Righting jazz history

Given the historical focus of jazz journalists on the male jazz world and the propensity for early jazz journalism to be written by and for men, the lack of research on women jazz journalists is not surprising. However, women have been at the center of jazz journalism from the beginning. Their acceptance in the jazz world, however, has been hard fought. As writer Val Wilmer said in her autobiography, jazz writing is ‘something that men did’. This article seeks to address the lack of research that has been devoted to women jazz journalists by focusing on the work of journalists between the 1930s and the 1980s. Focusing on such women writers as H. M. Oakley, Marili Ertegun, Barbara Gardner Proctor, Dorothy Ashby, Val Wilmer, and others, this article will go beyond a reclaiming of these writers’ works and analyze how jazz journalism by female writers is feminist.