The jazz business was once known as a man’s game. That may, in some ways, still be true. But this March, as Women’s History Month unfolds, jazz clubs throughout New Jersey will come alive with groups led by women.
“It’s a great time for women in jazz,” said Roseanna Vitro, 63, a de facto dean of jazz singers in the Garden State.
Even though offerings won’t represent the full range of the genre — avant-garde groups, big bands and ensembles helmed by instrumentalists will be less than plentiful — female vocalists will be abundant.
Trumpets, in Montclair, for example, is devoting most of its March schedule to groups led by women, among them the singer Sarah Partridge.
Ms. Partridge, a resident of Boonton, said she feels at home at the club, which has a solid track record of supporting women in jazz. Since its founding in 1988 by Emily Wingert, and under the current co-owner, Kristine Massari, Trumpets has featured marquee names like Etta Jones, Angela Bofill and Marlene VerPlanck.
Ms. Partridge, an actress who has worked in television and film, appearing with Tom Cruise in the 1983 romantic comedy “Risky Business,” has a bit of a cabaret background. She performed at the Oak Room at the Algonquin, which closed in 2012, but she received mixed reviews, which Ms. Partridge attributed to mismatched sensibilities.
“There is a line between cabaret and jazz artists vocally,” she said. “Coming from the theater, you’d think I’d have gone the other way. But I found something insincere in the whole cabaret presentation.”
Nonetheless, she said, her Trumpets booking, on March 27, may offer a chance to “build a bridge” between the cabaret and jazz camps. While her jazz chops will be on display — Ms. Partridge is likely to be encouraged in that regard by her pianist, who will be either Allen Farnham or his wife, Tomoko Ohno — she will depart from her typical reliance on standards and draw on originals that reveal her dramatic side.
Her set will include material from her new CD, “I Never Thought I’d Be Here,” which was recorded in Warren by the engineer Paul Wicliffe, who is married to Ms. Vitro.
Ms. Vitro will perform on March 18 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick.
Like Ms. Partridge, Ms. Vitro flirted with Hollywood fame, having made the rounds in the 1980s accompanied by the television heavyweight and jazz enthusiast Steve Allen. She worked in nearly every major jazz club and recorded steadily, receiving a Grammy nomination in 2012 for “The Music of Randy Newman.”
For the Hyatt show, Ms. Vitro will pull material from a number of sources, she said, including the album of Mr. Newman’s songs; her latest CD, “Clarity: Music of Clare Fischer”; and a CD also featuring the pianist Kenny Werner, which is scheduled for a summer release.
She will perform with pianist Jason Teborek, a young pianist, and has decided on opening and closing songs for the set: the wry “Laughing at Life,” made famous by Billie Holiday, and the melancholic “Some Other Time,” from the musical “On the Town.”
Amid the abundance of vocalists, a couple of keyboardists stand out. On March 6, Lenore Raphael, a fluid pianist, will offer a tribute to Oscar Peterson at Trumpets. And on March 26, Akiko Tsuruga, a Japanese organist, will bring her rollicking quartet to Hotoke in New Brunswick.
Ms. Tsuruga, a kinetic presence long associated with the saxophonist Lou Donaldson, said she will draw liberally from “Commencement,” her latest CD, a mix of standards and originals.
The singer Carrie Jackson, will be all over New Jersey in March, performing at least 11 dates in nine venues. Among the highlights will be a trip to Trumpets with her vocal collective on March 15 and her debut at Dorthaan’s Place at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in her native Newark on March 22.
On March 27 she will play the Priory, also in Newark, where she said she will commemorate the birthday of Sarah Vaughan. With her 2013 album, “A Tribute to Sarah Vaughan, Newark’s Own,” Ms. Jackson has become identified with the legendary contralto, who died in 1990.
Ms. Jackson is also an entrepreneur. Her consultancy, C-Jay Recording & Productions, helps young artists navigate their careers.
Such sideline gigs are becoming more common among women in jazz. Beyond her longtime associations with New Jersey City University and other institutions, Ms. Vitro also advises promising musicians. She has set up JVOICE, an online forum for vocalists.
“We’re continuing to work for equality on the bandstand and off,” she said.
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