Jazz breaking news: “Death blow for adventurous jazz” on Tyneside feared as funding dries up

Disgraceful,” was how Paul Bream, the marketing officer for Jazz North East reacted via Twitter to the decision by Arts Council England to reject live music promoters Jazz North East and Schmazz’s joint grant application. The two organisations, with Schmazz concentrating on the younger Brit-jazz strands and Jazz North East the international perspective, now have to look at the practical implications of continuing to present upcoming gigs over the coming months in Newcastle and Gateshead. Bream says: “Towards the end of last year Schmazz’s Grants for the Arts application was rejected on the grounds that although it met the criteria for the application and the grants officer recommended it would be agreed, the panel then rejected it. The reason given was that funds were oversubscribed. We were advised to submit a fresh application following lengthy discussions with officers at the regional office. We jumped over all the hurdles but now we’ve heard that this one too was rejected on the same grounds.”

The promoters were applying for a sum in the region of £10,000, money that would have allowed them to mount gigs until September, when the whole funded jazz sector environment will radically change across the north of England. Bream says local promoters are in the dark about what will happen then, particularly relating to voluntary promoters. The new scenario will involve the winding up of the previous development agencies, not just in the north east but also in Yorkshire and in the north west. A new organisation will combine their work right across the north.

For now following Friday’s Arts Council decision Bream and his colleagues are forced to go through the calendar to see what they can do, and what they can’t. The decision, he says, may well mean cancelled gigs and that “the more adventurous side of our programming will have to go out of the window.”

While there is anecdotal evidence that audiences are down across the country since 2008 Bream says that audiences haven’t been falling in the north east for the more adventurous gigs, although he admits it’s a bit more “perilous” for the more mainstream stuff. “By persistence and systematically reaching out to new audiences and younger people who might not previously have been coming to jazz decent audiences of 70-80 for free jazz have been coming. My suspicion is that nobody thought about what the context and implications were of refusing the decision. Effectively it’s a bit of a death blow for adventurous jazz programming on Tyneside.”

Bill Vince, senior manager, funding programmes of Arts Council England says: “I can confirm we received a joint Grants for the Arts application from Jazz North East and Schmazz, and that it was unsuccessful in securing funding. Arts Council funds are limited, and sometimes difficult decisions have to be made when we have more good applications than we do funds to allocate. Grants for the Arts is a highly competitive programme, and the average success rate for Grants for the Arts applications is 44 per cent. We are committed to delivering great art and culture in the north east, and we will continue to work with Jazz North East and Schmazz in the future, to see how we can support them in bringing quality jazz music to the north east.”

– Stephen Graham

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