MUSIC - MARCH 24, 2004

It’s ladies night: ‘A Celebration of Women in Jazz’ comes to Wharton

By LAWRENCE COSENTINO

Let us sing a song of Sunny Wilkinson. Lanky, sinuous, radiant, she locks into the essence of a song like a mantis stalking a juicy cricket. Feelers quivering, every nerve on high alert, she bends her torso into an arched alphabet of emotion, her finger jabbing the air. Finally, she seizes her prey with a bold leap or sudden turn that surprise everyone, sometimes even her.

Courtesy photo

Sunny Wilkinson (above) will be performing with other female jazz creators ay Wharton.

A Celebration of Women in Jazz’ 8 p.m. Friday, March 26, at the Pasant Theatre in the Wharton Center. Tickets are $15 general admission/ $10 students. Tickets are available at the Wharton Center box office or by calling (517)432-2000.

This Friday, March 26, Wilkinson will perform in an unusual quartet setting that will showcase her talents to exceptional advantage, along with the artistry of three other top-notch female jazz artists. “A Celebration of Women in Jazz ,” at the Pasant Theatre in the Wharton Center, will feature bassist Marion Hayden, pianist Ellen Rowe and drummer Gayelynn McKinney in an evening of original compositions and standards associated with great female jazz creators. The evening will showcase instrumental trio music as well as Sunny Wilkinson’s vocals.

“All of these women are phenomenal musicians,” Wilkinson said. She and her colleagues have come together not only to make music, but also to fill a crying need in jazz education. In 1995, Wilkinson and Hayden started the innovative Sisters in Jazz mentoring program, now a major force in the jazz world.

“It’s a tremendous program,” enthused Wilkinson. “It’s grown from a Michigan mentoring group into an international collegiate competition, with the winners playing major jazz festivals and touring Europe.”

Wilkinson got the idea for Sisters in Jazz after observing a depressing trend among female jazz musicians. “I looked around and I saw young girls in middle school and high school, playing first chair in their jazz bands,” she said. “And then, all of a sudden, there was this attrition rate into the college bands, and even more so into the professional groups. These women didn’t have many role models.”

So Wilkinson and Hayden developed a strategy to fill the glaring gap. “We auditioned young women around the state, and we took six girls and hooked them up with professional women in their vicinity. The idea was to establish a relationship for a lifetime.

“Two of the mentors were Gayelynne McKinney and Ellen Rowe,” added Wilkinson, naming the other two participants in Friday’s concert. “So we’re very caught up together in this.”

The mutual admiration among the four women is a joy to behold. “Marion is just one of the most swingin, groovin’ girls,” said Wilkinson of Hayden. “When you’re playing with her, you can lean right back — you know there’s no question about the time. And she’s a wonderful writer. I’m learning one of her original pieces — we’re going to perform it at the concert.”

Wilkinson reserves special awe for pianist Rowe, a full-time professor who directs the jazz big band at the University of Michigan. “Historically, that’s about as big of a man’s job as you can get — nothing more macho than a big band. And here’s Ellen, directing, writing, arranging.”

Wilkinson and Rowe have even done duet concerts, an exercise in intimate musical rapport relatively rare in jazz. “We have the most lovely, intuitive musical vibe,” Wilkinson said. “I’ve written lyrics to four of her pieces, and will probably do several of those at the concert.”

Drummer McKinney is also a multi-faceted artist. She plays piano and sax, and composes tunes of her own. Her drumming style has been described as a composite of swing, funk and African polyrhythmic elements, and she boasts an eclectic list of collaborators that includes Erykah Badu and Arrested Development.

With an innocent inch of column space left, we dumped one last, thermonuclear question on the founding Sister — why aren’t more women creating jazz? “It’s not in my personality to dwell on the negative,” Wilkinson said. Although the topic has served as grist for entire academic conferences, root-canals of fault-finding are not the ebullient vocalist’s style. “I have not chosen to delve too much into that aspect of it,” she declared emphatically. “It’s more in keeping with my personality just to try to do a small something about it.”

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