The corporatisation of jazz

[Jazzrook]

A few choice quotes from Daniel Spicer's excellent article in The Wire(January 2014) about the corporatisation of jazz:

"Tune in to Jazz FM and your ears will be smeared with a smooth, homogenous blend of soul and R & B.... the soporific purr of Helen Mayhew's 'Dinner Jazz'.... Jazz FM operates a strictly songs only policy in order to appease and reassure advertisers.... the Love Supreme festival presents Jools Holland's infernal boogie-woogie and the bland horror of the Bryan Ferry Orchestra to middle class twits standing in a field wearing straw trilbies and eating overpriced strawberries. The mainstream press - writing for exactly the same order of moneyed, middlebrow chatterers as those who attended Love Supreme - lavished praise on the festival.... EFG who sponsor the London Jazz Festival is a Zurich based private banking institution that offers 'the tax-efficient structuring, protection and transferral of wealth' - a euphemism for tax avoidance.... this corporate backing is slowly killing the music it claims to support".

[Ian Thumwood]

It is gradually happening at Vienne but t5he genuine jazz musicians are still tneding to perform. What was disappointing this year was that the CLub de Minuit didn't put on so many edgier acts as in the past.

I'm not too surprised by the British jazz scene but the London Jazz festival seems to be one of the best in Europe for genuine jazz. Don't understand why Jazzwise is writing about a festival that features Bryan Ferry as this clearly has nothing to do with jazz. Probably a problem unique with the marketing in this country which has rarely fully supported jazz ? Not too fussed about5 Jazz Fm even in Helen Mayhew is a genuine jazz fan and you can still (unt5il 31/12/13) hear her play more contemporary tracks on her dinner jazz programme on the radio. She plays quite a bit of ECM stuff and when edgier players are feat5ured, they almost always perform ballads. Granted she plays a lot of lame stuff like Get5z and Paul Desmond too but I think it is an ok listen for about an one.

[Quarky]

Agree completely about Jazz FM. The Breakfast show on R3 is more likely to play an interesting jazz item than at least the day time programmes of Jazz FM -that is hardly ever.

But part of the problem is the splintering of Jazz directions in currently active Jazz groups. There is no longer a single way ahead from Jazz mainstream - trustees of the mainstream being represented by Calum, BN, etc. Instead we have Tenor Freak working with current pop music as his basic material, Trish Clowes going into words and music, Brad Meldau into Jazz Fusion, the back to basics New Orleans movement, Free Jazz which covers great multitude of directions, but perhaps Wayne Shorter being the star group, etc.

So i have sympathies with the organisers of a Jazz Festival. they are unlikely to find a common theme as basis for the acts.

But even more sympathy for the newcomer to Jazz. Getting hold of the current Jazz movement(s) requires a hell of a lot of serious listening.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Hey Man, are you from the Cool School?".... "Hell No! The Frankfurt School!"

BN.

Adorno - "The Culture Industry"

[Ian Thumwood]

Oldball

I agree in part with your argument. From my own experience, jazz festivals tend to be quite structured. Vienne has nights of contemporary / mainstream jazz featuring the better known names and established voices but will mix this up with nights featuring European jazz, big band jazz, Cuban jazz, blues, singers, etc, etc. I feel that the jazz audience is quite underestimated and have witnessed myself huge audiences turn out for the likes of Esperanza Spaulding just as she broke in to the big time. Jazz fans seem very astuate at identifying what is "happening" and what has very little to do with jazz. Promoters, I feel, often under- estimate what is happening in the music.

JazzFM is quite perculiar. I listen from time to time although I prefer listening to the football when I listen to the radio. They have a strange perspective on jazz but the way th music is presented does make most of it's play list seem bland.

[Tenor Freak]

A few choice quotes from Daniel Spicer's excellent article in The Wire(January 2014) about the corporatisation of jazz:

"Tune in to Jazz FM and your ears will be smeared with a smooth, homogenous blend of soul and R & B.... the soporofic purr of Helen Mayhew's 'Dinner Jazz'.... Jazz FM operates a strictly songs only policy in order to appease and reassure advertisers.... the Love Supreme festival presents Jools Holland's infernal boogie-woogie and the bland horror of the Bryan Ferry Orchestra to middle class twits standing in a field wearing straw trilbies and eating overpriced strawberries. The mainstream press - writing for exactly the same order of moneyed, middlebrow chatterers as those who attended Love Supreme - lavished praise on the festival.... EFG who sponsor the London Jazz Festival is a Zurich based private banking institution that offers 'the tax-efficient structuring, protection and transferral of wealth' - a euphemism for tax avoidance.... this corporate backing is slowly killing the music it claims to support".

That sounds like a contemporary version of the First Circle of Hell.

[burning dog]

Could have been written years ago nothing new. The best comment I heard about Jazz FM was "I quite like the music they play, except for the stuff they call Jazz.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I had WWOZ New Orleans on Christmas morning!

So slooooooooow/laid back I thought the presenter had died! Coltrane, Oliver Nelson, Arthur Prysock, Milt...and NO message from yo' queen.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

It seems like the digital radio stations are dropping like flies. When they were introduced the suggestion was that there would be a broader range of music available yet , if you flick through the dials, the remaining stations seem to offer safe pop music. Whilst they have different names, the diet of these stations is identical.

I miss the opportunity to listen to Jazz FM . I was not a regular listener by any means but it was a nice alternative if there was no football to listen or if Robbie Savage and Ian Wright had worn out their welcome on 606. The Dinner Jazz concept was quite annoying as it had the result of reducing everything down to sounding the same. Whilst you could hear jazz from over the course of 50-60 years, the impression was that the music had become increasingly refined and polite. They had a knack of find some of the most tranquil records going so that even when an avant garde musician like Billy Bang was featured, the tune would invariably be a ballad and placed in a context that made it look very similar to everything else. I love the idea of someone buying a records by his like on the strength of Dinner Jazz and then finding out that the remaining 90% was shocking, full on, free jazz!