The next gig on 17/7 may well be the last - at least, that is, with Jazz Action funding. Jazz Action, jazz development agency for the North East and our core funder for many years, will cease to exist at the end of September due to the Arts Council's decision to re-direct their funding to a new agency covering Yorkshire, the North West and the North East. So the gig, of which details are given in the RH column, is the last we will mount with their funding for mainstream jazz. We do still have a very small amount of City Council grant aid in hand for events until the end of March 2013 but this is for what might be termed very low budget free improv gigs - not to everyone's taste and certainly not featuring the international names with which JNE's 'On the Outside' programme has become synonymous.
So from here on it's a matter of chasing project funding and commercial sponsorship and, ironically, cash from abroad in the form of overseas bands funded to tour in the UK. Keep your fingers crossed for us and support the gig on Tuesday!
Dave Clarke.Jazz North East.
3 comments :
If JNE had bothered to sponsor gigs that more than 4 people wanted to see I might feel a bit sadder. It's time someone realised that most people do not want to listen to free jazz. I'll absolutely defend people's right to play it but don't ask me to listen to it. (which is pretty much what everyone I know thinks)
I sympathise with your views and agree it does sometimes seem that way but, as a third party, I must point out that JNE do/did promote across the board. EG Greg Abate/Alan Barnes at Corner House on Tuesday gone. Various concerts at Gateshead Old Town Hall featuring the music of Miles, Mingus and Brubeck. This coming concert at The Cluny with the Gilad Atzmon Organ Trio is well within the boundaries of modern mainstream. Perhaps they should also have looked a little further back but, as there were others covering that field - albeit with much less funding - JNE presumably left it to them.
On Monday The Sage presents Daryl Sherman in concert with John Hallam (sax). This isn't a JNE concert but a one that deserves the support of all who feel that "Our" kind of music gets a raw deal from the various "Jazz Departments".
The trouble is that some people think that with FREE jazz you don't pay to get in! Normally it the other way - far too expensive for what it is. Anyway the only way forward is to try for funding from other sources. The small amount of local government grants also seem to have dried up with the cutbacks. The private sector is our only chance. At Ashington Jazz Club last year UK Coal (our local opencast mine)gave us a community grant to pay for a free NCRO concert. UK Coal also sponsors Koast internet radio which is next to its site at Longhirst Hall
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