So why another jazz blog? Jazz is alive and doing wonderfully by itself after all. There are tons of musicians performing great music all over the planet. But, what we are losing is the audience to listen, and the venues in which to perform this inspiring music.
So what can we do? The North of England is actually a pretty good area to see and hear jazz - we have more than 25 regular jazz clubs a dozen jazz festivals, two jazz Music Conservatoires at Leeds and Manchester and many many fine musicians and bands big and small playing in all sorts of jazz genres and styles. Places like the Sage in Newcastle show that public funding can still provide great spaces for jazz.
But (that word again) we need to do more. The main promoters in the region are co operating through a network, NorVolJazz, to promote the music in the North and encourage it to grow. Our collective challenge is to use our limited resources to encourage people to listen to jazz and come out and enjoy themselves hearing it played live.
So that's the reason for the blog - you'll hearing, well, about live jazz in the North. It will include information about who's playing, what is happening and will be about the live music and performance. It'll hopefully be pretty eclectic, will cover all the region plus you won't just be hearing from me! Watch this space...
Steve Crocker
No comments:
Post a Comment