Evelyn Laurie

“I’ve not done a lot of touring, but I can imagine for a woman…I mean if I was touring with some of the musicians I’ve been working with, I don’t think I would survive!” chuckles Evelyn, even though we both know she’s not joking, “I’ve had situations where a pianist has thrown a chart at me while I’m standing ready to sing because he said it wasn’t in the right key, even though he had played it before.”

Evelyn Laurie’s talent specialises in Jazz, “It’s very male dominated, it has been seen as more of a ‘male area’, but there are more and more female instrumentalists – good female instrumentalists, coming through in jazz.”

Evelyn has had previous careers before becoming a professional musician later on in life. However, in each career, Evelyn has experienced various amounts of sexism. Today, she talks to me over Zoom about her experiences being a woman in the Scottish music industry.

“I’ve had to learn lots of little bits as I go along and I have been on numerous workshops. But I think the worst thing for me is feeling a bit intimidated by all the guys, especially if they’ve come out of music school and they think they know more than you do!”

Asking if she feels as though there is a power imbalance in the industry, Evelyn says

“Yes, but for me, I wonder how much has got to do with being a woman or how much is it to do with me feeling less qualified. Some musicians are lovely, and do everything they can. It’s like life generally, there’s some nicer people than others! But there has traditionally been a lot of sexism where the singer is the canary at the front. Generally, when I’m performing, I’ve put the band together, so it is actually my band, but it is just assumed that you are there to work with them rather than the other way around.”

In 2020, Dr Sarah Raine carried out a report in partnership with Cheltenham Jazz Festival where she discovered that 90% of the female jazz musicians asked had experienced gender-based discrimination. I asked Evelyn what she thinks can be done to help.

“I guess it starts at school. I think it’s maybe encouraging all kids, and maybe girls in particular to get involved in music. I used to not favour positive discrimination but I do think there is a place for it which can be helped with the festivals line-ups, saying that 25% have to be women. I think you do have to put things like that in place until it happens more naturally."

You can find Evelyn Laurie on:

Twitter: @redEvelyn

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EvelynLaurieMusic/

www.evelynlaurie.com