Jazz Services - A voice for jazz

The Jazz Services/PRSF Jazz Promoter Award for 2013 is now open, and application forms and guidelines can be downloaded via the links below.

The Awards are aimed at helping smaller jazz promoters who are committed to programming music from artists living and working within the UK.  Two types of Awards are available:

1) Jazz Promoter Awards (maximum funding £2000): Awards to promoters with a track record of promoting new British jazz.

 2) Fledgling Jazz Promoter Awards (maximum funding £500): Awards to encourage new jazz promoters who wish to establish themselves in their first year of promoting jazz.

The application deadline for both awards is midnight on Sunday 21st July 2013.  

Jazz Services will be attending this year’s WOMEX 13 expo, held in Cardiff from the 23^rd – 27^th October, and will be part of the Horizons UK (England) stand.  Horizons is a new partnership that has been developed ahead of WOMEX 13 to bring together the wealth of music traditions and cultures of England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

By becoming a delegate on one of the Horizons UK stands, attendees can get reduced registration fees to WOMEX 13 and access to the stands and their facilities, such as meeting spaces, display areas and so on.  The expo serves as an excellent networking event, similar to April's JazzAhead! conference in Germany, and while the primary focus is on World music the organisers are keen to emphasise the fantastic opportunities open to jazz artists and organisations to make connections and create exciting and valuable business opportunities.

Horizons England are also offering a bursary scheme to companies that have not attended WOMEX before, which includes £100 towards travel costs and a WOMEX orientation session.  Download the attachment below for more information if this applies to you.

For further information and for details on joining us on the Horizons stands for the UK, please see the Horizons at WOMEX website:

http://horizonsatwomex.com/horizons-discount-registration-now-open/

* Please note that Jazz Services is not organising or accepting applications for the Horizons stand.

The Recording Support Scheme for 2013 is being split into two sections, with the initial applications submitted earlier this year and a second round to be announced shortly.

The successfull applicants from the first round are as follows:

Sam Gardner Quartet - www.samgardnermusic.com

ARQ - www.blowthefuse.com

Tommy Andrews Quintet - www.soundcloud.com/tommy-andrews

Wild Flower Sextet - www.matt-anderson.org.uk

Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for news on when the second round of applications will open, and see the Recording Support Scheme pages to familiarise yourself with the application form and process.

As of June 2013, both of Jazz Services' regular publications are going fully digital on our website.

JazzUK and Gigs can now be read "as print" on the site and are fully interactive, with external weblinks and email addresses accessible right from the page.

Each new edition of JazzUK and Gigs uploaded to the Jazz Services website will have a preview of the new format’s web reader included, which you can click to expand the viewer and display the publication in fullscreen mode.  You can then use the options at the top of the screen to zoom the text, scroll through the pages, change the layout and more.

We hope this new added format makes it easier than ever to enjoy your copies of JazzUK and Gigs online, but each issue will still be available to download as a PDF for offline reading, and JazzUK is still published physically with over 25,000 copies distributed to music venues, shops and public spaces across the UK.

And remember, however you choose to read them, both JazzUK and Gigs are still completely free to access!

Read the new versions of JazzUK and Gigs here:    

The June 2013 edition of Gigs contains jazz listings for the coming month and details of what's on near you, along with highlights and recommendations from our Listings Editor Sabina Czajkowska.

Click the image above to read Gigs as it appears in print, or use the link below to download the PDF version to read offline.

Click the link below to download and read our annual report for the period of 2011-2012, with full details of our aims and achievements for the financial year.

The June/July issue of JazzUK features Kit Downes talking about his latest album 'Light From Old Stars', as well as a comprehensive guide to the UK's jazz festival scene over the next two months.  We're Out & About with Cathie Rae and the Scottish Jazz Federation, Josh Jennings is in The Guest Spot, more from the youth scene in HotHouse, highlights from June's issue of Gigs, Q&As with JSL touring bands, plus news, previews and more.

Click the image above to read the magazine as it appears in print, or use the link below to download the PDF version to read offline.

Nicolas Meier Group

The above band has received a Jazz Services National Touring Support Scheme grant for their new tour.

