Stephen Howard wrote:
On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:06:33 +0100, stuart noble
wrote:

snip

Weird this jazz thing. It never actually dies, but it's been on the
verge of it for the last 50 years. Can't fill the back room of a pub for
a jazz gig these days.
I was shocked to see Tal Farlow playing in the corner of a pub in Oxford
with no one listening, and that was 20 years ago.

It's like most forms of specialised music, it's under-funded and
under-promoted.
Practically any form of non-mainstream music suffers in the same way -
even esoteric rock or the just plain not fashionable.

On the whole, jazz fans tend to prefer going to specialist venues -
and with good reason. I once went to see the great Eddie Thompson play
in a bar in Essex...and there was a guy shoving coins in a fruit
machine for half the first set. The landlord refused to switch the
machine off.

Should be interesting over the next decade or so, with the influx of
decent and extremely cheap instruments from China.

Regards,




The only semi-serious jazz venues in London seem to be The Vortex and
The 606. Ronnie's has become the typical corporate night club, which I
guess was inevitable, and the pizza houses don't do it for me. Hovering
waiters etc.
I think young British players are perhaps trying too hard to be
innovative and have forgotten how to enjoy themselves.