Recognition for women composers blooms on Pamela Rose's latest albm

San Jose Jazz’s Winter Series continues Sunday with a can’t-miss Valentine’s Day show for sweethearts everywhere.
Vocalist Pamela Rose will headline the proceedings at 2 p.m. at the Improv, 62 S. Second St. She’ll be backed by a band that includes Kris Strom (saxophone), Tammy Hall (piano), Jeff Massanari (guitar), Ruth Davies (bass) and Dave Rokeach (drums). Expect to hear a healthy selection of tunes from Rose’s latest album, “Wild Women of Song.”
If you haven’t heard the disc, it’s worth investigating … and not merely for the tasty vocals it contains.
As you can gather from aforementioned roster of musicians, Rose has an ear for talented players of both genders. Songwriters, too, as Rose uses “Wild Women” to spotlight, as the cover tells us, “Great gal composers of the jazz era.”
We’re talking such luminaries as Alberta Hunter, Dorothy Fields, Ida Cox and Kay Swift. And then there’s Rose herself, who had a hand in writing “Bruised Around the Heart” and “If You’re So Special.”
The concept grew out of Rose’s decision to record “Just a Thrill,” which was written by Louis Armstrong’s wife, Lil, on a previous album.

I started getting interested in her history as one of the first jazz pianists anywhere. As I performed these tunes by women, who were mostly unrecognized, I found that people truly responded to the repertoire. I was stunned we didn’t know these writers’ names. Dorothy Fields should be as familiar a name to us as Ira Gershwin and Johnny Mercer.

She’s not, of course, a fact that only underlines how women’s role in jazz’s evolution is as historically overlooked as women’s role in virtually every other aspect of American history. Suffice it to say, Rose’s album is a small but eminently worthwhile step toward rectifying that. It’s damn entertaining too.
If you’ve already made Valentine’s plans, bear in mind that Rose has two other Bay Area gigs on the horizon. She headlines Pacifica Performances on March 6 and, more to the point, performs March 21 at a fund raiser at the Jazz Heritage Center in San Francisco. Not at all coincidentally, March is Women’s History Month. Check out the clip below.

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