Line-up:

Nicolas Meier - guitars

Pat Bettison - bass and harmonica

Lizzie Ball - violin

Demi Garcia - percussions

Asaf Sirkis - drums

www.meiergroup.com 

With an excellent line-up of top UK-based players and an expansive technique that absorbs all the many influences that come his way, guitarist Nicolas Meier’s upcoming tour is a hugely enticing prospect for the UK’s live jazz circuit.  Meier’s take on ‘world-jazz’ is broad and breezy, with sounds from Turkey and the Middle East and Eastern Europe blending joyfully with the influences of his six-string contemporaries – Pat Metheny fans would no doubt lap up Meier’s blistering fretboard excursions.

Meier is touring his new release, From Istanbul to Ceuta With A Smile, inspired by his travels and tours through Europe and Turkey, picking up fresh ideas along the way and binding them to his individual style with great authority.  The CD features the likes of Gilad Atzmon on saxophone and James Pearson on piano, and while the tour sees a more stripped back group it is Meier’s compositions that take centre stage, transporting the listener on a journey and opening up a world of musical delights. 

Nicolas Meier - acoustic nylon and steel guitar, glissentar and baglama

Swiss born and resident in the UK for many years, Nicolas Meier is a brilliantly diverse musician who absorbs different styles and influences like a sponge.  His education includes early stints at the Conservatoire Fribourg in Switzerland and at Berklee College of Music in the USA.  As well as his highly acclaimed group, which includes top UK players such as Asaf Sirkis, Gilad Atzmon and James Pearson in its ranks, his other projects have included a version of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ for guitar orchestra, nu-metal band Seven7 and his own MGP Records label.  Meier is well versed in several stringed instruments other than the guitar, and his compositions reflect the great range of his musical ability.

Pat Bettison - bass and harmonica

Completely self-taught, Pat started playing the bass when he was 8 years old.  He began working professionally as a musician at 16, playing bass, piano, and guitar.  After graduating from high school, Patrick moved to Glasgow where he began playing jazz with multi-instrumentalist Bobby Wishart.  Eighteen months later, he moved to London to further his jazz education. During the eight years he spent on the London jazz scene, he played with Tim Whitehead, Jim Mullen, Stan Sulzmann, Steve Arguelles, Django Bates, Gary Husband and many other British jazz musicians.  Patrick’s music is a reflection of his diverse musical background.  His music can be fun and upbeat while maintaining a vulnerability that touches listeners.

Demi Garcia - percussions

Originally from Barcelona, Demi moved to the UK in 1999 to pursue his ambition of becoming a professional musician.  Since graduating from the London College of Music, Demi now works full time as a freelance drummer and percussionist.  Demi specialises in flamenco music, jazz and pop, and performs regularly with great musicians such as Alec Dankworth, Nicolas Meier, Kuljit Bhamra, La Tipica, Flamenco Soul, Jorge Bravo and many others. 

Asaf Sirkis – drums

In his long and playful partnership with saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, a recent and more delicate one with piano virtuoso John Law, and in many other settings from improv to fusion such as The Lighthouse trio, Larry Coryell, John Abercrombie, and many more, Israeli expatriate Asaf Sirkis keeps confirming that he's one of the British jazz scene's most creative drummers.  North African as well as Middle Eastern music played a big part in his early listening, and he was a bass guitarist as well as a drummer in his teens, so rock and fusion music from the Police to Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra went deep with him. This trio of influences generates a compelling intensity, and the leader's percussion responses to their ideas are dazzling eruptions of drum mastery. 

Lizzie Ball – violin

Born in 1981, Lizzie is a music graduate and instrumental scholar of St.John’s College, Cambridge, Royal College of Music and Guildhall School of Music, under David Takeno and Yossi Zivoni.  Lizzie has performed extensively across the UK, Europe, and South/Central/North America as a solo violinist, chamber musician and jazz/pop vocalist in most of the major concert halls and stadiums of UK, Europe and South America, including Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Ronnie Scotts, Berlin Philharmonie, Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires, Barbican Hall, and many more.

“Meier must be one of the most lyrical and affecting acoustic guitar players there is, with a technical precision that leaves many more established players standing in his wake.” - All About Jazz

“Meier is elegant in tone and bubbling with ideas... his originality as a writer, a player and a team leader dispatches any doubts” - The Guardian

“Since John McLaughlin melted frets with the Mahavishnu Orchestra we have become used to frenetic guitar-led groups.  None, however, quite mixes styles and sounds like that of Meier, a Swiss player as happy in flamenco and Arab melodies as he is in Western jazz” – The Times

END

Phil Meadows Group

The above band has received a Jazz Services National Touring Support Scheme grant for their new tour.

