Funding for Jazz - talk to ACE & Jazz North

Jazz North and Arts Council England have teamed up to offer advice for jazz musicians planning to apply for Grants for the Arts.

On April 26th, individuals will be able to book a skype session lasting up to 40 minutes in which they will talk to an ACE relationship manager and a member of the Jazz North Executive team.

To be eligible, participants must have read through the guidance for Grants for the Arts, have a project in mind and be familiar with the application form.

To apply for a session and to find out more, visit the Arts Council England website.

NJ Advent Calendar - Jazz North (December 8th)

When we talk about the Northern Jazz scene, it's easy to forget quite how big an area that covers. From Hadrians Wall to the Midlands, that's us. That covers cities like Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle, rural areas and everything in between. Tasked with looking after all of this is Jazz North, the jazz development agency for the North and behind our door number 8.

Jazz North grew out of the previous regional organisations - Jazz Yorkshire, Jazz North West and Jazz North East. Starting off on project funding, the organisation has now become an NPO (in other words, a regularly funded organisation with the stability that comes with that) and recently appointed Lesley Jackson as the new Executive Director. To date, the organisation run/have run the following schemes -

Northern Line - the flagship scheme which supports 12 bands per season, offering them to promoters at subsidy and providing support in marketing and mentoring.

Jazz North Introduces - A mentoring scheme for young musicians, this project offers high profile festival performances to musicians aged between 16 and 25.

Jazz North Originals - This commissioning scheme is modeled on MJF's own commission project. Their first commission went to composer Rodrigo Constanzo.

CPD - There are a number of professional development events held for musicians including advice on funding, self-promotion and digital media. There is also a specialist strand called Making The Changes for young musicians ready to study jazz or start gigging professionally.

Education Conference and Networking - Each year, Jazz North holds a day long conference on jazz education, bringing together educators from across the region and nationally recognised speakers.

Find out more on the Jazz North website.

BlueJam Arts team up with NYJC

BlueJam Arts in Cumbria are teaming up with the National Youth Jazz Collective for their first collaborative weekend starting tomorrow. As part of the project, they are running a CPD event for music educators interested in developing their jazz education skills.

Led by Issie Barratt, this music educators CPD initiative aims to improve the provision and accessibility of jazz education for young people across the country. There are four sessions, the first on September 26th and then subsequent sessions on 14th November, 23rd January and 27th February.

Sessions will cover -

• Comping on guitar and piano
• Diatonic harmony jazz standards
• Grooves and feels
• Support in choosing appropriate repertoire with a list of 100 graded tunes each linked to a spotify folder. 

Plus much more. It costs £100 to attend all four session and concessionary rates are available. Those who wish to attend only one of two of the sessions should get in touch with BlueJam to discuss costs.

This event is part of a larger collaboration with NYJC which will see 4 intensive weekend workshops taking place in Cumbria for young jazz musicians.

Full information on these events is available on the BlueJam Arts website and their facebook page also contains up to date info. 

Jazz North at Lancaster Jazz Festival, Friday 19th September

Jazz North is to hold an event as part of Lancaster Jazz Festival on Friday 19th September aimed at providing advice and guidance to professional musicians on self-promotion, funding applications, building tours and more.

The afternoon will include a panel discussion called How Do We Get More Gigs featuring guest speakers including musicians and industry professionals and a session focused on funding opportunities for jazz musicians where musicians will get the chance to talk through their ideas with people in the know.

The event is part of the CPD strand of the organisation's work and aimed at professional (and young professional) jazz musicians. It is free to attend but sign-up is essential. Interested musicians can visit the Lancaster Jazz Festival website to sign-up for their place.