[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Centre UK -- dig Digby Fairweather

[ROBERT Calder]

forwarded from Digby Fairweather on FACEBOOK

Hello everyone. Well: this is my most serious post so far.
As some of you may know: in 2016 a group of Trustees and I launched a 
Charity (CIO:1167421) called 'The Jazz Centre UK' based in 
Southend-on-Sea's Beecroft Art Gallery. Despite its decidedly 
over-optimistic title (!) my hope was - and remains still - to somehow, 
at least, sow the seeds for the beginnings of some sort of cultural 
centre - and one day, a lobbying platform - for jazz music in the UK. 
This is something which (in my view, amid the all-powerful rock culture) 
we have  needed since the 1986 disaster in Covent Garden when three 
million pounds of public funding from the GLC, ACE and Pilgrim Trust was 
illegally purloined by reprehensible representatives of the (then) jazz 
community and the much-needed 'National Jazz Centre' in Floral Street, 
Covent Garden was lost, amid tragic headlines to the receivers and 
accountants. I have pictures of the demonstrations by members of our 
fraternity and sisterhood waving banners as our our national stage was 
closed down at a point when (twenty three years into the rock culture 
after the Beatles) we needed it most.
Well, after seven moderately successful years at our Centre, we have 
established a walk-thru' history of jazz, greeted musical guests from 
Evan Parker to Peter Ind to Alan Barnes, Emma Rawicz and Xhosa Cole; 
completed two successful NLHF projects, welcomed young musicians (and 
veterans) to our performance spaces every week,  and (I think above all) 
been entrusted with precious collections in perpetuity from major 
figures as diverse as Humphrey Lyttelton, Sir John Dankworth, Alan 
Skidmore, Ronnie Scott and Wild Bill Davison. The devout hope of my 
Trustees, my superb team of volunteers and I has been that in our new 
City we could continue to lay the foundations for a cultural 
organisation that could speak with one voice for our music; not today of 
course, not next year - but one day.
Well; if a small number of reprehensible city councillors (not all by 
any means) and their equally guilty group of officers reap the rewards 
of their surrogate activities our Centre may now - unforgivably - lose 
its premises in our Beecroft Art Gallery in August this year. Without 
one moment of open negotiation, co-operative explanation and for no 
clearly explained or defined reason our Centre now looks to find itself 
homeless on August 1st for malicious and unfounded motives. So, if we 
don't stay in Southend,  my personal request to you (as Founder of the 
National Jazz Archive, 1988) and Jazz Centre UK (2016) is : please - 
please - support us. Help us. Think with me of a national solution for 
our future. I have to thank every one of you personally for your 
practical expressions of support for our organization over seven years 
but let's be clear: we must not fail again. Our heritage of 150 years of 
creativity, (as well as sacrifice and survival) is too big to be 
thwarted - least of all by the decisions of a City council, whose 
ability to recognise a major cultural offer has been skewed by a 
malicious illegitimate minority, and whose apparent inability to 
recognise their resulting cultural obligations makes them look 
collectively shameful. Make your feelings felt whenever and wherever. Go 
to town, on my and my Trustees' behalf, on Facebook and social media 
wherever it can be found . Talk to the papers, local and national. Talk 
to your MP. Above all do not let the concept of a National Centre for 
our music die again. Speak loud and strong between yourselves and to 
others who can help; think about it in your private hours, and help this 
grand concept-in-the-making to survive and flourish. There have been 
small and tentative talks with major London-based institutions but that 
is all, and we need more. So may I ask (without undue drama); brothers 
and sisters of the jazz world, come together to help our cause. Our art 
form must not drag on in the shadows of popular culture for ever. We 
need your help, and the time for help is now.

Digby FairweatheFounder/Lifelong Patron:National Jazz Archive 
(RC327894)/1988
Founder/CEO/Artistic Director: The Jazz Centre UK (CIO1167421)/2016
Freedoms of London(1992) Southend-on-Sea (2000)
Services to Jazz Awards: (British Jazz and Benno Haussman Awards)/1993
Lifetime Achievement Award: London Worshipful Company of Musicians 
(2013)
All Party Political Jazz Appreciation Group/Lords and Commons ‘Special 
Services to Jazz Award 2021
Professional jazz musician 1977-present.