Val Wilmer - Early Life

Early Life

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 the discography of Brian Rust". 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 twelve, 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, attending concerts accompanied by her mother, who believed her too young to go on her own. Wilmer states that it was a “tribute to 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.”