Category Archives: Complaints

Does Jazz Get The Money Due To It – Jazzwise March 2020

I was bemused to read in the article “Time for Change” that Arts Council England gives 16% of its music funding to jazz. My last calculation in “Public Investment in Jazz 2012-2022” (see  https://www.chrishodgkins.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Public-investment-in-jazz-2012-to-2022.pdf) showed that of the total funding of music for Regularly Funded Organisations was £359 million of which jazz accounted for £6.9million or 1.9%.For the […]

Rebirth of the cool – Streaming helps jazz reach new audiences – up to a point Lord Copper

There was an article by Sarah Marsh in the Guardian on Monday 29th July 2019 that rising numbers of younger fans spark a UK jazz renaissance and streaming sites report growth in young listeners and festivals are signing up more jazz acts. However there are two caveats. Streaming as a marketing tool allows jazz musicians […]

How will our museums survive if they subject every donor to to an ethical audit?

There was an an article in The Observer by Mark Lawson “How will our museums survive if they subject every donor to to an ethical audit?” (24th March 2019) that drew attention to the ethical angst, dichotomy and perhaps hypocritical nature of arts patronage amongst established institutions. The industrialist Sir Henry Tate was the early benefactor […]

The Observer on jazz at Schloss Elmau

I read the article promoting Schloss Elmau by Harriet Green in the Observer on Sunday 17th March 2019. A raft of musicians were mentioned and regrettably jazz was sidelined by the fact that the author admitted to having a “deaf ear to jazz” – what ever that means –  and the jazz musicians calling themselves […]

Time for a political reformation

Will Hutton’s analysis “Labour’s leadership is at rock bottom” in the Observer on the 23rd December 2018 whilst correct, failed to address the problems that are at the heart of the sorry mess the UK is in. At the last referendum the British public were egregiously misinformed, misled and lied to. The next referendum to […]

The India Club, 143-145 The Strand – Asset Community Value Application

The owners of the freehold of the India Club are at it again and have resubmitted another planning application for a “Boutique Hotel” Wikipedia sums up “Boutique” as: A boutique is “a small store that sells stylish clothing, jewelry, or other usually luxury goods. The term “boutique” and also “designer” refer (with some differences) to […]

Structure before strategy is not the way to avoid executive stress – SNAFU 1991

The Richard Wilding Supporting the Arts: Review of the Structure of Arts Funding in 1989, drew attention to the basic structural weaknesses and the need for the Arts Council to take on a more strategic approach. On the 16th October 1990  the Arts Council announced at a consultative seminar on the reform of the arts funding […]

National Arts and Media Strategy 1992 – Flawed, but the Arts Council had a go

In 1992 the Arts Council published a National Arts and Media Strategy. The whole process was flawed from the start as the Arts Council had restructured first and then tried to concoct a policy to fit the structure. Regrettably life does not work like that strategy comes first and structure to expedite the strategy comes […]

Public investment in jazz 2012 to 2022

Stuart Nicholson in his book “Jazz and Culture in a Global Age” stated: “But if adequate remuneration had become one problem facing American jazz musicians, then falling audience numbers was another. Yet those who attempted to highlight issues such as these often found their words unwelcome, un- American even, and likely to be shouted down […]

How music streaming saved the music industry?

There was an article in the G2 section of the Guardian on the 25th April 2018 saying music streaming saved the music industry. Streaming may have saved some parts of the music industry but it carries problems for under-represented music such as jazz. The nub of the problem with streaming for the jazz musician is […]