El Paso Jazz Hero
Amanda Ekery is a quiet warrior in the world of jazz. She works tirelessly on her craft as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, but beyond her own music brings people together by amplifying their personal voices. She has provided opportunities to those committed to the growth, evolution and advancement of gender equality within jazz’s national and international communities.
Ekery is the founder of El Paso Jazz Girls, a nonprofit organization that offers young female-identified jazz musicians support in receiving and training, work and encouragement needed to thrive in their craft and in their careers. She is most recently engaged in the ongoing genealogy research/composition project Árabe, focusing on Syrian immigration to El Paso and Mexico and the influence of this cultural mix on film, food, local economies and music. With the Syrian Ladies Club of El Paso, Yale research scientist Mark Eggerman and her family, she gathers artifacts and writes lyrics towards the creation of an interactive exhibit for El Paso.
Splitting her time during the past several years between her Texas non-profit and her advanced studies or teaching positions in Northeastern schools, she has also become a researcher and author. Her lecture “Exclusion and Pushout: Females in Jazz Education” opened the door for her to speak at the International Women in Music Leadership Conference, and her book Arranging for the Solo Jazz Vocalist: A Workbook That Isn’t Boring insightfully and engagingly exemplifies her understanding that women in jazz need training and techniques to succeed through their instruments. Her research papers “Syrian Female Musicians: The Last One Hundred Years,” and “Female Bandleaders: Stories of Perseverance, Discrimination and Grit” are rare looks at the historic contributions of a seldom recognized population.
As well as being adept in promoting educational equity and passionate about diversity, Ekery is gifted in being able to balance composing and presenting her music with selfless recognition and support of others’ talents. She makes it look effortless, while effectively pushing jazz forward.
Her album Keys With No Purpose, which examines and responds to the injustices of sexism in the jazz industry, earned her a St. Botolph Club Foundation Artist Award. As Assistant Director of Academic Affairs for the New School Jazz program, she has sought out talented faculty to teach visionary curriculum, and helped the Berklee College of Music Jazz and Gender Justice Institute, Mutual Mentorship for Musicians and Winter Jazz Fest organize the January 2022 “This is a Movement” symposium. For her efforts to create support systems, she has received kudos and funding from Chamber Music America, New Music USA and the Jerome Foundation, among others.
Amanda is generous, caring, intelligent, resourceful, successful and kind. Her demeanor is stable and inviting; no one can truly know how she holds so many irons in the fire while replying to people’s needs quickly and gracefully. She courageously and constantly considers the needs of the collective force that is jazz. She’s an amazing role model, to whom we are indebted and grateful. The most important thing to understand and acknowledge about Amanda Ekery is that she is a Jazz Hero. — Jordannah Elizabeth
