Jo Ann Cheatham: The concept behind Jazz: The Woman’s Viewpoint was… the International Women in Jazz was elitist, and they were also not African American, and Roslyn Blair, who was also a founding member of CBJC [Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium] (and was a member of [Club] Jest Us), didn’t like that. She was angry that she felt [International Women in Jazz] didn’t give enough highlight to the grassroots people. So she decided she was going to have this panel discussion to talk about that; she got women who were wives and family members of musicians to talk about the music and what they had experienced; that’s how we came together.

When Roslyn passed I produced a program that had Joanne Brackeen, Melba Joyce, Bernice Brooks (a drummer here in Brooklyn)… At Roslyn’s [Blair] funeral, Alma [ Carroll] said that we would always have that program as part of our permanent program. I was always annoyed that no one ever talked about the women behind the musicians. That’s why in every issue of Pure Jazz [magazine] I have a column called Jazz Woman, a woman who does not play an instrument or sing, and the column is founded in the spirit of Nellie Monk. Every issue of Pure Jazz you’ll see a woman who is behind the scenes.

Now you have parlor jazz in Brooklyn. Marge Elliott, who used to take care of Andy Kirk – and she lives in the Andy Kirk building, which is at 555 Edgecombe Avenue – she gives a concert every year at the Morris-Jumel Mansion every year in late August, in honor of her son who was killed. She gives a free concert and pays the musicians out of her pocket. These are the women behind the scenes; those people never get talked about but they still perpetuate and promote jazz.