BBC Young Musician Jazz Award 2014

[Guest]

This was a great evening on Saturday - and we even heard all five finalists playing together with the Gwilym Simcock Trio while the adjudication was going on backstage. So, a beacon of promise for the future, and not a dog versus dog competition. Although the BBC4 tv broadcast isn't until Friday 23 May, the BBC has announced the deserving winner. The judges all said that each of the five finalists had been leading the field at some point during the adjudication, which took about an hour.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/bbc-young-musician-jazz-award.html

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

wow that was a well kept secret!

Paul Bullock, Executive Editor of BBC Young Musician, said: "It’s hugely important that the BBC invests in new talent and we’re delighted this year to have introduced the first ever BBC Young Musician Jazz Award. The talent of the applicants we received was remarkable and a true testament to the quality of jazz music-making going on across the UK at the moment. We can’t wait to watch Alexander and all the finalists as they embark on what are sure to be glittering careers."

in Jazz?

you would not know of the excellent jazz education in our major music colleges if you only listened to R3!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

My band, the "Duke Bluesnik Stomp-Off Seven" has a lady banjoist with a Masters from Pontydaff University. Never once has our phone rung for a gig on R3....or Radio Taff.

The BBC hates jazz...and Wales. And banjo girls.

BN.

[Honoured Guest]

you would not know of the excellent jazz education in our major music colleges if you only listened to R3!

No, it's a good suggestion for a short item on Music Matters or a 30-min feature on Radio 4.

Of course, Young Musician entrants are all too young for music college although they participate in various organised youth activities which could be included in your feature proposal!

[Ian Thumwood]

It's strange to compare this meritorious system of mentoring young talent with the system in the States where musicians seem to come through college programmes. I'm not surprised by the quality of younger players as I have been quite staggered by some of the teenagers I have heard. It is also quite interesting to note just how open minded many of the younger players are both in regard to the broad spectrum of jazz and also the potential for exploring. The tendency is to suggest some kind of programme centred around Duke / Bird / Coltrane/ Miles but the reality is a far broader understanding of what jazz can be.

It is easy to be cynical but I think the reality of what is going on in jazz education is probably more enlightened than you might think.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i am not in the least cynical or doubting the high quality of jazz education in the major uk colleges Ian ... i do believe that it is under reported on R3 and a few mins on Music Matters is not the answer ...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

i am not in the least cynical or doubting the high quality of jazz education in the major uk colleges Ian ... i do believe that it is under reported on R3 and a few mins on Music Matters is not the answer ...

A few minutes? Thats a bit fekin ambitious isn't it? Next you'll be wanting advance playists and respect for the music....

BN.

I'm just pleased when they can say Jelly Roll and not "Jelly Woll" like Roy Jenkins.

[Tenor Freak]

Congratulations to the winner, and good to see that kids still want to play this music, but I feel conflicted about this: mainly that four out of the five finalists attend private music schools. This just seems to reinforce the existing inequalities in our society and education system. Not content with stitching up access to education in Western composed music, now the establishment want to pull the shutters down on jazz too. In the past they shat on jazz from a great height - now they introduce prizes to performers? Progress I suppose, but I just see doors shutting on ordinary kids with the ability to create music for want of access to training and equipment. Taking my own example, it was only because I lived in a particular London borough which had a policy of providing free music lessons and loan instruments that I ever got started on playing music. Where I live now, the parents have to pay for lessons, instruments and examinations.

This may be an inevitable consequence of the move from the chitlin circuit to the academy, but it's rather sad.

BTW I do not blame the kids themselves, well done to them and I hope they can make a go of a "career" playing jazz in the future.