DIVA Jazz Orchestra

By Bob PROTZMAN

 “Why Women Musicians Are Inferior’’ and “Why Women Can’t Play Jazz,’’ blared the bold faced headlines in the 1930s in two of jazz’s most prominent publications of the day, Down Beat and Metronome.

Today, drummer Sherrie Maricle, leader of the all female, 15-piece DIVA Jazz Orchestra, still expresses disbelief that such an attitude existed, even all those years ago.

“I’ve gotten to read the articles,’’ she related in a phone interview from her New York apartment, “and they were so ridiculous. They said things like women could never play brass instruments because they’d mess up their lipstick, or they couldn’t blow hard because it would distort their faces, and no one wanted to see a woman grimace.’’

Yes, she says, the articles were serious, not tongue-in-cheek.

When Maricle moved to New York City around 1985 looking to launch a career in jazz, she quickly found out that some male musicians held many of the same attitudes.

Even today, someone who should know better will “compliment’’ Maricle and DIVA by saying something like “You guys sound so great, almost like a real big band.’’ Yes, Maricle admits, she would like to slug the speaker.

Maricle, who will lead DIVA in concert on April 6 at Edinboro University (the concert is cosponsored by JazzErie), says she would much rather talk just about the music and not gender. “I’m not a wild, off the wall feminist, but I do believe in equal rights.’’

Maricle’s most emotional experience with the unequal treatment of women jazz musicians came at a brass conference-honoring trumpeter Clora Bryant. “I hadn’t heard of her, and when I saw film clips, and realized what a great player she was, I burst into tears,’’ recalls Maricle. “If she was this great and no one knew about her, I felt certainly there were others like her who were overlooked.’’

Maricle, 42, has survived indignities (being asked to remove her t-shirt in order to join a jam session) and other barriers to proudly lead a universally acclaimed big band that almost no one denies—at least publicly—is the equal of most or all its male counterparts.

In fact, today (March 30) Maricle and DIVA will observe the 13th anniversary of their first performance.

In that time, Maricle and DIVA have popped up in the magazine polls, and the band’s website (www.divajazz.com) is full of rave reviews and critics’ quotes like one of her favorites from the esteemed writer Nat Hentoff:  “If there were still big band cutting sessions, DIVA would swing a lot of the remaining big bands out of the place.’’

DIVA has recorded five CDs, the newest being “TNT: A Tommy Newsom Tribute’’ (Lightyear), and they’ll be backing vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway on her next CD due in stores in August.

DIVA also is one of the few non “ghost’’ big bands touring today, with stops all over the U.S. and around the world.

Its performances abroad likely are at least partly responsible for the international flavor of the band. There are players from Australia, Austria, Israel and two from Japan.

“We’ve played in all those countries, so we’re sort of making sure that we visit the homelands of our players,’’ says Maricle.

Ironically, DIVA owes its existence to a man. He’s Stanley Kay, a former manager and backup drummer for the Buddy Rich band.

In 1990, Kay conducted a band that included Ms. Maricle. Impressed with her playing, he wondered if there were other women musicians with her kind of talent.

Kay conducted a nationwide search, and two years later, had located a core group of players for what he named the DIVA Jazz Orchestra.

Maricle also leads a quintet called Five Play. It, too, records—the latest is “Plus’’ (Arbors)—and tours (though not as often), and enjoys critical and commercial success similar to DIVA’s.

Maricle believes both bands serve as role models for girls and women. “The role models so many others and I never had,’’ she says.

Born in Buffalo and reared in nearby Endicott, Maricle decided at 11 that playing drums is what she wanted to do when she saw drum master Buddy Rich’s band. “Think of how it feels to fall in love, the adrenaline rush, the butterflies, that all-encompassing feeling. That’s what happened to me.’’

As a jazz drummer, Maricle remains a member of a rather exclusive club. Terri Lyne Carrington and Cindy Blackman are probably the best known among a half-dozen or so female jazz drummers.

Multi-talented, Maricle is much more than a drummer and band leader. “I don’t like to rest,’’ she claims.

She is Dr. Maricle, with a Ph.D. in Philosophy in Jazz Performance/Composition earned in 2000 from New York University.

She performs regularly in Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops, and is the orchestra’s director of education. She also teaches at her own drum studio and for the New York State Summit Music Festival.

As a clinician (she will hold a master class at Edinboro), she created and teaches a special children’s program called The Rhythm, Rhyme and Rap Workshop. Finally, she is a published classical and jazz composer/arranger.

Maricle says she didn’t become a jazz musician to prove a point, although the inequality between men and women in jazz still rankles her.

“No, as with just about everyone else involved in jazz,  I am passion-driven,’’ she says.

She’s encouraged by what she sees as progress for women in jazz. “I think awareness is growing that women can play as well as men, and I think DIVA is a big part of that. Here’s a band of 15 people who can play incredibly great. That has to make an impression.’’

Sherrie Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra

8 p.m. April 6

Louis C. Cole Auditorium, Edinboro University

$15, adults; $10, seniors and JazzErie members (100 tickets are available to JazzErie members for $5 on a first-come basis); $5, non-Edinboro students and children; free to Edinboro students and faculty

Tickets available online at www.edinborotickets.com, at the University Center on campus, and at the door

Information at (814)-732-2518

Maricle will conduct a free master class at 2 p.m. at the Cole Auditorium
 
Bob PROTZMAN writes about jazz for Down Beat and other publications, and hosts “Everything Jazz,’’ 9 to midnight Sundays on WQLN-FM, 91.3. E-mail him at protz@verizon.net.