If jazz has been caricatured down the years as an art form populated by an insular bunch of males scratching their beards to decide on the hippest version of My Funny Valentine, one of the most heartening antidotes to that stereotype was Irène Schweizer, the brilliant Swiss pianist who has died aged 83.
Schweizer was a world-class improviser of inventiveness and reflexive group awareness, a lifetime champion of female participation in jazz, and a co-founder of two adventurous festivals as well as a record label.
