New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers ed. by Terri Lyne (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers ed. by Terri Lyne Caity Gyorgy New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers. Edited by Terri Lyne Carrington. Boston: Berklee Press, 2022. 184 pp. For years, jazz fake books contained tunes almost exclusively written by men. The occasional woman’s name might be spotted, such as Bernice Petkere, Ann Ronell, or Dorothy Fields, but for the most part, printed songbook resources were a boys’ club. This is why reading through New Standards as a woman is so inspirational and validating. It is much more than a fake book: despite the subtitle stating that the book includes “101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers,” many of the compositions are arranged and feature intros, added rhythmic and harmonic notation, and endings. Traditionally, lead sheets are fairly bare-bones and do not include added musical material. The inclusion of arrangement ideas provides a more personal experience with the compositions and with the women who wrote and arranged the music. For example, Geri Allen’s composition “Unconditional Love” (p. 30) includes an intro with instructions for a left-hand piano rhythm, a bass melody, and directions for when certain instruments should start playing. These instructions continue into the “Head” section of the piece with melody and comping cues for the pianist indicated by “Piano L.H.” in measure 10 and “L.H. Comping Simile” in measure 14. Carmen Lundy’s composition “(I Dream) In Living Color” (pp. 154–155) also features a detailed intro that includes piano voicings, rhythmic hits, and a horn cue. This horn cue is particularly interesting because lead sheets in The Real Vocal Book do not include horn cues.1 In Ingrid Jensen’s composition “Higher Grounds” (p. 14), she has included modal information at specific sections of her piece. For instance, the intro is marked with “Phrygian” before the first measure of music even begins. Similarly, in measure 13 of the A section underneath the C♯-minor-13 chord, she has indicated “Aeolian.” Having this modal information allows the improvisers to better understand how the composer thought about the harmony, even if they choose to interpret it differently in their improvisation. The tunes are organized into thirteen subgenres: Blues, Bop, Even 8ths, Graphic, Groove, Medium Swing, Odd Times and Mixed Meters, Post Bop, Slow/Ballad, South American/Afro-Cuban/Global, Three-Four, Up Tempo, and Vocal. The categorization of sub genres provides readers with easy access to new styles of music with which they might not be familiar and gives them a good jumping-off point to explore more music from each genre and artist. It highlights that women are a part of—and have always been a part of—these styles. New Standards features compositions from different generations of musicians, demonstrating the presence and importance of women throughout the history [End Page 104] of the music. From the early to mid-twentieth century, with women such as Lil Hardin Armstrong, Melba Liston, and Marian McPartland, to the mid- to late twentieth century, with Geri Allen, Carla Bley, and Alice Coltrane, and all the way up to the current generation, with Camille Thurman, Esperanza Spalding, and Cécile McLorin Salvant, the wide generation span tells a story in itself and demonstrates the evolution of the music throughout its history. Women have always been a part of the music: despite historically being reduced to footnotes, we have never stopped creating and sharing music. In addition to the representation of different generations and subgenres, the pieces included in New Standards use a variety of instrumentation. The inclusion of different instrumentalists gives young women who play these instruments a chance to see themselves represented not just as players but also as composers. Even young musicians who play more niche instruments such as clarinet or harp will find themselves represented in a way that they might not in other jazz resources and fake books. This plethora of instrumentalists and vocalists reveals that many women whom we associate with live performance are also avid writers, demonstrating that two musically creative roles are not exclusive. As a vocalist, I wish there were a few more vocal selections in the book. Lyricism plays an important role...