Seriously, please!

[french frank]

I'm just going through Radio 3's Statements of Programme Policy commitments for 2012/13 and see:

"We will continue our wide cultural breadth, for example by supporting a young musician from Columbia in the World Routes Academy, and refreshing our jazz programming"

Could some kindly jazzer please outline what has been refreshed - or changed?

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm just going through Radio 3's Statements of Programme Policy commitments for 2013/14 and see:

"We will continue our wide cultural breadth, for example by supporting a young musician from Columbia in the World Routes Academy, and refreshing our jazz programming"

Could some kindly jazzer please outline what has been refreshed - or changed?

Alyn Shipton shipped over to JRR

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

nowt yet .... Jon3 has been delivering the goods of late though ... reinventing might be more like it for the rest! very sleepy in fact - JRR is what it is; Geoffrey phones it in and JLU is variable in quality [sometimes excellent sometimes less so] and JLU does get awfully clobbered by the Met/Wagner &c ... who ever is responsible for jazz at R3 [as opposed to on air] is doing a pretty poor job imho ... oh and did i mention pre-broadcast info lack of?

[Tenor Freak]

Well I think they've redesigned the webpage to be even more unnavigable

[Quarky]

I have noted there may have been an increase in Jazz-influenced Classical Music, particularly on Hear and Now. Obviously a Contemporary composer could hardly escape from listening to a lot of Jazz.

but that is Classical music, and I think most Jazzers would regard it as too far away from the Jazz world to be able to regard it as some new type of Jazz. I hope therefore that R3 programmers are not regarding this as a substitute for what appears to be an inexorable reduction in Jazz broadcast.

There is also an amount of Jazz played on Late Junction, particularly by Fiona Talkington. But is it fair to expect the Jazz aficiniado to scan the playlists for individual jazz items?

[french frank]

But is it fair to expect the Jazz aficiniado to scan the playlists for individual jazz items?

I don't think it is. In fact, if the 'Late Junction programme concept' doesn't appeal, no one is likely to scan the playlists and then tune in for a 10-minute burst of Indian classical music, or an interesting contemporary piece.

And I don't think either of Oddball's points sound much like 'refreshing the jazz programming'. There was a vague suggestion (somewhere?) that some of the rearrangement of the opera output would mean less disruption for Saturday jazz programmes - but even that doesn't seem to have been very consistent.

PS Gwilym Simcock will be on In Tune on 28 April and the Michael Wollny Trio ditto on the 29th 'ahead of their gig at the Vortex in London' (it says here).

[Honoured Guest]

The recent (7 Apr2014) BBC media centre release on jazz helpfully outlines Radio3's jazz output:

"BBC Radio 3’s commitment to jazz encompasses four weekly programmes devoted to the genre. On Saturday afternoons, Alyn Shipton presents listener’s requests from across the jazz spectrum in the station’s long-running Jazz Record Requests (Saturdays, 5-6pm); Jazz Line-Up (6-7.30pm) showcases performances from across the UK, alongside specially recorded sessions and interviews; and Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz (midnight-1am) explores the great writers, singers and players of the genre. In Jazz On 3 (Mondays, 11pm-midnight) Jez Nelson presents the pick of today's jazz, recorded live in concert, interviews, CD reviews and in-depth features. Radio 3 also features a jazz musician in its line-up of New Generation Artists - saxophonist Trish Clowes."

As already said, the format and content policies of the regular programming didn't change in 2013-14. The "refreshment" may mean the mid-year bringing forward of Jazz Line-Up to 6pm Saturday from 11pm Sunday. This was announced (13 Sep 2013) as making "weekend jazz programming more consistent" as "Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz will remain in its usual 12midnight–1am Saturday night slot, meaning that jazz lovers will have a regular Saturday night offering of jazz, with Jazz Record Requests unaffected by opera schedules."

I don't know whether that recent reference to "Jazz On 3 (Mondays, 11pm-midnight)" was just a mistake, or whether it may have been a slip-up pre-announcement that the programme will lose 30 minutes from its weekly slot from next season.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Well I'm very "refreshed"...since I moved to France Musique and no longer listen to Shaun et Suzanne Banality 24/7....

Coffee, Calvados et Late Coltrane....woz not to like....


BN.

[french frank]

Thanks for that reference, HG. I will look through it. In fact, now that I've checked, the SOPP I was quoting in the OP was for 2012/13 not 2013/14 (I'll edit it) - so the verb 'refreshed' was being used in the common BBC way to mean 'moving the furniture'. I think that would have meant dropping Jazz Library and swapping GS for AS, with GS's Jazz as the replacement.

Interesting terminology: "Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz will remain in its usual 12midnight–1am Saturday night slot, meaning that jazz lovers will have a regular Saturday night." The R3 schedule has it down as Sunday morning ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

well if they nick 30 mins off Jon3 they are taking the proverbial ... it is the only programme doing a serious job of finding and displaying current jazz [one might mention that JLU on occasion does this; but JLU is unpredictably broadcast and unpredictably poor]

Bonjour EL Senor Blues Puis-je vous joindre dans un grand verre ou deux?