About the Author

Leslie Gourse is a freelance writer whose books on jazz includeSassy: The Life of Sarah Vaughan, Unforgettable: The Life and Mystique of Nat King Cole, and Louis's Children, an acclaimed history of jazz singing. In 1991, she received an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for a series of articles on women instrumentalists.

Reviews

"[Gourse] knows her topic well....Lively and absorbing."--Jazz Notes
"A major contribution."--W. Royal Stokes, author of The Jazz Scene
"If you know a talented young lady who is seriously dedicated to her art, run--don't walk--to your nearest bookstore and get her this book right away."--Jazz Educators Journal
"If you know a talented young lady who is seriously dedicated to her art, run--don't walk--to your nearest bookstore and get her this book right away."--Jazz Educators Journal
"Gourse describes the serious fight to gain instrumental equality for women in jazz in excruciating detail....This book will encourage young women considering careers as instrumentalists, but it also provides a realistic idea of the price they may have to pay to survive."--Choice
"Gourse deserves a rousing cheer."--The Jazz Report
"The book fills an important niche....And Gourse's...conversational style...lets you feel you're really getting to know the subjects and the challenges they've faced."--New York Post
"[Gourse] is a prolific and respected jazz journalist....[She] diligently brings the scene up to date."--Philadelphia Daily News
"Gourse has dug into her subject and written an informative book about women jazz instrumentalists--both veterans and rising stars, some living, some now deceased....Gourse writes in a straightforward manner--without a lot of pretentiousness--to reveal the struggles and successes of female jazz players. She imparts with sympathetic understanding and in detail the myriad trials and tribulations these jazz and pop women musicians have faced....The author knows
her topic well....Gourse is an accomplished writer who doesn't get too bogged down in details. She keeps her topic lively and absorbing. This is a book not only for the jazz purist, but one that may
entice more women into joining the predominantly male ranks of raving fans....A solid stepping stone from which to launch future research on the unfinished careers of some of these jazz instrumentalists. It takes a women to do it. Gourse has done it well."--Jazz Notes
"Leslie Gourse is one of the few published women writers who has truly embraced our music, and its players, with love. It's great to have Madame Jazz. Although I am aware of the discrimination, it is enlightening to read the perceptions of the women discussed. I believe that this book can help male jazz players be more cognizant of how their actions can be perceived, even when they're unintentional. Any woman who has the desire and can perform at the
level of the major league players should be given the opportunity. One can only hope that as we approach the new century, acts of discrimination will cease to exist for all women in jazz. Let the music speak for
itself."--Rufus Reid, Jazz Bassist
"Leslie Gourse's Madame Jazz, thoroughly researched and a major contribution to jazz historiography, incidentally calls attention to a circumstance rife with irony, to wit, that while jazz was a leader, six decades ago, vis-a-vis integrating the races, it has been shamefully dilatory in demolishing the barriers long ago erected to keep women instrumentalists out of the music."--W. Royal Stokes, author of The Jazz Scene: An Informal History from New
Orleans to 1990 and Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson
"Timely and important...(Bobby McFerrin's manager) Linda Goldstein is a true contemporary, a parade leader in a group of women coming to the public attention."--Lorraine Gordon, owner of the Village Vanguard
"Leslie Gourse's interesting and worthwhile Madame Jazz recounts the tribulations and rewards of several contemporary women instrumentalists, from relative newcomers like Jane Ira Bloom and Joanne Brackeen to veterans like Marian McPartland and Shirley Horn."--L.A. Daily News
"Gourse...brings lots of energy and knowledge to this upbeat survey of contemporary women jazz musicians."--Booklist