All Party Jazz Appreciation Group Announces major review of funding and infrastructure for jazz in England

The All Party Jazz Appreciation Group (APPJAG) has commissioned an extensive review of the current state of jazz in England, which is being conducted by their Secretary Chris Hodgkins and an expert advisory panel chaired by musician and educator Dr Kathy Dyson.

The review will take place in two stages – firstly with a ‘where are we now?’ phase, as outlined in a 141-page report entitled Cold Comfort and Home Truths: Informing the review of jazz in England – that spells out the disparities in funding for jazz. These, according to figures from 2018, saw opera and classical music respectively receive £57.1 million and £19 million in subsidy from Arts Council England (ACE), while jazz, despite having a comparable audience sizes (jazz has 2.1 million vs opera’s 1.7 million and classical’s 3.4 million) received just £1,712,870.

The document lays out the facts as they stand today with thoroughly researched detail on musician’s wages, venue income, promoters, PRs, record labels and jazz media to emphatically demonstrate that for the lack of government funding English jazz is “rich beyond the dreams of avarice” in terms of “human resources: jazz musicians, composers, volunteer promoters, audiences, commercial promoters, educators, youth orchestras, jazz festivals, Arts Council England funded jazz National Portfolio Organisations, a growing service economy and jazz archives”.

Yet, with the fallout from the pandemic likely to be felt for years to come, increased funds are now needed to ensure jazz in England and its myriad professionals and organisations have a future.

Dr Kathy Dyson, Chair of the Advisory Panel of the Review of Jazz in England said: “As a jazz musician and educator, I am well aware of how hard a year it has been for jazz musicians, promoters, studios, technical staff, media and the jazz constituency at large. Realistically, recovery will be slow on the domestic scene and our touring capabilities will be hampered both by Brexit and the myriad quarantine and travel issues globally. This current situation is exacerbated by 10 years of funding cuts which have dramatically affected the arts and now the Government is planning to impose a disastrous 50% funding cut to arts subjects including music at Higher Education level in England.”

Dyson continued: “The pandemic has thrown petrol on flames and highlighted issues of insecurity, low wages and exploitation of musicians by the music streaming companies. This Review of Jazz in England is a genuine and concerted attempt by people who care deeply about the music, musicians and all involved in promoting it, to find out how the jazz community has fared during the pandemic, what the main issues are that we face now; how these can best be addressed during the post Covid period with the aim of an action plan for the jazz community in England.”

For the full report and more info visit www.appjag.org