Gender perspectives of instrumental jazz performers in southeastern Europe

Abstract

I investigate constructed social platforms for female jazz instrumentalist, with a particular emphasis on the Balkan cultural space of Southeastern Europe (former Yugoslav countries). In this region, female jazz instrumentalists are confronted with multiple systems of rejection, facing double standards of the Balkan social-ideological patterns, typical for the patriarchal tradition, reproduced and incorporated within a micro context of the already gendered music genre. I analyze the image of female jazz instrumentalist in the public cultural space where jazz is created and consumed. This study presents autoethnographic testimonies as a subjective point of view.