Val Wilmer facts for kids

Valerie Sybil Wilmer (born on December 7, 1941) is a British photographer and writer. She is known for her work on jazz, gospel, blues, and British African-Caribbean music and culture. Some of her most famous books include Jazz People (1970) and As Serious As Your Life (1977). Her book about her own life, Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This: My Life in the Jazz World, was published in 1989.

Early Life and Music Discovery

Val Wilmer was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England. Her family had moved there from London because of World War II. She is the sister of the poet and writer Clive Wilmer. After the war, her family moved back to London.

Val's journey into the world of jazz began when she was young. She listened to old jazz records and learned about important musicians from books like Shining Trumpets by Rudi Blesh. At just 12 years old, she would visit a record shop in south London. There, she would search through jazz records to find music she loved, like songs by Bessie Smith and Fats Waller.

By the age of 15, Val started writing about Black music. She was encouraged by writers like Max Jones. Her mother often went with her to concerts, as Val was still very young. Val felt grateful for her mother's support. It allowed her to explore her interests freely, even when many young girls were told they had limited choices for their future.

Writing About Music

Val Wilmer understood the early history of jazz and blues music. She began writing about jazz and other African-American music, often focusing on the social messages within the songs. Her very first article, about Jesse Fuller, appeared in Jazz Journal in May 1959. She was only 17 at the time.

Val often wrote letters to American musicians she admired. She was amazed that many of these famous artists would write back to her, a young girl in England.

When Val started writing in 1959, the world of music writing was mostly for men. She realized it was challenging to be a woman in this field. It was also unique for a white woman to focus on Black music. Through her work, Val learned a lot about different cultures and people. Her dedication to music helped her grow and understand how people can change and grow. Her writing helped create a conversation between different cultures and races.

Since 1959, Val has interviewed hundreds of musicians. Her work has been used in many books, articles, and films. For example, her interviews with Earle Warren and Thelonious Monk have been used in biographies about these musicians.

Val also became known for her interviews with saxophonists Joe Harriott and Ornette Coleman. She wrote about how musicians like Thelonious Monk changed their style over time. She noted that his music became easier to listen to, but it was still deep and meaningful.

Her articles often showed the unfairness that Black artists and women faced in the music world. She would use the musicians' own words to highlight these issues. For instance, she quoted Memphis Slim talking about how record companies made it hard for him to have his own publishing company.

Val always kept jazz history important in her writing. She sees herself as a devoted listener and admirer of music. She even interviewed brothers Albert Ayler and Donald Ayler for a journalistic project. She later came to admire Albert Ayler as a major jazz visionary.

While jazz and blues are her main focus, Val also writes about other music styles. For example, she wrote about how Jimi Hendrix's visit to England in 1966 brought new energy to the music scene there.

Val has written for many publications, including Melody Maker, DownBeat, Jazz Journal, and The Guardian. She often writes obituaries (articles about people who have passed away) for musicians.

Jazz People (1970)

Val Wilmer's first book, Jazz People, was published in 1970. It is often called one of the best books ever written about jazz. The book features interviews with American musicians like Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Archie Shepp. Kirkus Reviews noted that the book focuses on the personalities of these musicians, their feelings, and their goals.

The Face of Black Music (1976)

Val Wilmer is also a very important photographer. Her book The Face of Black Music (1976) is filled with her photographs. Like Jazz People, this book is considered a very important and influential text in music writing.

As Serious As Your Life (1977)

Wilmer's book As Serious As Your Life, published in 1977, is seen by many as a classic jazz book. Its title comes from something musician McCoy Tyner told her: "Music's not a plaything; it's as serious as your life." This book was one of the first to explore "free jazz" and the musicians who played it. It also looked at the experiences of women in African-American communities related to this new jazz style. The book was reprinted in 2018.

The music company Serious, which organizes the annual London Jazz Festival, was partly inspired by Val's book. John Cumming, the founder, said the book made him think deeply about jazz.

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This (1989)

Val Wilmer's book about her own life, Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This: My Life in the Jazz World (1989), tells the story of how she grew as an artist and journalist. Robyn Archer wrote that the book is a unique social history of music and shows the development of a strong woman.

Other Projects and Archives

Val Wilmer has written articles about Black British musicians from the 1940s and 1950s. She has also written about photography. She was part of the advisory board for The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2002) and wrote 63 entries for it. She also wrote the foreword for John Gray's book Fire Music: A Bibliography of the New Jazz, 1959–1990. She has written over 35 articles for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

The British Library Sound Archive holds 35 of Val Wilmer's interviews with Black British musicians and women musicians. Val has also collected many old photos of Black people in Britain. Some of these photos have been shown in public exhibitions. She is working on a project to research the lives of Black British musicians, which she has been documenting for many years.

Photography Work

Val Wilmer is a very important photographer, just as she is a writer. She has photographed hundreds of singers, jazz musicians, and writers. Her famous photos include those of Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, and Duke Ellington.

Her photographs were shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in 1973. They are now part of the V&A's photo collection. Her photos are also kept at the National Portrait Gallery.

Val has written about photography and interviewed other photographers like Eve Arnold and Roy DeCarava. In the 1980s, she put together an issue of Ten.8 magazine that focused on the work of African-American photographers. Val's photos have also been used with music albums, like in the booklet for Honest Jon's London is the Place for Me no. 4 CD.

In 1983, Val Wilmer and Maggie Murray started Format. This was the first photography agency in Britain made up only of women photographers.

In 2013, a large photograph by Val Wilmer of Ronnie Scott was put up outside Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. It showed him smoking a cigarette and included one of his famous jokes.

Val's work was also part of the Esquire Cover Club, a digital exhibition for the London Jazz Festival in 2020.

In November 2023, a special exhibition of her work called Blue Moments, Black Sounds – A Retrospective opened in North London. A photobook called Deep Blues 1960–1988 was published to go with the exhibition. It shows a striking collection of African American blues musicians and their communities.

Collections of Her Work

Val Wilmer's photographs are held in many important collections around the world. These include the Arts Council of Great Britain Collection, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Fotografiska Museet in Stockholm, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York.

Awards and Recognition

In 2009, Val Wilmer received a Parliamentary Jazz Award for her contributions to jazz.

In July 2017, she was featured in "The Wire Salon: An Audience with Val Wilmer" at Cafe Oto.

Many people say that Val Wilmer is as important as the musicians and music she has documented. She was the subject of a BBC Radio 3 program called Sunday Feature: A Portrait of Val Wilmer, which aired in March 2018. She was also featured on BBC Radio London as a "Listed Londoner."

In 2019, Val Wilmer received the Lona Foote/Bob Parent Award for Career Excellence in Photography at the 24th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards.

In 2020, Val Wilmer became a Patron of the National Jazz Archive.

In October 2023, Val Wilmer was interviewed by Cerys Matthews for The Blues Show on BBC Radio 2. She talked about musicians she met and photographed, like Muddy Waters and Aretha Franklin. Val had also appeared with Cerys Matthews on a 2018 BBC Four TV show called Blues and Beyond.

In February 2024, she was a "castaway" on BBC Radio 4's famous program Desert Island Discs.