For most people the musical tastes forged in their teenage
years stick to them throughout their lives.
I was unfortunate enough to hit puberty at a time when the choice was
teenybop pap (The Osmonds, David Cassidy, Mud, Gary Glitter, Sweet) or
preposterous prog rock ( Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes, Genesis). So I went back forty years earlier to the
hits of the 20’s and 30’s and rather liked what I heard – I liked the sartorial
elegance too – a tuxedo and a short back and sides looked a lot better than
some twit wrapped in baco-foil with high stacked boots and glittery make up on
his mug.
The Sweet
The music of the 20’s and 30’s was just the thing when
pimply schoolboys of the 50’s were looking for music to rebel to – remember
that this was well before mods and rockers and followers of Chris Barber and
Monty Sunshine were far too nice to dress as Teddy Boys and harass little old
ladies on street corners. The rebellion
was so mild that most grown-ups probably didn’t notice that their children were
rebelling at all. It wasn’t until the
60’s that some of them got the hang of rebelling properly.
Our Best Bits & Favourite Jazz
Concert Showreel By The Jazz Repertory Company
Now I don’t wish to be considered rude here because this is
our audience were talking about here -
50’s school kids who discovered
Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller and local jazz talent like Humphrey Lyttleton, Acker Bilk and the aforementioned Barber. We’re delighted that they come to our
concerts but are well aware, as no doubt they are too, that they might not be
attending for that much longer.
Ain't Misbehavin' / Stormy Weather
Fats Waller
So, we are on a quest to appeal to younger audiences and a
sure fire way to do this is to just have young musicians playing the stuff. This is all well and good but I don’t want to
retire just yet and quite a large proportion of the musical experts in my
address book are of an age when they start complaining about their knees and
express exasperation at modern technology (i.e. well over 27). Just up the road in Shoreditch it would seem that there are
young bands playing jazz to young audiences and a Jazz Repertory Company field
trip is in preparation for early 2015 when a team of researchers attired in
skinny jeans with stick on beards and fake tattoos will be sent off to buzzing
venues like The Nightjar armed with clipboards and tape recorders.
100 Years Of Big Band Jazz In 99 Minutes
Pete Long & The Jazz Repertory Company At Cadogan hall
In the meantime we have a young person in our office who can
talk to people under the age of 30 and whip them into enthusiasm for music that
may have had their grandparents doing the hand jive and we employ an equally
young person who runs a PR company who has similar skills of persuasion. We have seen a promising rise in our
audiences of men with hair, men with hair that hasn’t yet gone grey (although I
think one person came to one of our longer concerts and had dark hair when it
started and grey when it finished), women with a complete collection of their
original knees and women who weren’t even born when David Cassidy was sending
schoolgirls mad with passion. We’ve even
had some people who are still at school and don’t look like they’ve been given
detention when we spot them in the foyer at the interval.
Daydreamer
David Cassidy
We’re all convinced at JRC that when we get this new
audience in they will love what they see and hear – we are about fun after all,
we’re not earnest and po-faced and we do like it when people say “I don’t like jazz but this is really
good”. In 2015 our campaign to reach
out to an ever widening age range will be stepped up a notch and we hope to see
a smattering of punks, goths and bright eyed and bushy tailed school kids out
there discovering the delights of that genial fatty Paul Whiteman.
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