I have just completed a paper on “Public investment of jazz – a coherent policy for jazz, changing demographics, live music and coping with the increasing supply of jazz musicians”. This paper examines: A level playing field for jazz The paucity of public funding for jazz The lack of a coherent policy for jazz in […]
There was more Rattlemania in the Guardian on the 4th March 2014, with coverage of Simon Rattle and the Leader column exclaiming “Simon Rattle’s return can be good for music, for London and the national status of the arts”. Rattlemania egged on by a self-interested cultural mafia has got out of hand. The problem with […]
February 26, 2015 – 9:39 PM
Charlotte Higgins wrote an article in The Guardian, 23rd February 2015, “Simon Rattle is waving his baton at the wrong cause”, which was right on target. The article dealt with Simon Rattle’s cry for a new concert hall for London, presumably so that he can conduct the LSO. What is needed is a level playing […]
November 1, 2014 – 12:48 PM
Please see the attached document for my response to the BBC Trust’s consultation on Music Radio. Please click on: Response to BBC Trust Music Radio Consultation
In the Daily Telegraph on the 17th July 2014 Ivan Hewett wrote an interesting analysis on funding of jazz by the Arts Council. A very useful article but the bigger picture required a little more attention which I have set out below. The Arts Council had a real opportunity in 2012/15 to shape the funding […]
The Arts Council is currently deliberating on the funding of the National Portfolio Organisations for the next three years 2015 to 2018. Dryden’s line from Absalom and Achitophel, “Beware the fury of a patient man” neatly describes the feeling of the jazz community in the England towards the appalling under funding of jazz. When Arts […]
I played a fundraising concert at the Church of Christ the Saviour in Ealing Broadway in aid of the “Street Child World Cup” fund on 13th May. I was playing with the Acton Collective and also on the bill was Richard Hills, Colin Salmon,and Alexander Stewart. Here is a link to YouTube, the sound is […]
January 25, 2013 – 7:40 PM
The Guardian reported on the 17th January 2013 that English National Opera had made a loss of £2.2 million for the financial year 2011/2012. Opera is an expensive form of music to put on and it would be easy to snipe away about under represented musics at the expense of opera. How ever there are musicians livelihoods at stake and the financial loss […]
August 10, 2012 – 9:27 AM
Andrew Marr on his Sunday morning television show on the 13th March 2011 gave a wholly convincing performance that demonstrated that his knowledge of jazz is restricted to cheap laughs. The link below is to the Guardian where it was reported. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2012/jan/31/andrew-marr-clarkson I wrote to the Mark Thompson Director General and took it through every stage of the […]