Jamie Akers ist nicht nur ein großartiger Interpret und Gitarrist, sondern auch ein Kenner der Geschichte der Gitarre. Dabei nimmt er als einer der wenigen Protagonist*innen der Gitarrenszene eine kritische Perspektive auf die gängigen Narrative ein. Einen Eindruck davon gibt der Begleittext zu seinem Album „Le Donne e la chitarra“ (siehe unten).

Das Album widmet sich drei außergewöhnlichen und lange Zeit unbeachteten Komponistinnen für Gitarre: Emilia Giuliani, Catharina Josepha Pratten und Athénaïs Paulian. Das Album ist abwechslungsreich zusammengestellt, auf romantischen Gitarren eingespielt und farbenreich und detailvoll interpretiert. Die Sei Preludi Emilia Giulianis und die Variationen Athénaïs Paulian sind um die anderen Werke herumgeflochten und bilden so einen Rahmen für die unterschiedlichen Kompositionsstile.

Das Album enthält außerdem einen außerordentlich klugen Begleittext. Hier nur ein kleiner Ausschnitt:

In Segovia’s narrative, his own work and career are uniquely significant to the history of the guitar. He allows for few colleagues or contemporaries but has the capacity to embrace numerous devoted disciples. Being a proud Spaniard, the country of his birth became the home of the guitar and the works of its nationalistic composers, the core repertoire. Because of Segovia’s exceptional achievement, fame and strength of character, few questioned this narrative. It became the prevailing mythos of the classical guitar, emotionally invested in by aficionados, revived and repeated in newspaper articles, books, television documentaries and radio programmes, swallowed whole and regurgitated by a willing audience, in thrall to the simple rags-to-riches tale of individual genius and indomitable will.
Segovia’s story conveniently fits into the great men mode of traditional narrative history, creating a clear causal progression of events through time, dominated by powerful individuals. Akin to the conventions of fiction, this method of interpreting the past avoids the emotional discomfort of confronting the complex reality that underlies human experience, with its unpredictable events and chance encounters, and credits all outcomes to human agency.
To reflect on humanity’s preference for clear linear narratives is not to cast aspersions on Segovia himself, whose vision and artistry communicated to millions, but is to observe the unfortunate outcome an oversimplified view of history can have on those left behind.

[…] If the conventional historical narrative of the guitar caused the neglect of a great deal of music, the composers featured on this recording suffered the added adversity of being women in a male dominated world. They were overlooked by history, occasionally referenced, footnoted as anomalies but rarely championed or performed. However, to say these women lived lives devoid of appreciation is to do an injustice to their times.