Voices from the Jazz Wilderness
Voices from the Jazz Wilderness
Locating Pacific Northwest Vocal Ensembles within Jazz Education
Since their emergence in the Pacific Northwest nearly four decades ago, vocal jazz ensembles have flourished, creating a regional focal point of innovative performance and pedagogical practice at both the secondary and collegiate levels. The quality of this vocal jazz community is widely recognized, but attempts to identify with both the Western choral tradition and mainstream instrumental jazz place these ensembles at odds with each parent tradition. This chapter traces the development of Pacific Northwest vocal jazz ensembles—such as those led by Hal Malcolm and John Moawad—and examines aesthetic dissonances underpinning vocal jazz's orphan-like status, including deeply entrenched musical, cultural, and gender biases within educational institutions and conventional jazz narratives.
Keywords: jazz, vocal jazz, jazz choirs, Hal Malcolm, John Moawad, Pacific Northwest, gender
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