Val Wilmer
| Born | Valerie Sybil Wilmer 7 December 1941 Harrogate, England |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Writer-photographer |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 1959-present |
| Subject |
Jazz Gospel Blues British African-Caribbean music and culture |
| Relatives | Clive Wilmer, brother |
Valerie Sybil Wilmer (born 7 December 1941, Harrogate, England) is a British writer-photographer, specialising in jazz, gospel, blues, and British African-Caribbean music and culture. She is the sister of the poet and writer Clive Wilmer.
Wilmer began her life in the jazz world by listening to pre-World War II recordings of jazz classics, being led to many important recordings through Rudi Blesh's Shining Trumpets, a history of jazz, and Jazz by Rex Harris. Wilmer became entranced by recordings by Bessie Smith ("Empty Bed Blues") and the singing of Fats Waller – going to the Swing Shop in Streatham, South London, at the age of 12, combing through the jazz records until she found something she wanted to hear.
Three years after these explorations in sound, Wilmer began writing about Black music, encouraged and inspired by Max Jones, Paul Oliver and others. She attended concerts accompanied by her mother, who believed her too young to go on her own. Wilmer states that it was a “tribute to [her] mother's tolerance" being allowed to explore her interests so freely, especially during a time when little girls were often informed of the limitations of their own future options: "Little girls, we are often told, want to grow up to be ballet dancers ... I don’t think it ever crossed my mind to consider the usual female options, resolutely opposed as I was to anything that smacked of feminine pursuits and did not involve going places, being and doing."
Aware of the earliest records of jazz and blues, Wilmer began to write about jazz and other African-American music, focusing on the political and social messages of the music. Her first article (a biography of Jesse Fuller) appeared in Jazz Journal in May 1959 when she was still only 17. Reflecting on how this piece originated, Wilmer states: "I was an inveterate letter writer, that's how the break with Jesse Fuller came about, me writing to him out of the blue. Woe betide any American musician who was foolish enough to have a contact address published somewhere — I'd find it and fire off a letter. The amazing thing was really, I mean really, that so many would reply! These great musicians and characters from a black culture on the other side of the world writing back to this young suburban white girl in England."
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