Patronage in jazz?

A number of recent experiences and encounters have highlighted to me the sad fact that gigs for the jobbing jazz musician are currently in short supply. As one recently said to me, the regular pub and function gigs are few and far between, although the specialist jazz gigs, though few, are better than ever. My one regular jazz gig is now under threat because the pub has changed hands and the entertainment budget slashed. What's the motivation for a promoter to put on a jazz gig. A love of the music? Yes. A desire to make money? Most definitely not.

Perhaps we need to start thinking differently about how we support jazz through these hard times. Public arts spending is being comprehensively reviewed, but there are other ways of supporting the arts. . . old fashioned private patronage. In the 18th and 19th Centuries European aristocrats patronised composers such as Mozart and Beethoven. More recently, and closer to home, Geoff Simkins mentioned to me some BBC World Service staff up in Hampstead who used to club together and get jazz musicians to perform in their homes. Perhaps we need to see more private patrons of jazz.

I came across this video of of David Newton & Bobby Wellins playing "Out of Nowhere" in a private house concert earlier this year on the LondonJazz blog. If I could afford to live in a house with those beautiful windows, I would be tempted to fund my own jazz season. Some beautiful playing from both and perhaps some inspiration for an aspiring jazz patron. Any takers?

Video of Bobby Wellins: It Never Entered My Mind

Niall Burke filmed It Never Entered My Mind at the recent Brunswick gig reviewed below. Sublime.

Bobby Wellins with the Terry Seabrook Trio featuring Spike Wells & Dan Sheppard, The Brunswick, 18 April

Introducing the first set tenor player Bobby Wellins explained that he hadn't played in a while before delivering a blistering set of Thelonius Monk classics, segueing from Straight No Chaser to In Walked Bud to Monk's Mood and on though tunes such as Little Rootie Tootie and Blue Monk. In all, almost an hour of non-stop jazz.

There's something about Monk's tunes that encourages improvisers to take on Monkish qualities - thoughtful, surprising phrases, large intervals, dissonance. They all steered away from the obvious notes - Bobby Wellins never loses his fantastic sense of swing, pianist Terry Seabrook releasing a tumult of ideas, bassist Dan Sheppard developing interesting melodic ideas and drummer Spike Wells throwing in rich, complex rhythmic patterns. Collectively Bobby rightly referred to the band as "great improvisers".

The second set kicked off with My Funny Valentine as a waltz, moving to Green Dolphin Street and Mad About the Boy (according to Bobby, written for Douglas Fairbanks Junior by Noel Coward). One of my favourite tunes of the evening was the ballad It Never Entered My Mind, a song of solitude and regret played from the back of the stage, sans mic, by Bobby, with the acoustic sound of the sax reflecting the fragility of the lyric ("And once you told me I was mistaken/That I'd awaken with the sun/And order orange juice for one/It never entered my mind"). He also did a great, upbeat version of Neil Hefti's theme from Neil Simon's The Odd Couple with Walter Matthau as Oscar & Jack Lemon as Felix (Oscar: I know him. He'll kill himself just to spite me. Then his ghost will come back, following me around the apartment, haunting and cleaning, haunting and cleaning, haunting and cleaning...).

From the photo you'll see that I had no view of the drums. I did however have the delightful sight of Bobby and Terry looking on at Spike as he delivered another knock-out solo, a look that I can only describe as pleasure mixed with pride mixed with the anticipation of more pleasant surprises to come.

It was a great gig ending with Bobby graciously thanking the audience for turning up to watch the boys "fight the good fight". What's more, it was free!

Just one negative - the use of the PA. Why would you want to chuck the bass, piano and sax through PA  speakers in such as small venue? My experience of The Brunswick and similar venues is to get the sound guy to make minimal us if the PA for essentials such as voice, horns and piano if required. Musicians of this calibre can find their own balance and no one turns up to a gig like this expecting to be shouted at.