides a bold piece, “The Bear” that seems to combine folk, rock, Indian, and bluegrass elements into a piece of music that instantly resonates. Vicki Genfan, Jennifer Batten, and Muriel Anderson all provide ample evidence that there are plenty of accomplished and innovative female guitarists out there, just waiting to be heard.

Then there’s Larkin herself, who, while critically acclaimed, is sometimes more recognized as a singer/songwriter than a guitarist. Her contribution, a new recording titled “Bound Brook” recalls, at times, the dreamy, folk/country/Americana landscape painted by Bill Frisell on several recordings, yet Larkin maintains a sound that is all her own. In addition, Larkin should be commended for putting together this compilation. Though it should be seen as a beginning, not an ending, it is a fantastic compilation for those who enjoy music in general and the guitar in particular. Here’s hoping there’s plenty more recordings to come from these, and other, as yet undiscovered, talented female guitarists.