An era is about to come to an end. Jazz in London which was founded by John Jack in 1971, has been run continuously since 1973 by Mary Greig. After forty-three years, Mary has decided that she needs to stop for personal reasons. She will produce two more issues, one at the end of this month for March, and then her final issue as editor, which will be for April.
Her contribution to keeping people informed of what goes on in the London scene has been immeasurable. The wealth of information which she puts into every edition of Jazz in London is vast. She has seen it through from the print-only era to the internet; it has remanined an unrivalled source of reliable information throughout more than four decades. This community can never thank Mary enough for her unstinting and lifelong dedication to publicizing infomation about the London scene. Whatever happens to Jazz in London (and indeed to jazz in London), it will not be the same when she stops.
If people have not yet voted in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, then a vote for Mary Greig in the Services to Jazz category seems to us like the obvious choice. VOTE HERE BEFORE FEB 18th
LINKS:
– Feature telling the story of Jazz In London, celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2011
– Jazz in London WebsiteÂ
Categories: Uncategorized
Deserves a knighthood!
(Very selfless service so well maitained can only be described as noble!).
Agreed! A real shame to lose this.. I will certainly vote! Will anyone come up with an online alternative?
Magnificent achievement! It's been like a bible to jazz-lovers.
Couldn’t agree more with the comments. Mary has made a huge contribution through the publication – has it ever missed a month? I’d be surprised. I knew her from the early 70s then when she worked with us at Collets and her wide knowledge of the London scene and the musicians was really valuable. When I took over running the Seven Dials Jazz Club she was immensely supportive to the club, going out of her way to make sure copy was in on time and information was clear. She did this for all the advertisers, whether club, shop or distributor, and you could trust her judgement to do the ad for you if time was running out! As a result she gained a lot of respect and friends. It’s still the first thing I look into when coming to spend time in London.
Good luck and thanks, Mary.
A wonderful achievement. Thank you Mary. I will certainly miss it. What will we do without it… and you!
I used to pick JiL up on my travels every month from the mid 80s and have been a regular online browser for the past few years. It has been an indispensable tool and has flagged up innumerable gigs which would otherwise have been missed. I can't believe how many gigs I've been able to pack into 30 years!
I've lost track of how many non-British musicians I've seen in smaller, less central venues, either because those gigs were themselves advertised in JiL or because it enabled me to contact the musicians (having searched on social media or for personal websites) and find out about further tour dates.
Mary deserves our heartfelt thanks and I do hope that someone else will pick up the reins and continue publication online at least; is there any news on that front?
I admire the dedication, the publishing skills and the patience that Mary has brought to Jazz in London over the past decades. It has been a cornerstone for jazz in this city, connecting people with jazz gigs and playing an important part in keeping the music alive and enabling it to develop.
I am sorry to hear that Mary will finishing with JiLs but I fully understand. She has performed a fantastic and much appreciated service over the past 43 years – a worthy legacy as well as having been the primary and most comprehensive information conduit on the scene.
I don't even live in London but I never miss reading it, particularly when I make an occasional visit there. It will be a big miss but all the very, very best for the future Mary.