Blog Archive May 2010

Jazz virtue

By Mark Doffman, 4 May 2010

Anybody with an interest in jazz is acutely aware of its perennially uncomfortable position, bumping up against competing, more valued art worlds within British culture. The history of its being politely ignored by the cultural establishment is rendered even more poignant with the ever tantalising threat of its being proclaimed ‘the next BIG THING’. For people involved in jazz, in the face of this historical indifference and the fantasy of soon to be delivered riches, I am left wondering what it is about this music that draws so many musicians to it.