The Jazzgroove Artistic Policy


JAZZGROOVE?
JAZZ, GROOVE?
JAZZ and GROOVE?
JAZZ or GROOVE?
Is JAZZ GROOVE?

Where to draw the line?
I’ve kind of given up on giving straight answers because they don’t appear to exist.
Why?

Here’s an opinion.

Music is “of the muse” and definitions and the muse don’t really get along very well.
It seems that once we define something it gets boring and the really exciting part of music is when we’re not sure what it is.

We’ve probably all heard this story.
“I loved that band before anyone else heard them and now that everyone’s into it I don’t like it as much.”
So I admit the last time you heard it was in high school but the essence is still true.

I played an album to a friend once, who loved it and then seemed very disappointed to find out it was played by some people he knew.

One of my favourite stories is of a particularly revered and very famous recorded solo by the guitarist Eric Clapton on the album “Crossroads”, where years later he admitted to having lost the beat entirely.

People ask all the time “What is Jazzgroove?”, and I find that my best answer is no answer at all since the exciting part is that nobody really knows. It’s happening NOW! and It’s not yet fallen into a box you can put a lid on.

So maybe record store owners don’t know where to put our stuff on the shelf and radio disc jockeys are unsure to play the next album release and some find they loved the ‘support’ more than the ‘headline’.

No definitions is the price we pay for the muse, who brings us such brilliance and passion and excitement and emotion into our lives through music.

So who really cares what Jazzgroove is when the music is this good?

Current joint Artistic Director, Cameron Undy 2007 - current





Former joint Artistic Director, Evan Mannell 2005-2006
(From the Evan and Zoe Hauptmann years)

I've recently been reading a little bit of Spike Milligan. Well not actually him but his prose and poetry (der). And I've decided that Jazzgroove is not dissimilar. It's strange and it's abstract but it is very simple most of the time. It's about ideas that suddenly spring forth and others that are more like recurring themes. Sometimes it's very silly indeed and other times it seems not to completely hit the mark, thus leaving people wondering, "what the hell is he on about?" But above all it's not for everybody. Like anything, if it's marketed correctly and wrapped up and made to look pretty and important it will find itself in the correct hands, and these hands will validate it and stand up for it at dinner parties when it's name falls into disrepute. The whole purpose of (and reason for) Jazzgroove is to provide a network and support structure for the presentation of modern jazz and groove music. This is the music that has spent its entire history divorcing itself from a mainstream audience, either consciously or not. We are trying to build a position of strength from which to claw back an audience and, like Spike Milligan, say, "sure it’s strange! It's unusual but that's the whole point." We recognize the importance of our music and our musicians and we believe so firmly in them that we insist they have a place to be heard. We also insist that there be an audience, however this is probably an arena where even the great Spike Milligan needed a little help. His work is unapologetic, and thank any god-type figure you like for that. We are the people that make singer songwriters more interesting and bad horn arrangements better. We make peoples ears prick up all the time. We are the spice of people's bloody lives. They don't have a clue what we're doing or why we don't have day jobs. All they know is that we "made the night" for them, that they had "such a good time!" They're genuinely interested in us. "So, is this the only band you play in?" "Yeah, we play four times a fucking year but luckily the gigs are all so well paid that the rest of the time we just spend trying to comatose ourselves at the pub." And try buying a ticket to something at the Sydney festival! People love a bit of plink and a bit of plonk as long as it costs an appropriately abstract amount of money to go and see it. "I didn't understand it…but I thought it was simply wonderful!" "Oh, same goes big nose."

As for our artistic policy, read between the lines and you'll know whether or not to send your demo.

Evan Mannell
Jazzgroove Artistic Director 2005-2006