Julia Keefe on Mildred Bailey, Indigenous Big Band and Navigating Misogyny

Julia Keefe (Nez Perce) is an internationally acclaimed Native American jazz vocalist, actor, activist, and educator currently based in New York City. You’ll hear how her Indigenous Big Band project started, the history behind jazz in Native American communities and inspiration from Delbert Anderson to Jim Pepper. A special influence in her life has been Mildred Bailey and you’ll be hearing some clips from Julia’s Mildred Bailey Project album throughout this podcast; the track names are in the timestamps. Mildred was a very important figure in jazz and Julia is also working on a film about her life and career. Julia spoke about some of the sexual harassment she has experienced and how she was affected by the experience of sexual assault by a professor when she was in graduate school. She opened up about how she got through that time with the support of her vocal teacher Jo Lawry . In the shadow of this challenging time, Julia shared some fascinating specifics into how her voice teachers Jo, Theo Bleckmann and also Kate McGarry helped push her artistic and expressive boundaries, and later what a transformative experience it was to be mentored by Esperanza Spalding.

Julia’s identity as an Indigenous jazz musician shapes her creative life in so many affirming and inspirational ways; I’m so happy to share this meaningful conversation with you.

Complete Show Notes

In the show notes: links to other suggested episodes, newsletter, buy me a coffee, podcast merch, link to Indigenous Big Band video, transcript and of course Julia Keefe's music!

Julia Keefe website

photo: Don Hamilton

(00:00) Intro

(02:38) Indigenous Big Band, Delbert Anderson

(10:21) clip of Jim Pepper’s “Water”, video linked in show notes

(12:24) Mildred Bailey Project

(14:19) clip of “Thanks for Memory" track 8

(15:08) Mildred Bailey Project album release

(18:10) Mildred Bailey with clip of Rockin’ Chair opener track 1

(25:28) clip of track 9 Rockin’ Chair, Mildred Bailey film project with Lily Gladstone, Gary Farmer

(39:23) clip of track 2 “Lover, Come Back to Me” Sterlin Harjo film “Love and Fury”

(41:51) linked episodes and ways to support this podcast

(42:56) Jim Pepper

(49:06) Julia’s childhood, Kamia, learning Nimipuutimt

(55:00) residential schools bands history

(01:00:24) Master’s at Manhattan, Kate McGarry, Jo Lawry, Theo Bleckmann

(01:05:35) personal challenges including sexual assault, support of Jo Lawry

(01:19:11) Esperanza Spalding mentorship