First thing I read back from holiday: a Western Mail piece about the Brecon Jazz Festival, (Fran is there today, I’m off tomorrow) including an interview with Gwilym Simcock, which starts as follows:

“SAY “jazz” and it conjures up images of turtle-neck jumpers […] and questionable facial hair. But a new generation of Welsh musicians are determined to dust off the ageing genre and bring it back to the mainstream.”

As we go through the most exciting period in British jazz for fifty years such references are definitely getting fewer and further between.

But here’s a sideways throught (picture above): Say turtle-neck jumpers and questionable facial hair and what does it conjure up?

The image of a global brand worth $83bn which has grown in value by 32% in the past year. (Source: Millward Brown Optimor)