The Women in Jazz organisation tell us their story...
Jen Wilson was asked to contribute to a Womens History Conference - American Sisters - during the Miners Strike of 1984/5. The resulting lecture on American jazz women with films clips and interviews was a success and shortly after she was asked to contribute to another on British women in jazz.

It was apparent after 18 months that a Women's Jazz Archive should be set up. As jazz was - and remains - the voice of rebellion, Jen felt it important that women's contribution to the politics and social history of the music in Wales was uncovered. Interviews were undertaken, and donations of recordings, memorabilia, stage gowns, books and journals mounted up. For those 15 years the archive was a labour of love and took up an increasingly large space in Jens home.

In July 2000 Jen received a Swansea Citizenship Millennium Award, which enabled her to mount the ROOTS Exhibition at the Dylan Thomas Centre. ROOTS depicted the history of the music from the Anti-Slavery Campaigns and rallying songs of the 1820s, to the spirituals of freed slaves who visited Swansea in 1874 and left a lasting legacy behind.

In 2001 Grants were secured for equipment and together with the support of the City & County of Swansea, who offered space within one of their office buildings in the Maritime Quarter, the archive became Women in Jazz Swansea. Home now to a voice for Wales and the world, with a brief to promote the life and times of jazz women through Education, Integration, Performance and Discovery. In August 2003 Jane Minton was appointed as Jazz Development Worker with funding from the Arts Council of Wales for one year.



Women in Jazz contributed eight panels to the 'Let Paul Robeson Sing' Exhibition, which moves to Liverpool and then on to South Africa.
The STEPPING OUT Exhibition, touring Wales, depicts the untold story of Women and jazz in Wales. Women in Jazz perform music from the exhibition panels and tours multi-media presentations. WIJ also host Black History Month events during October which offers a platform to performers in its Tribute to Black Music.

In order that the Welsh story of jazz and its women pioneers become part of the jazz establishment, papers have been given at academic conferences in the UK and America, which have included the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History (their next conference takes place in West Virginia in 2004).

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To contact Jen Wilson or Jane Miton at Women In Jazz you can email them at enquiries@womeninjazzswansea.org.uk.