MIGHTY MUSICAL CHICAS
Monae Clancy, Abby Aska,
Melissa Walker, Emily
Springer and Whisper McRae
GIRL POWER THROUGH CHICA POWER
E
ight years ago at Jazz House summer camp, Melissa Walker asked a talented young alto saxophonist named Zoe Obadia about her experience
playing in the big band, and was surprised at her answer: “I wish there were more girls here.”
“Zoe was very accomplished and advanced and had lots of friends, and I’m thinking she’s going to tell me how amazing it all is,” says
Walker. “But the lack of other girls was the first thing on her mind.”
So Walker started inviting female musician friends — Anat Cohen, DeeDee Bridgewater, Michelle Rosewoman, Ingrid Jensen — to talk to
the camp’s handful of girls. “Anat came out in tears,” says Walker. “She herself didn’t realize the pent-up energy she had from playing in a genre largely
dominated by men.”
Shortly afterward, CHiCA Power was launched with a handful of girls in a free residency program on spring Saturdays. Today, 50 girls from nearly
20 school districts participate year-round. Since the inception of CHiCA Power, the number of girls in Jazz House Kids programs has jumped from
7 percent in 2012 to over 30 percent today, a 250 percent increase, says Walker.
The group is gaining national attention. Early this year, the young women gave a performance and presentation on CHiCA Power at the Jazz
Education Conference in Reno. The group has expanded to include female mentors from outside the music world; the CHiCA Power Rise and
Improvise summit in April included a panel of women in male-dominated fields such as airline-piloting, surgery and real estate development.
“CHiCA Power is about giving the girls empowering female role models along with the musical skills, tools and peer community they need to do
their best work,” says Walker. “Their confidence is boosted because they’re getting emotional support and friends and a safe place to practice their
skills. It gives girls a feeling that they have a right to be on stage.”
A few years ago, Walker says, girls weren’t around, or were playing in the back room. “Now, those girls are up there, they’re on the main stage,
they’re ready. And they’re role models to other young women.”
Case in point is Zoe, the young sax player who lamented the dearth of girls in Jazz House programs: She’s now inspiring other girls as a teaching
assistant to Wynton Warsalis at Juilliard.
on the grass,” she says. “It was a
gorgeous Saturday and the families
started to come with their picnic
baskets and blankets. People walking
through the park sat down to listen
and I thought, ‘Oooh, this is a jazz
festival!’”
This summer, about 12,000 people
will trundle lawn chairs and picnics
to Nishuane and cover every inch
of grass to hear giants of the genre
— Oliver Lake, Eddie Palmieri,
and Walker’s husband of 14 years,
the six-time Grammy winning bass
player, composer and bandleader
Christian McBride.
The free nine-hour Jazz Festival
will cap 10 days of concerts and pro-
grams, including a jazz crawl, dance
party and live-streamed concerts. For
the first time, there will be a backup
venue, the Wellmont Theater; last
year, an extraordinary amount of rain
and flooding caused the cancellation
of the normally rain-or-shine event.
But the real stars of the festival,
and its raison d’etre, will be Walker’s
Jazz House Kids, and her newest
baby, CHiCA Power. These young
be-boppers, ages 8 to 18, are the next
generation of jazz greats, and Walker
and her staff make sure they are nur-
tured, mentored and polished at the
nonprofit’s 40,000-square-foot space
in downtown Montclair.
Like the festival, Jazz House Kids
started small in 2003, when the radio
station WBGO asked Walker to do
a kids’ program on air. She came
up with the idea of asking the kids
to strap on virtual tool belts and
“build” a jazz house, beginning with
the drummer as the foundation and
adding the various jazz instruments,
while talking about the function of
each, along with melody, harmony
and rhythm.
Today, about 100 students from
close to 20 school districts form the
20 different ensembles and three big
bands that hone their skills at JHK
MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE MAY 2019
37