The Art of Programming Jazz in 2024
Jazz North Head of Talent on stage in his other role as mjf Artistic Director / CEO
Sharing the art of programming jazz with a new generation of jazz promoters
Steve Mead, Head of Talent Development, reflects on his Approaches to Programming session with the current cohort of young promoters on Jazz North and Generator’s collaborative Create:Live x Jazz North programme.
I’ve just been with the latest cohort of young people on Create:Live x Jazz North - our collaboration with Generator to help four northern budding promoters develop their career paths. They’re with us to learn and pick up tips on all manner of skills that we need when working in live music promotion: budgeting, networking, project managing, artist liaison, venue relationships…
One topic that rarely gets discussed with any depth of analysis is the art of programming. I say art, because, well, it is something of a mysterious craft. Trying to externalise the internal processes we go through when curating a schedule of music events and experiences (which is as close to a definition of programming as we’re likely to get) taps into the very essence of why music exerts such a pull on us. The desire for encountering – and, crucially, sharing – those magical live moments in performance when you just had to ‘be in room’ is one that programmers all crave. Because they know audiences crave that too.
But how do we get to that point? What approaches do we need to make to create the best conditions for that to happen? What values should we establish for ourselves, and what qualities do we need as human beings to be able to deliver on our hopes for those magical moments?
One such quality the cohort picked up on straightaway was creating the vibe for the right environment: telling a story; doing things for the right reasons.
We discussed how we should establish goals, have a mission and stay true to it. Establishing trust, with our audience and with our artists, was another priority. And how do we judge artistic quality? We had varying views on whether our personal taste should influence us when programming, as an intuition of that artistic quality – or whether we’re best to leave that at the door and use more external metrics.
Yet we identified some hard, practical considerations too of course. How viable are our event plans? Balancing our artistic integrity with hard economics is a challenge that faces everyone working in the arts. Put at its simplest: can we afford to do it? And is it worth occasionally taking that risk, as long as we can still gain something from it if our expectations aren’t met: losses made, but values intact – and lessons learnt.
We rounded off by delving deeper into the importance of risk, and risk taking – an attribute threaded through all aspects of programming and decision-making. The extent to which we were personally averse or attracted to it gave rise to some amusement – yet it’s this adrenaline rush that so often fuels all time-based creativity. Hearing how these young promoters responded to risk was enlightening and inspiring: it reminded me that risk-attraction is a characteristic that changes in us over time, transforming from a worrisome threat to a familiar companion, escorting our programming endeavours to the point where we may well be lost without it.
The current cohort of Create:Live x Jazz North promoters are David Kayode (Purple Collective), Katrina Miller, Anna Ross and Harry Stobart.
The programme continues until March 2024. More info: https://generator.org.uk/create-live
1:1 Advice sessions
Jazz North offers 1:1 advice sessions with any artists, promoters, venues and managers based in the North. Get in touch to book a call or Zoom session with our Programme Manager to discuss career progression, funding applications, project development, creating budgets, or just to air embryonic ideas.