Super 6 Music To Bring Jazz To The Forefront?
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 4:48PM 
Being a relatively new listener to the radio station, it may appear somewhat audacious of me to even consider staking a claim that BBC 6 music definitely is or is not a force for good where contemporary jazz is concerned. The point was, nevertheless, bought rapidly to my attention towards the latter end of last week when I saw this tweet from UK jazz pianist Neil Cowley's record label 'Naim Jazz':
Upon listening to the show I found that Neil Cowley's record took up it's place alongside a host of other contemporary styles including Hip Hop, Reggae and electronic tracks. Needless to say the one jazz track of the show shone brightly and appeared warmly received by host Huey Morgan. However, after some careful searching of the stations show list, I noticed no sign of a jazz orientated show in any form. This seemed all the evidence I needed that, as a radio station who's motto details 'BBC Radio 6 Music brings together the cutting edge music of today, the iconic and groundbreaking music of the past 40 years' it seemed unthinkable for them not to have produced a contemporary jazz or even mildly jazz-orientated hour. I pondered this for a few minutes, sat down to write a scathing account of why this was wrong and then realized that, as an advocate of jazz alongside other contemporary and more importantly more commercial styles, BBC 6 Music could emerge as one of the main avenues for jazz artists.
The station, which saw an unprecedented 50% rise in listening figures throughout 2010 is one of my big hopes for British Jazz in 2012. Thousands of listeners every day, and a predominantly alternative demographic is the exact formulae that jazz requires to break free of the steely confine that the ill-conceived tweed suits and tobacco pipe stereotypes restrict it to. With regular air time on 6 Music, artists are no longer restricted to their own genre, but compiled artistically around each other, making jazz just as prominent and important as indie, dubstep and pop.
Solely jazz shows are not the way to go anymore! If we want to attract the interest to the genre that it deserves then implanting it within commercial stations, Radio 1 being the dream, is the way to go. The more people that are exposed to contemporary jazz, the more they will realize that it doesn't adhere to the 'scary' 'over analysed' and 'Intellectual' stereotypes that the wider public associate with it. Scrap jazz-only hours (on non-jazz based stations) because non-jazz fans just won't listen. BBC 6 Music's blend of genres is the way forward for the introduction of contemporary jazz into the mainstream market, and for independent music in general.
Reader Comments (5)
I agree up to a point. I got into jazz by hearing Stan Kenton on Family Favourites sandwiched between the Doris Days and the various classical pieces and Kenton was the cutting edge of his day.This lead me to start listening to jazz only programmes. So yes by all means integrate but not at the expense of the specialist program.
Having said that, these days, there is so much jazz on-line that I rarely listen to BBC unless it is live.
Lance
Bebop Spoken Here
Jazz can be considered as one of the best music styles that anyone could listen to. It can be tricky to listen to jazz when it's not being held live so I guess they're trying their best on this one. Still, there's a good taste for music around here.
The answer is that both are necessary. That's also shown by the fact that jazz is one of the areas where whole albums are still purchased on places like itunes, whereas there is an incentive to buy just single tracks.
Part of a problem with the specialist programmes on Radio 3 is that, in my view, it is squeezed by an ignorant listenership who pressurises the powers-that-be to limit the amount of jazz. So that presenters/producers are not given the space required. In Germany, by contrast, most stations broadcast an hour of jazz per day on their music stations - and Austrian radio even does a whole "jazz night"from 11 pm - 5 am on Saturdays.
Meanwhile, indeed, on 6 Music, people like Stuart Maconie and Cerys Matthews are playing single tracks. But here, there are the constraints: often just more well known stuff, or, as would probably be the case for Neil Cowley, a limitation of track lengths.
But, to open another strand, radio is now beyond the BBC or the Jazz FMs. Small stations, often though not exclusively on the internet are springing up and sometimes doing great jobs for jazz, e.g. Resonance, or NTS, where I do a weekly show.
Oliver
Babel Label/Vortex
Yep lots to chew over here…
As was said before I think that there is a place for both types of shows, is the show still on iplayer? It would be interesting to hear the various genres mixed to see how it works. As for the stereotypical jazz fan, well there is a bit of that still going on as most 30 somethings are starting families and the 40 somethings are busy looking after kids, the 50 somethings are skint paying for university fees so that leaves the 60 plus bracket, in the adult contemporary market! For both live gigs and buying recorded music.
The other audience is the teens and 20 somethings… which the enlightened ones may well listen to this show.
When ever I encounter the younger end of jazz fans, they tend to be very attentive, which makes me think that they are music students! I think one of the reasons that contemporary jazz gets banded ‘scary….’ is often the lack of a recognizable melody line in the trio setting. This concept can take a bit of getting used to if you are a non musician and hence the analysis.
As for scrapping the other shows… no you can’t do that what do you think all those bearded, sandal wearing, non digital radio, tweed types will have to listen to… ‘pop’ or ‘dubstep’?
I love jazz, but lots of other music too. What I lwould like on the radio is more shows where anything can happen - I love different styles rubbing up against each other, I love to be taken by surprise, and I love discovering new things I might never have considered. Lets try to keep music out of little boxes!