About Rachel

The Jazz Post began as a project to combine my two passions: my piano and my pen. The two are getting even more similar as I venture into each of them – they’re simply two different mechanisms of communication. Writers like Joyce Carol Oates, pianists like Thelonious Monk, and pianist-slash-writers like Marian McPartland all have one thing in common: they succeed at carrying on their unique inner voices. I started this blog with the purpose of searching for my own voice in mind, but it’s taken me much further. It’s sat me in jazz clubs, introduced me to bright personalities, and connected me to great jazz writers, musicians, and leaders. But perhaps the most important thing The Jazz Post has given me is a glimpse into the world that I aspire to be an integral part of: the jazz community — its writing and its music.

A bit about me — I’m a seventeen-year-old senior at West Ranch High School in Valencia, California; I’ve been involved in its jazz program as a pianist since my freshman year of high school. I often find myself heavily involved in two separate fields: on one side concentrating on what my community has to offer in regards to jazz, especially with my close proximity to CalArts, and on the other editing the prose of the high school yearbook and leading its literary magazine as editor-in-chief. As much as I enjoy juggling the two separately, it’s combining them here to what you’re reading now that I love the most. Whether it’s exploring the minds of great female jazz leaders, sitting at the bell of Jimmy Heath in the Blue Note Jazz Club with a pen and pad, or competing with my high school jazz band, exploring the jazz world and bringing it back to you here has and will continue to provide me with the most influential experiences I can imagine.

There are several questions that are heatedly debated upon in the jazz community, some of which include — where is jazz headed? are females represented enough in today’s jazz? how can we make it more popular? Although these questions remain unanswered, I can still help you search for the answer to this one: how do we make jazz relevant and accessible to the younger generation? What you’re reading here at The Jazz Post is told from the perspective of an avid listener and aspiring musician from this very generation — this is jazz from the perspective of a high school student.

Rachel Cantrell

Follow me on Twitter @thejazzpost.

Contact me at rachelc@ thejazzpost.com.