Jazz is a popular musical style in Birmingham and has been so since the 1920s. [1] Venues such as the Birmingham Palais pioneered British jazz [2] and lead to the establishment of a string of jazz clubs in the city such as The Rhythm Club and the Hot Club. [3] Today jazz remains a prominent part of the cities culture; events such as the Harmonic Festival, the Mostly Jazz Festival and the annual International Jazz Festival run each year along with Birmingham Jazz, an organisation that promotes and commissions dozens of jazz concerts every year. [4]
Jazz has been popular in Birmingham since the 1920s, [1] an era when interest in the music within England was otherwise largely confined to London. [5] The Birmingham Palais was one of the pioneering venues of British jazz and opened in Ladywood in 1920, [2] hosting early touring bands from the United States such as the Frisco Jazz Band in 1920, [2] Benny Peyton's Jazz Kings in 1921, [2] the Paramount Six [2] and the Southern Rag-a-Jazz Orchestra in 1922, [6] and Bill Shenkman's Buffalo Orchestra in 1923. [7] The Palais also maintained its own resident bands that combined notable visiting American musicians such as Sidney Bechet [2] and Emile Christian [2] with emerging local musicians who would go on to establish the native British jazz tradition, such as Bill Harty, [8] Billy Jones, [9] Jack Raine, [10] and Jack Payne. [6]
Jazz was still largely unknown in other cities outside London when it was revived in Birmingham in the late 1940s. [11] A highly successful series of jazz concerts were held at Birmingham Town Hall from 1946, and the city's jazz clubs re-emerged with the opening of the Rhythm Club and the Hot Club in 1948. [3]
From the late 1980s the saxophonist Julian Argüelles and his brother drummer Steve Argüelles were major players in contemporary European jazz. [12]
The Harmonic Festival, the Mostly Jazz Festival and the annual International Jazz Festival run alongside the year-round contemporary programme presented by promoters and development agency Birmingham Jazz, directed by Tony Dudley-Evans. The musician-led Cobweb Collective also present regular jazz sessions in several venues around the city. Many other venues support the jazz scene in the city, often promoted by Birmingham Jazz. Jazz musicians associated with the city include Andy Hamilton, Soweto Kinch, Ronnie Ball, Tony Kinsey, Douglas "Dougle" Robinson [4] and King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys, [13] a group formed in 1986 around saxophonist-singer Mark Skirving (born 13 March 1966, pseudonym "King Pleasure") [Note 1] originally called Some Like it Hot (later The Satellites) before assuming the current (as of 2015) name. [14]
The busiest promoter of contemporary jazz in the city is the voluntary organisation Birmingham Jazz, which mounts dozens of concerts every year featuring local, national and international artists in venues such as the CBSO Centre, the mac arts centre, the Glee Club and Symphony Hall. It enjoys the support of the city council and the Arts Council of England and also commissions new works from both local performers and performers of international standing. Birmingham is also home to Eastside Jazz Club, located at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
David Roy Eldridge, nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from the dominant style of jazz trumpet innovator Louis Armstrong, and his strong impact on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most influential musicians of the swing era and a precursor of bebop.
John Taylor was a British jazz pianist, born in Manchester, England, who occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesizer. In his obituary, The Guardian described him as "one of the great jazz pianists and composers of his generation" and at a musical level comparable to Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner and Brad Meldhau.
Jazz music has a long history in Australia. Over the years jazz has held a high-profile at local clubs, festivals and other music venues and a vast number of recordings have been produced by Australian jazz musicians, many of whom have gone on to gain a high profile in the international jazz arena.
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center in New York City. The organization was founded in 1987 and opened at Time Warner Center in October 2004. Wynton Marsalis is the artistic director and the leader of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
The culture of Birmingham is characterised by a deep-seated tradition of individualism and experimentation, and the unusually fragmented but innovative culture that results has been widely remarked upon by commentators. Writing in 1969, the New York-based urbanist Jane Jacobs cast Birmingham as one of the world's great examples of urban creativity: surveying its history from the 16th to the 20th centuries she described it as a "great, confused laboratory of ideas", noting how its chaotic structure as a "muddle of oddments" meant that it "grew through constant diversification". The historian G. M. Young – in a classic comparison later expanded upon by Asa Briggs – contrasted the "experimental, adventurous, diverse" culture of Birmingham with the "solid, uniform, pacific" culture of the outwardly similar city of Manchester. The American economist Edward Gleason wrote in 2011 that "cities, the dense agglomerations that dot the globe, have been engines of innovation since Plato and Socrates bickered in an Athenian marketplace. The streets of Florence gave us the Renaissance and the streets of Birmingham gave us the Industrial Revolution", concluding: "wandering these cities ... is to study nothing less than human progress."
The Brecon Jazz Festival is a music festival held annually in Brecon, Wales. Normally staged in early August, it has played host to a range of jazz musicians from across the world.
A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from a small coffeehouse for folk music shows, an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Typically, different types of venues host different genres of music. Opera houses, bandshells, and concert halls host classical music performances, whereas public houses ("pubs"), nightclubs, and discothèques offer music in contemporary genres, such as rock, dance, country, and pop.
British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I. Jazz began to be played by British musicians from the 1930s and on a widespread basis in the 1940s, often within dance bands. From the late 1940s, British "modern jazz", highly influenced by American bebop, began to emerge and was led by figures such as John Dankworth, Tony Crombie and Ronnie Scott, while Ken Colyer, George Webb and Humphrey Lyttelton played Dixieland-style Trad jazz. From the 1960s British jazz began to develop more individual characteristics and absorb a variety of influences, including British blues, as well as European and World music influences. A number of British jazz musicians have gained international reputations, although the music has remained a minority interest there.
Gwilym Simcock is a Welsh pianist and composer working in both jazz and classical music. He was chosen as one of the 1000 Most Influential People in London by the Evening Standard. He was featured on the front cover of the August 2007 issue of the UK's Jazzwise magazine.
Andy Raphael Thomas Hamilton, MBE was a Jamaican-born British jazz saxophonist and composer who migrated to the UK in 1949. He recorded his debut album in his early 70s.
Julian Argüelles is an English jazz saxophonist.
The Oxford University Jazz Society, also known as JazzSoc, is the focus of jazz music at the University of Oxford, England; the place to be for players and listeners, dancers and drinkers. Formerly known as the Oxford University Jazz Club, the society now provides the main arena for student players to interact musically, whilst also encouraging a non-student contingent.
Patrick Mungo Smythe was a Scottish jazz pianist, who rose to prominence as a member of the Joe Harriott Quintet during the 1960s.
John Wesley Vivian Payne was a British dance music bandleader who established his reputation during the British dance band era of the 1930s.
Jean Toussaint is an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist.
The Jazz Warriors were an English all-black London-based group of jazz musicians, that made its debut in 1986. The idea for the band came from the Abibi Jazz Arts, a London organization that promoted black music and black culture. The Jazz Warriors provided black British musicians with a venue to showcase their talents, which until that time was limited mostly to funk music and reggae.
The Oxford University Jazz Orchestra (OUJO) is a jazz orchestra based in the University of Oxford, England. It was founded in 1991.
The Palais de Dance or Birmingham Palais was a dance hall on Monument Road in the Ladywood district of Birmingham, England. One of the earliest jazz clubs in England, it was the only major provincial English jazz venue during the inter-war period, an era when interest in jazz was otherwise largely confined to London.
Liam Noble is a British jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educator.
Jeanie Lambe was a Scottish jazz singer. She was married to jazz tenor saxophonist Danny Moss.
One of Birmingham's most successful musical exports…
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