Ann Rabson
RACE
Ann is a white American guitar player who grew up in a family of musicians. During an interview with Monk Rowe, the Director of the Hamilton College Jazz Archives, Rabson shares details about one of her traveling experiences she went to Hong Kong for a two weeks performance and how she felt uncomfortable because none of the band players contracted to play with her were Chinese. The band players were from other countries such as India, Australia, and the Philippines.1 At this time, China was still a British colony.GENDER/ GENDER BIAS
In her early years as a guitar player, Ann Rabson experienced sexist comments from men that would not only question her talent as a female musician, but would also allude to the guitar as being a woman-shaped like instrument or that she should not play it because “it’s got that thing sticking up.”2 One of the iconic experiences for Ann Rabson was being part of an all women band at a time when being a musician was relegated mostly to men. However, Saffire, as the group was called, did not originate with the idea of forming an all women band. Rabson began to invite one of her female students to gigs and later her student began doing her own thing. Soon after, the two women began calling each other about jobs until they felt that they needed another person for a performance in a space that seemed too big just for two musicians. The third person called to join the group was another woman. While we do not know the names of the two other women accompanying Rabson, we must assume that Saffire, as the band was called, was a tribute to the Blues.3INFLUENCE
Ann started to listen to music at a very early age. She was only four years old when she heard a song by Big Bill Broonzy. Her excitement was so well received by her father that since then he began to buy records for Ann. This is in addition to the fact that music ran in her family with her brother playing the piano.4 As Ann got older, her father continued to be an influence. He took her to concerts as a teenager and that is where she first saw a woman singing and playing the guitar.5 The artist also recalls being rejected as a Blues musician when she went to job calls and men would insist that they were not looking for a folk musician even if she explained that she played the Blues. Ann explains that perhaps they did that to everyone, but that she got the feeling that the cause of being rejected was for not going to bed with them.6FAMILY LIFE
Married three times, the artist has been happy with her third husband who really understood and respected her love for music. About her daughter, Ann explains how she had to take her daughter to almost every performance for not being able to afford a babysitter and as a result, her daughter now things to have visited more green rooms than an actual artist.7INDEPENDENCE
Ann Rabson has an advice when it comes to talking about financial and professional independence. Ann encourages musicians to go into the business not thinking that they will be millionaires. In her case, the first thing she did was to buy a piece of land and a trailer to have a place to live. For some time, she also had a day job while she still played at night.8Sample performance:
For full interview transcript, read the following:
1 For more details see, Ann Rabson, interview by Monk Rowe, Hamilton College Jazz Archive, September 21, 2007, lines 731-735, transcript.
2 Interview, line 81.
3 Interview, lines 451-462.
4 Interview, lines 121, 138.
5 Interview, line 69.
6 Interview, lines 88-91.
7 Interview, lines 291, 490.
8 Interview, lines 630-639.
