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sai-national.org • WINTER 2018 • PAN PIPES 11 In addition to her composing, Mary Lou Williams also founded her own music publishing company, Cecilia Music, and entered the ranks of many female jazz composers who were to do so. She also had a weekly radio show for WNEW in New York, which she used as a forum to introduce her new compositions to the public. Toshiko Akiyoshi (1929- ) was born in Manchuria and raised in Japan, where her interest in jazz was nourished by playing piano in Tokyo coffee-houses with various groups. She eventually formed her own jazz combo in 1951. By the mid-1950s, she was considered Japan's leading jazz pianist, and she had begun to write music for her own ensembles. Shortly thereaer, she came to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music. Aer she le Berklee, she remained in the United States, but faced some challenges being accepted in the jazz world. Although her talent as a performer and composer was generally acknowledged, being female and Japanese, she was considered more of a curiosity than anything, and was relegated to the fringes of the jazz scene. She spent the 1960s touring in both this country and in Japan, where the Tokyo International eater commissioned her to write a composition in 1963. e next year she wrote the score for a Swedish film, e Platform. Akiyoshi began to find an affinity for the big band ensemble and focused much of her composing energy in that direction. In 1967 she felt it was time to present her compositions to the public, and used her own money to finance a concert at Town Hall in New York City. Support from her native Japan made it possible for her to issue her first album with big band, Kogun, in 1974, and it became one of the biggest all-time jazz hits in Japan. e 1970s found Akiyoshi incorporating elements of Japanese music into her compositions, as well as forming her own recording label, Ascent. Her interest in manipulating sound, as well finding inspiration in extra-musical elements and stories, allowed her to expand the jazz idiom. Her music is known for its complex timbral colors that focus on vertical harmonies and woodwind sounds. She continues to compose, perform, and conduct while residing in New York City, reminding us of her legacy as a pioneer in leading her own ensemble dedicated to playing her own works. Carla Bley (1936- ) is a primarily self- taught pianist and composer. Born in Oakland, California, one of her earliest compositions was a set of variations on "Onward Christian Soldier," which was not too surprising as her father, a church organist, was her only source of musical training as a young child. Later as a teenager, she had an early musical experience playing piano at a club called the Black Orchid, then moved to New York, partly because she had a strong desire to visit the Café Bohemia and hear Miles Davis. She had become especially interested in modern jazz aer listening to Teo Macero's album, What's New?, released in 1955, and had found his approach to improvisation and harmony more avant-garde than was common in most of the jazz currently being heard. Upon her arrival in New York, she found a job as a cigarette girl at Birdland, where she got to hear all the jazz greats of the time. Her first mature composition ("O Plus One") appeared on Solemn Meditation, a 1959 album by Paul Bley (her first husband). Carla Bley's music is hard to categorize. Although it is primarily set in the jazz world, it can also be described as ird Stream, post- modernist, or experimental. Some of her early works included very short pieces without bar lines or time signatures that could be used as a basis for improvisation. One, "And Now, the Queen," consists of a four-bar melody that repeats, changing meter in every measure. In addition, it is written with no key signature and a lack of traditional harmonic structure. Later, her first extended project for specific players, "A Genius Tong Funeral" (released on an RCA album of Gary Burton's), was a combination of written notation and sections allowing free improvisation. Humor and parody have a prominent role in her body of work. For example, her album Fancy Chamber Music, although basically jazz, parodies the sound and forms of contemporary classical music. Its accompanying booklet includes fake ads for made- up luxury items such as watches, and imitates a classical music program in its choice of typeface and layout. In addition to her continuing contributions as a composer of almost 300 works and performer of her own jazz music, Bley has also made an impact in her field by maintaining control of her own professional endeavors (she co-founded a recording studio and label, Watt Works, and also publishes her works through her own Alarm Music Company) and being one of the founding members of the Jazz Composers Guild in 1964, which aimed to support non-commercial, avant- garde music. Although short-lived, it led to the founding of the Jazz Composer's Orchestra, which focused on performing symphonic avant-garde jazz. Alice Coltrane (1937-2007) was born in Detroit and began her musical training as a classical pianist at an early age; she was also a church pianist during her teen years. However, aer being introduced to jazz by her older brother, Ernest Farrow (who became one of Detroit's finest bassists), she discovered that this was where her passions were. In 1960-1962, she performed in Detroit jazz clubs, becoming the leader of a sextet, which played her arrangements and compositions. Her compositional technique was adventurous, going beyond what was considered typical for bebop jazz and being influenced by the Bley Coltrane WOMEN IN JAZZ

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