Interview by Todd Matthews

The Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra (SWOJO) has been highlighting the performance skills of leading female jazz artists in the Pacific Northwest since spring 2000. Featuring high intensity jazz, tight harmonies, and lush, dynamic sounds, the orchestra performs with a fresh, poetic enjoyment that thrills audiences. The band will be performing at Jazz Alley in February before departing for Lima, Peru in the spring, where they will perform at the Lima Jazz Festival. I recently met with SWOJO's co-founder, Barbara Hubers-Drake, and artistic director, Dr. Daniel Barry, to talk about the group.

TODD MATTHEWS: How did the Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra receive an invitation to perform at the Lima Jazz Festival?

DANIEL BARRY: I have been traveling to South America every year on composer-in-residence projects. I've found really receptive audiences for my own music down there, and I seek out opportunities. I'm a member of an organization called the International Association of Schools of Jazz. Through that organization, I've been plugged into a community that is really international and has a healthy approach to the whole art of jazz. As you probably know, jazz is often much more receptive abroad. I played at the Lima Jazz Festival last year. Their Web site had a real predominance of young female musicians. It seemed like it might be a good fit. The initial contact I made with the artistic director in Lima was positive. He said, 'This is exactly the kind of thing we are trying to do.'

SWOJO Co-Founder Barbara Hubers-Drake
+ + photo courtesy SWOJO + +

TODD MATTHEWS: When an individual hears the name 'Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra,' he or she most likely thinks of an all-female jazz band. Yet, you have a male musical director, a couple guys are in the band, and men and women write many of the compositions you perform. Is it more about promoting women in jazz? Is it more about just playing good music? Or is it a little bit of both?

BARBARA HUBERS-DRAKE: I think it's both of those things. I would hate to have kind of an all-girls club. The idea behind music is getting it out there. We are always going to be predominantly female. That's our role. But if it benefits the orchestra to have a male or two . . ..

DANIEL BARRY: That's not unhealthy at all. Our drummer Scott Fry is a perfect fit for the group. He plays big band style of drumming that really suits the whole dynamic of the orchestra. I can't think of anybody who would be better. Whereas other big bands that have played there have been overpowering, and it's hard to hear from the stage. The other thing that's really true for me from a musical and artistic standpoint is that the whole big band in-your-face kind of thing is not what I am about. The lack of testosterone brings a potentially more artful, sensitive and appealing music. You want to balance it all, and have another side to the music that is intimate. We have the capability of doing that to a very high level. A certain aesthetic that we get just dynamically may be different from your average big band. We communicate perhaps the intimate side of repertory literature in a more powerful way than the in your face, show-time entertainment part of it.

BARBARA HUBERS-DRAKE: I'm not even sure I think it's a testosterone thing. When were setting up the band, both Ellen [Finn, SWOJO co-founder] and I became musicians late in life. I quit music for twenty-five years, and then went back. We both found that, not only were we the only women in the classes we were going to, but we were also older. We were like everybody's mother. I think the vision we brought to the band was one of squashing the testosterone thing and supporting the community building.

The Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra (SWOJO) will be performing live at Jazz Alley on Monday, February 10, 2003 at 8:00 p.m. To learn more about SWOJO, visit the group online at http://www.swojo.com.

This article originally appeared in Tablet