IASPM Canada 2024 Article Prize Winner
IASPM CA
The article positions author Laura Risk’s efforts constructing the Ginger Smock archive as a commentary on evolving areas of study–––including the history of live music, jazz violin, and women of colour in the music industry. The article bridges theoretical examination with community partnership, working in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. The article outlines a possible future for community-engaged, public-facing scholarship in popular music studies.
Beyond the archival work, Risk investigates the intersectionality of race and gender in jazz at the mid-century. Accenting a robust history of Ginger Smock (her career in live and recorded music) is a close-reading of oral history quotes and magazine articles. Risk identifies a narrative of perpetual discovery––in which women in jazz await a big career break which never comes. Risk connects Ginger Smock’s racial ambiguity to the opportunities stolen from her by a deeply racist and sexist music industry.
Risk makes use of archival, feminist, musicological, and ethnic studies methodologies in a tour de force of well-rounded research.