Compared with many artforms and music genres, jazz faces a challenging environment; yet it is still managing to thrive. Ivor Widdison and Chris Hodgkins consider some of the key issues facing many jazz musicians.
Just as recent Barbican audiences for the Elliott Carter weekend are unlikely to flock to any of this years Mozart celebrations, so jazz audiences for Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland will not be seen at any Chris Barber concerts. In other words jazz, like classical music, means different things to different people. The happy undemanding nature of traditional jazz guarantees its lasting appeal. By comparison, the music of some of todays avant-garde ensembles is demanding and seldom swings in the accepted jazz sense of the term that is to say, you wont see many feet tapping! It also flirts with atonality, strays into free jazz territory and often employs heavy rock rhythms. There will also be astonishing technical virtuosity. And, of course, in between, as in classical music, there is a substantial body of jazz played in Britain that falls into neither category.
Jazz has its roots in North America. No one denies that. But most contemporary jazz has a strong European flavour, with the influences of other musical forms, especially world and European folk, very much in evidence. In the USA, unsurprisingly perhaps, the Latin American tinge has long been accommodated by most jazz styles. All that said, literally dozens of countries have a claim on jazz; indeed, for those of us who grew up in a decidedly hostile musical climate it is quite moving to read Peter Aspden opining in a recent Financial Times piece that jazz is a magnificent part of our cultural [British] history
Growing audiences
We are continually on the look out for more and bigger audiences our latest (2003) estimate is that around 6 million people have a definable interest in jazz. It is very much better served by radio (though almost exclusively by the BBC) than it was five years ago; and we suspect even more jazz enthusiasts listen via the Internet. Yet it is the good-quality live performance that represents the most fertile ground for the recruitment of newcomers. Despite the profusion of summer jazz festivals, which attract national and international stars, unless you live in the Greater London area or the big cities, your opportunities to hear live jazz are limited. This is where Jazz Services can and does make a contribution with its national touring support scheme, which grant-aids small groups undertaking national tours. Yet that is not enough. There is a pressing need for a national network of small-scale venues dedicated to the support of jazz and other under-represented musical genres.
Precarious existence
The biggest challenge facing both jazz musicians and promoters is staying afloat. We could count on the fingers of our hands the number who enjoy a comfortable living on earnings from jazz alone. By far the majority of promoters are dedicated, enterprising volunteers who are extremely imaginative when it comes to finding venues. They have to be, for no sooner have they established an audience for jazz at a venue that becomes known for its music policy, than the owners of the premises be they pubs, village halls, night clubs, arts centres, hotels can change the policy and out of the window goes the jazz.
The establishment of a live music venue chain is an urgent need. Not only have jazz musicians chosen a music for which pay rarely if ever matches the knowledge, skills and understandings required for effective performance, they also have to be prepared to make music in a variety of settings, not all of which could be considered congenial from the point of view of the committed jazz musician. Fortunately, the education sector, be it schools, LEA music services, adult, further and higher education, examining boards or private tuition, represents fertile ground for supplementary or even primary employment. Indeed, jazz education at all levels is very dependent on this continuing contribution by practising musicians.
A thriving scene
A heart warming example of jazzs robust health was provided by an unlikely source this year when the Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group put on a show featuring three 18-year-old string players from the Brit School, who find their inspiration in the 30s swing of Reinhardt and Grappelli, and a septet drawn from the Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra, entirely at home with boppish sounds that were as relevant and effective in the 60s as they are today (and who, with equal aplomb, backed the ever-youthful Georgie Fame). Of course, they brought the house down, aided and abetted towards the end by one of Britains world-class musicians, Guy Barker, on trumpet. If any further evidence of the continuing vitality of jazz were needed, one would need look only at the number of jazz courses and modules now available at the British Conservatoires and its presence in the Music National Curriculum.
Looking ahead
So how is this music evolving? As a music genre it is of course very new, and, helpfully, much of its development took place contemporaneously with advances in recording techniques. Certainly so far as its European version is concerned, it will continue to absorb a whole range of other musics and it will retain its essential ingredient, improvisation. Yet one other thing is certain. Notwithstanding the power of the major recording companies and distributors, jazz will not be taken anywhere. We would hazard the guess that it is here to stay and on its own terms, for it is of the very essence of jazz that in the long term its practitioners will not be shoehorned into somebody elses mould!
Ivor Widdison is Chair and Chris Hodgkins is Director of Jazz Services.
t: 020 7928 9089
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The organisation promotes the growth and development of jazz in the UK, providing marketing, information, education, publishing, touring and advocacy. Its subsidiary, Jazz Newspapers Ltd, provides a marketing service to the jazz community and publishes a free bi-monthly magazine, Jazz UK.