The council is an important source of funding for the Manchester Jazz Festival and NWJazzworks, and they certainly won’t be immune from these cuts. However, its possible that the extent to which their funding is cut could be restricted if jazz musicians show their support for the organisation and demonstrate how valuable a resource it is – the festival is one of the leading commissioners of new music (especially now through its mjf originals scheme; congratulations to Adam Fairhall by the way!), and a big part of its programming policy is designed to support musicians living and/or working in the North West. Even for the 11 non-festival months of the year, NWJazzworks does sterling work promoting events, raising awareness of musicians and their activities, as well as helping us out with funding applications and career development. I know that Beats & Pieces certainly wouldn’t be at the stage we’re at without support from Steve, Mick and the team!

You can register your support by emailing budget.enquiry@manchester.gov.uk – you may be doubtful that just writing a quick email can make a difference, but Birmingham Jazz was recently in a similar situation and managed to avoid the worst case scenario, partly due to public support and pressure. Manchester jazz needs you!

(via A Blog Supreme)

This got me thinking about how difficult it is to classify contemporary music nowadays, as musicians bring together influences that are so wide ranging – from classical to rock to world and everything in between. I remember reading articles about the Portico Quartet recently, for example, where the authors and even the quartet themselves were bemoaning the fact that their records were classified as either ‘jazz’ or ‘world’ whereas in reality its somewhere in between.

When I’ve been promoting the Beats & Pieces Big Band, I sometimes find it difficult to describe exactly what the music is – I’d say its definitely jazz (but even then, what is jazz?! A whole other can of worms…) but in places its also rock, electronica, minimalist classical etc etc… And I also play many free improv gigs, at the Noise Upstairs or with Token Otter for instance; how would that music be classified?

To be honest I’m not really sure what the point I’m trying to make is, so I’m not too sure what I’m trying to say – just thought it was an amusing article that also raises lots of questions. So go on, discuss!

(Also for the record, I’d disagree with the Spanish Police and say Larry Ochs’ music was close enough to jazz. Kinda reminds me of Tom Arthurs’ Centripede group, based on this clip at least…)

UPDATE: I read this post by Kit Downes where he talks about the word ‘jazz’ as being a creative process rather than an end product… Kinda answers some of the questions I was posing above, and its a great read in itself.

• prominent holes in jeans
• wrinkled t-shirts
• dirty trainers
• visible underwear

…all of which I have been known to exhibit. I take issue with the unwashed hair though – messy and unkempt it may be but its always washed!

All joking aside, I’d be genuinely interested in your comments regarding this issue and Beats & Pieces specifically. Does our less formal dress detract from our performance? Is the sight of my arse appearing over the top of my jeans personally offensive? Personally I’m of the impression that the music we play isn’t ‘just’ jazz influenced, and contains strong influences from rock and pop music where casual dress for gigs seems to be the norm. Osby says that people see you before they hear you and gain an impression from that, but I feel that if we were to arrive for a gig dressed in 1950s suits then the impression that would be given off wouldn’t be representative of the music we play and are influenced by. But like I say I do really want to know what you think, and maybe the next time you see us we’ll all put our glad rags on…

Below are some pictures for comparison of Greg Osby looking razor sharp (and quite pleased about it actually) and me looking arguably less so…