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!

Excited about the Manchester Jazz Festival next month! Check out the youtube video above for a preview of what the festival is about, and keep an eye on the website at manchesterjazz.com in the next few days as the full lineup will be revealed very soon. Pleased to officially announce that we’ll be playing on the closing night of the festival on Saturday 31st July at the festival pavilion in Albert Square – this will be a bit of a party for us too as it will officially end our tour, back at the scene of our first ever gig at the festival only two years ago… See you there!