Here in the UK, in stark contrast to other European countries, live music with an audience is unlikely to be possible until at least next year. And even then it is difficult to see how venues will be able to open with anything like full capacity. In Birmingham I have been in touch informally with venues that Jazzlines and Fizzle/TDE Promotions use to present concerts. All of them are saying that they cannot see a way of opening up for events with an audience before next year. Music pubs such as the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath Birmingham or The Spotted Dog in the Digbeth area of Birmingham are clearly keen to reopen, but are struggling with the guidelines provided by the government.
Those guidelines and its five stages for presenting live music during and after the Covid-19 pandemic have reinforced this feeling of pessimism. And here is why
Stages 1 and 2 allow for the continuation of training and rehearsals and recordings, either in the form of livestreams or for distribution on CD, vinyl or online. Clearly we are in that stage now.
Then Stage 3 allows for outdoor performances with social distancing in place. Stage 4 allows for indoor performance provided social distancing is in place. And then Stage 5 would bring us back to normality with venues being able to operate with full capacity.
The Music Venue Trust, which has done incredibly detailed work and understands the extent to which closed venues are draining cash – see Sebastian’ s interview with Mark Davyd – has pointed out the urgency of the situation: these guidelines are unrealistic and many venues will be forced to close permanently unless they receive financial support. Even Glastonbury is saying that it will fold if it cannot go ahead in 2021.
There is a good summary of the guidelines and the Music Venue Trust’s criticism of them HERE.
The Music Venue Trust has also made the point that the music industry desperately needs financial support from the government and contrasts the situation in UK, where as yet the government has not come up with a support package for the Arts, with the situation in European countries.
At last week’s Jazz Promotion Network (JPN) virtual conference these issues were discussed at length, particularly in a number of group sessions. A number of interesting points arose from these discussions.
One is that audiences may well have changed as a result of the prolonged absence from attending live events. We assume that they will come rushing back once the lockdown restrictions have been eased, but it may well be the case that habits of attendance have been broken. We will need to think of what audiences will be expecting and how we can engage them more directly in the music community.
Part of this will be the integration of streaming as a supplement to live events. We also need to continue to make these live streams more professional in presentation, which means ensuring good sound and visual quality, but also ensuring the quality of the content. We know that the music is usually of a high standard, but live streaming provides the opportunity to do more than just present the music. We can learn from the excellent streaming sessions from, for example, the National Theatre or the Bolshoi Ballet which have featured interviews with directors and performers with the purpose of informing the audience and demystifying the art. I also think we can learn much from the best sports streaming which has a similar role of explaining what is happening in the sport.
At the JPN there was a consensus that building up ideas and practical aspects of community amongst both musicians and audience is key and from what I observe of jazz audiences as a promoter this is possible. Jazz may be a niche music, but it commands strong loyalty from its followers. Addressing this from the perspective of musicians, I have always thought that collectives are a way of creating a stronger musical community and of providing greater control for musicians. In UK collectives such as the Loop Collective and the F-Ire Collective have lost momentum or even ceased to exist after initial successes, largely as a result of the absence of funding; in France, by contrast, there are a number of well-funded collectives, e.g. COAX Collectif, Onze Heures Onze Collectif, that have had a significant impact on the French scene. I see re-establishing and funding UK collectives as a priority.
With regard to audiences, I believe that we should take a number of steps to create or boost a sense of belonging to the jazz community. Membership schemes are one obvious step. Subscriptions schemes can also play a role. For example, Dave Douglas in USA with the Greenleaf label and Dave Smith in UK have set up subscription schemes through which members are entitled to all new releases by the label in the case of the Greenleaf label, and individual recordings in the case of Dave Smith. The Greenleaf annual subscription costs $75 whereas Dave Smith’s costs £10 a month. The Smalls Club in New York also has a subscription scheme through which subscribers can access the archive of past performances at the club for just $10 a month. Such subscriptions benefit both the musician and the audience through this sense of belonging and in the current crisis by creating a feeling of responsibility on the part of the audience towards musicians.
Another suggestion from the JPN virtual conference is that Radio is in the position to support the music scene through commissions and live recordings. The move in recent years has been towards jazz programmes with playlists rather than recorded concerts, so that, for example, Freeness, the relatively new programme of improvised music, plays an excellent selection of recorded music, but does not have the budget to record live concerts or special sessions. I would like to see a revival of the Jazz in Britain programme on BBC Radio 3 that offered up-and-coming bands the opportunity to record and broadcast a 30 minute set of music.
