[Dixielandjazz] The State of Traditional Jazz in the UK

[John Petters]

Greetings folks,
Bandleader, drummer  and festival promoter Pete Lay wrote a very 
realistic assessment of the Traditional Jazz Scene in the UK which was 
published in Just Jazz a month or so ago. I responded. My letter has 
been printed in full and I offer it here for consideration and possible 
suggestions for solutions to the problems that jazz musicians are facing 
today. It is rather long so my apologies in advance.

"Re: An Open Letter to all Jazzers

My thanks to Pete Lay for his well argued piece about the current 
Traditional Jazz scene. As festival promoters Pete and I are 
competitors, but it gives me no satisfaction to know that he is finding 
the business of promoting jazz breaks as increasingly difficult as I am. 
The financial risk involved with this activity takes nerves of steel and 
a willingness to lose one’s shirt if it all goes wrong.

The Dying Gasps of The Trad Boom
Like it or not we are witnessing the dying gasps of the Trad boom of the 
‘50s. To understand why there is a Trad Jazz scene at all in this 
country gives a clue to the state in which we now find ourselves. The 
music has survived because it was the ‘pop’ music of a generation. 
Humph, Chris Barber, Ken Colyer, Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball, etc. were at 
the peak of their popularity and hitting the charts from say 1954 until 
1963. A twenty year-old Trad fan in 1963 is now sixty four years old. 
The twenty year-old in 1954 is now 73 years old. So we are looking at an 
audience that is retired, aging, on fixed incomes and becoming less 
mobile due to health issues or high costs.

Another consideration is the fear many older people feel about going out 
at nights into what is perceived to be thug ridden town centres and 
perhaps the lack of ability to drive even small distances in the dark 
and in bad weather. The result is that our festivals and clubs are 
chasing an ever shrinking group of aging customers. It does not take a 
degree in economics to work out what will happen in five or ten years 
from now.

 From my own experience, running the National Traditional Jazz & Swing 
Mailing List – the biggest jazz database in the UK – I can see the 
number of fans falling off the perch with each mailing. Many have gone 
to join Gabriel’s growing audience in the celestial heights (or maybe in 
the other place) and even more are saying “we are too old to travel”, or 
“so and so is ill, so please take us off the list”. Last year produced a 
net loss of members over new sign-ups – the first time this has happened.

Admission Charges
Pete rightly argues that band fees need to increase and that admission 
charges are ridiculously low. The minimum admission for a gig should be 
£10. For those leaders who are also promoters and suffer the handicap of 
being VAT registered, this means that Gordon Brown cops £1.49 on every 
ticket sale regardless of how many people turn up.

Presentation
The professional bandleader is up against semi-pro and amateur bands 
(many on fat pensions) who ensure that fees are kept below viable 
levels. Let’s face it, the whole traditional scene operates on a 
shoestring, paying peanuts. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys. Sadly the 
level of competence in many bands leaves much to be desired in terms of 
musicianship and in particular, presentation. I am sure that Pete, like 
me, is bombarded by bands eager to play at his festivals. I have to say 
that very few have anything new or different to offer. Many sound and 
look tired. This is maybe one reason why the music is almost totally 
failing to gain a young audience.

The Media
Another reason of course is the media. It is a national disgrace that 
BBC Radio Two, which inherited the mantle of the Light Programme and was 
set up to be different from Radio One, has for the past decade ignored 
any music or musical style prior to Elvis Presley during its mainstream 
daytime shows. What Traditional Jazz there is on the network is pushed 
into elitist, ghetto shows and mixed with all sorts of other jazz 
styles. Local radio has suffered a similar fate, although listeners in 
the Eastern Counties have Paul Barnes’ excellent ‘Gold For Grown-ups’ 
every Saturday from 6pm until 9pm. This show features more real jazz 
likely to appeal to ‘Just Jazz’ readers than most others. It is 
interesting to note that Barnsey’s show was the most downloaded 
programme on the BBC Radio Norfolk ‘Listen Again’ facility.

The BBC’s cavalier attitude to Lord Reith’s remit to entertain and 
educate by failing to present not only Traditional Jazz but the classic 
American Songbook, Swing, Blues and Ragtime in its mainstream shows, 
means that young people are never exposed to the jazz at all. Music 
itself has become dumbed down. The simple monotonous riff of most pop 
records has not opened up the possibilities of polyphonic music to most 
young minds, so an improvising New Orleans band sounds like a cacophony 
of sound and not something to which they can relate. This is possibly 
why Jive, Jump and Swing bands attract a younger crowd.

This artificial cut-off point of 1955 as promoted by Radio Two seems to 
put the recording date as the most important factor as to whether a 
record is played. I maintain that dates are not important – good music 
is good music whether recorded in 1925 or 1965.

CD Sales
The whole of the record industry has witnessed the fall of CD sales and 
this is reflected amongst the bandleaders to whom I speak. CD sales are 
often the icing on the cake that makes a 200 mile round-trip worthwhile. 
Home copying by fans of a band eventually results in bandleaders 
deciding to make no more recordings.

Hospitalty
Whenever I play in Germany, I never pay for my own dinks and I always 
get a meal and accommodation provided. This is seldom the case in 
Britain where musicians by and large are not respected. Indeed, I was 
shocked when I first played a festival at Butlins some years ago,  to be 
charged for my accommodation. I have always made it a practise at my own 
festivals to provide this for musicians out of my own pocket, i.e. to 
act professionally.

The Future
I think there will be Traditional Jazz scene ten years hence, but it 
will not be in pubs, clubs or free admission venues. It will be found in 
theatres and arts centres, properly produced and staged. The amateur and 
semi-pro set-up will die out as the current crop of musicians give up. 
It will become a specialist music appealing to the few. There may still 
be the odd private function which employs a jazz band but these will be 
few and far between. Small group swing bands will thrive playing 
Gershwin, Porter and Berlin songs, but again this will be a minority music.

Conclusion
To conclude, I think Pete’s appeal to folk to give some thought to the 
future viability of the music may fall on deaf ears or those without the 
means to act. Short of a jazz revival – which could have come about with 
Jamie Culham, but didn’t because his jazz credentials were not built 
upon the solid foundation of the ability to swing – it is likely that 
the scene will wither and die. Even the name bands have to go out in 
multi-band package shows to fill venues that they would have sold out on 
their own a few years ago.

The writing is on the wall, I’m afraid.

Yours sincerely

John Petters"


-- 
John Petters
www.traditional-jazz.com
Amateur Radio Station G3YPZ