The leader article ( Amid the pandemic music send a message about things eternal, Monday 23rd March 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/22/the-guardian-view-on-music-and-pandemics-the-global-prisoners-chorus) on culture and music completely missed the point which is the meltdown of music; especially among underrepresented music such as jazz, blues and folk. The available research shows that jazz musicians had 45% of their incomes coming from […]
I was bemused to read in the article “Time for Change” that Arts Council England gives 16% of its music funding to jazz. My last calculation in “Public Investment in Jazz 2012-2022” (see https://www.chrishodgkins.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Public-investment-in-jazz-2012-to-2022.pdf) showed that of the total funding of music for Regularly Funded Organisations was £359 million of which jazz accounted for £6.9million or 1.9%.For the […]
There was an article by Sarah Marsh in the Guardian on Monday 29th July 2019 that rising numbers of younger fans spark a UK jazz renaissance and streaming sites report growth in young listeners and festivals are signing up more jazz acts. However there are two caveats. Streaming as a marketing tool allows jazz musicians […]
March 26, 2019 – 11:41 PM
There was an an article in The Observer by Mark Lawson “How will our museums survive if they subject every donor to to an ethical audit?” (24th March 2019) that drew attention to the ethical angst, dichotomy and perhaps hypocritical nature of arts patronage amongst established institutions. The industrialist Sir Henry Tate was the early benefactor […]
March 26, 2019 – 11:38 PM
I read the article promoting Schloss Elmau by Harriet Green in the Observer on Sunday 17th March 2019. A raft of musicians were mentioned and regrettably jazz was sidelined by the fact that the author admitted to having a “deaf ear to jazz” – what ever that means – and the jazz musicians calling themselves […]
January 8, 2019 – 4:17 PM
Will Hutton’s analysis “Labour’s leadership is at rock bottom” in the Observer on the 23rd December 2018 whilst correct, failed to address the problems that are at the heart of the sorry mess the UK is in. At the last referendum the British public were egregiously misinformed, misled and lied to. The next referendum to […]
September 23, 2018 – 4:59 PM
The owners of the freehold of the India Club are at it again and have resubmitted another planning application for a “Boutique Hotel” Wikipedia sums up “Boutique” as: A boutique is “a small store that sells stylish clothing, jewelry, or other usually luxury goods. The term “boutique” and also “designer” refer (with some differences) to […]
September 21, 2018 – 9:37 PM
The Richard Wilding Supporting the Arts: Review of the Structure of Arts Funding in 1989, drew attention to the basic structural weaknesses and the need for the Arts Council to take on a more strategic approach. On the 16th October 1990 the Arts Council announced at a consultative seminar on the reform of the arts funding […]
September 21, 2018 – 9:03 PM
In 1992 the Arts Council published a National Arts and Media Strategy. The whole process was flawed from the start as the Arts Council had restructured first and then tried to concoct a policy to fit the structure. Regrettably life does not work like that strategy comes first and structure to expedite the strategy comes […]
August 27, 2018 – 10:40 PM
Stuart Nicholson in his book “Jazz and Culture in a Global Age” stated: “But if adequate remuneration had become one problem facing American jazz musicians, then falling audience numbers was another. Yet those who attempted to highlight issues such as these often found their words unwelcome, un- American even, and likely to be shouted down […]