An interesting article in the Guardian HERE shows another way forward. The La Gare club in Paris is setting up solo gigs which audiences can attend one at a time for five minutes. These one-on-one events can also take place in homes. This brings home one point about the differences between the UK jazz scene and scenes in other European countries. In UK with the notable exception of clubs such as The Vortex, Café Oto, Ronnie Scott’s and the 606 in London, The Band on The Wall in Manchester, or the Eastside Jazz Club in Birmingham , jazz, whether it be in a round the year programme or in a specific festival, is presented in arts centres, concert halls and pub rooms, usually on a hire basis, sometimes as part of the venue’s broad programme. This restricts the freedom to carry out experiments such as that in La Gare club. Surely in the long term jazz should be looking to establish more of its own venues.
The jazz community needs above all a voice and a body that takes up the issues with the Arts Council and government. JPN can and should do this. The newly-formed Musicians’ Movement has also made a very promising start.
With thanks to Paul Kelly and Ken Killeen for their summaries of the group discussions in the JPN virtual conference. Categories: Features/Interviews
Perhaps the Jazz Promoters Network should think about the diversity of it’s board if it’s going to represent the wider jazz community? Definitely something that should be thought about.
Just one point for clarification here: Tony Dudley-Evans was the first Chair of JPN but has not been a member of its board since 2018.
Tony’s scepticism as to the imminent and intermediate future of non-digital jazz events seems apposite. Promotors of jazz and other music events must face the reality of risks and probabilities associated with covid 19: The development of vaccines vs covid 19 will take years (~3-8), and once a tried and trusted vaccine is around, it may well only be effective in certain cohorts of people, eg in children or individuals under the age of let’s say 60, which means a considerable portion of regular jazz concert attendants (aged >60) would continue to be advised to stay at home. It is surprising that promotors of jazz festivals currently say they aim at presenting their events in 2021. Given the probable scenario of regular flare ups of infection rates (see Evington in Leicester just now), the London Jazz Festival in November 2020 is highly unlikely to take place in concert venues (as it is extremely doubtful that there will be a Tokyo Olympics in August 2021 with spectators). It is almost impossible that there will be a vaccine ready to be used in early 2021 to be effective by April/May 2021, the planned dates for JazzAhead in Bremen and the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, to give just two festival examples. There is of course the outside chance that the sars virus will “run out of steam” within the next 6 months, lose its – sometimes – devastating properties and quietly subside, as the Spanish flu virus did in 1919/20.But that this happens is highly improbable. Musicians and promotors need to confront this painful reality.
‘ve been thinking about this and wondering why do musicians want or need to be represented by promoters? Musicians can exist without promoters but promoters can’t exist without musicians. There’s a massive power imbalance here in that many musicians think if they piss off promoters then they’re not gonna get gigs. Many musicians pay £200+ per year to be represented by MU. Any extra voice is just a middleman between musicians and govt support. How about some musicians represent promoters? Or musicians represent themselves and promoters represent themselves?
Sobering thoughts from Andy Gescher! I think this brings home the need to be thinking constructively and imaginatively about online activity and how we can make it viable for musicians. On Sid’s point I believe there has already been a shift towards musicians taking control. Schemes like Serious’ Take Five aim to give musicians the business and organisational skills to develop their own careers and I believe that JPN has funding for a similar approach to empowering musicians. Furthermore most tours now come about as a result of direct applications to the Arts Council, Sound and Music, or PRSF from musicians or managers acting on their behalf. I welcome this shift in the balance, but fear it has swung too much towards individual activity on the part of musicians. I think the sector misses the curated tours run by Jazz Services and the Contemporary Music Network. There seemed to be more gigs then. But the main thing now is to deal with the crisis arising from Covid -19.
An interesting exchange of comments. As someone who has regularly attended gigs at the Mac Birmingham I was saddened by the news that it will close until 2021 with no guarantee of a reopening date. I really miss the experience of live music and personally do not think that online performances come near to providing what I am missing. I would like to thank Tony for all the work he has done over the years as the music he has promoted has enriched my life considerably, this includes concerts by Sid! The variety and quality of music and musicians that Tony has brought to Birmingham has been exceptional.
This pandemic will pass and music will return for live audiences. In the meantime I guess everyone has to do what they feel best to get by and that surely means being supportive of each other.