Line-up:

Phil Meadows -saxophone

Laura Jurd - trumpet

Elliot Galvin - piano

Conor Chaplin - double bass

Simon Roth – drums

www.philmeadowsmusic.co.uk 

The Phil Meadows Group features some of the UK’s finest young jazz talents.  Based in London the group performs an array of original compositions written by bandleader and saxophonist Meadows, and jointly developed in collaboration with the entire group.  This collective working shows in the final pieces, and the group’s tonal sympathy is very much in evidence on their debut recording, ‘Engines of Creation’ (released on Boom Better Records on 24^th June), a series of musical snapshots of inspiring personal moments - from tales of cartoonish characters and trivial battles, to marking pivotal situations, arrivals and departures, Meadows' clever episodic writing balances an eclectic range of contemporary influences, strong improvisational language and wit.

Combining a cocktail of influences, the band appeal to a wide range of audiences with a passion for skilful improvisation, melodic beauty and driving groove.  Complex, powerful and emotive one minute; thoughtful, delicate and beautiful the next, Phil and his band-mates present a neat hybrid of the signature styles of labels like ECM and Ninja Tune all rolled into one.  So far the group has been seen nationwide at venues including the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and Lancaster Jazz Festival, Oliver’s Jazz Bar (London) and Schmazz (Newcastle) and are launching with a new name, a new album and a UK tour to bring it all together in July 2013.

Phil Meadows –saxophone

Phil’s music has taken him onto some of Europe’s most respected jazz platforms including the Bimhuis in Amsterdam where he was the youngest competitior as well as the only Briton and saxophonist in the final of the European Keep an Eye Jazz Soloist Competition 2011.  In 2010 he received the George Murphy Prize for Saxophone and toured extensively with his Quartet’ and 3point1.  His performance credits include live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and BBC4 television and The Albert Hall (BBC Proms), Ronnie Scott’s and Glastonbury Festival.  He can also be seen performing nationwide as lead alto in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Great Britain and currently writes for JazzUK magazine.

Laura Jurd - trumpet

Laura Jurd is an exciting trumpet player, jazz musician and composer.  In 2012 she was awarded the ‘Worshipful Company Young Musician Award’ and released her debut album ‘Landing Ground’.  2011 saw her win the Dankworth prize for jazz composition and be named “One to Watch” by Jazzwise magazine.  As a diverse musician, she plays and writes a wide variety of music, drawing upon classical, jazz and folk influences and can be found playing with a number of ensembles including the London Soundpainting Orchestra, the Matt Roberts Big Band and the Elliot Galvin Group.

Elliot Galvin - piano

Elliot Galvin has played the piano since the age of 6, instantly gravitating towards jazz for its freedom of expression.  He has already performed with a number of well-established musicians despite his young age and has performed at a number of notable venues with his trio (comprised of his own compositions), including The Vortex, where he was met with a glowing review.  He has a broad range of taste and ability, studying composition as well as jazz at Trinity College of music (where he received a scholarship to study).  He cites his musical influences as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Brad Mehldau, Paul Bley, György Ligeti and Igor Stravinsky, amongst others.  He also takes influence from the artistic works of painters such as Mark Rothko and the poetry of Dylan Thomas.

Conor Chaplin - double bass

Conor Chaplin is a bass player of great skill and versatility.  Originating in Surrey he plays a key part in the 2010 Peter Whittingham Award winning jazz/punk outfit WorldService Project, a group in which he tours Europe extensively.  As part of WSP’s Match&Fuse project he has performed at Brecon, St Germain de Calberte, Swanage, Marsden and the London Jazz Festivals as well as in Paris, Lyon, Bergen and Trondheim.  Conor can also be seen performing with NYJO (National Youth Jazz Orchestra) amongst a host of other ensembles.  In 2011 he was awarded the Trinity Laban Jazz Achievement Award.

Simon Roth – drums

Roth is a regular and reliable presence on the London music scene, playing with folk, contemporary and jazz music groups as well as leading his own band Stories and being involved in Pop-Up Circus, a cross-genre platform for contemporary art.  Simon released his own debut album earlier this year and to date has contributed his talents to the groups of such high-profile artists as Kenny Wheeler, Mike Walker and Julian Arguelles.

“A great stage presence and an unforgettable instrumental style” – Jazzwise magazine

“We need new blood of this kind in the UK and world jazz scene to ensure jazz lives on” - UK Jazz Now

Jazz Services PRSF Jazz Promoters Award Scheme Evaluation Report, 2006 - 2010