Vote for Greatest Jazz Artist of All Time with the BBC

A collection of 50 jazz musicians have been compiled by the BBC and JazzFM, with help for the music community, and voting is now open to select the Greatest Jazz Artist of All Time.

Voting opened on October 6th and will remain open until Thursday 22nd October. There is wide mix of artists included in the shortlist from the US, UK and Europe and both post-humous and living nominations.

The UK jazz scene is represented by Bobby Wellins, Jamie Cullum, John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler (an honorary Brit if ever there was one) , Loose Tubes and Norma Winstone.

Vote online by visiting the BBC Music website.

Leeds Musicians head to Montreal

Recently we published an article about the Montreal Jazz Festival and their BBC Introducing scheme. Jamie Cullum was leading the charge to select artists to be featured at this international festival. The three acts that were chosen have now been announced and Leeds will be well represented by singer/songwriter Malaika Shaw.

Ireland-born and now Leeds based, Malaika will appear with her group featuring LCoM alumni Jack Chandler, Dan Hudson and Leon Johnson. Also chosen to take part in the scheme were Mammal Hands (featuring Nick Smart, Jesse Barrett and Jordan Smart) and the Peter Edwards trio featuring Moses Boyd and Max Luthert.

You can find out more about Malaika through her facebook page and youtube channel.

Congratulations to all artists selected and we wish them good luck in Montreal!

BBC Introducing Showcase at Montreal Jazz Festival - apply to play!

As part of the 2015 Montreal Jazz Festival, Jamie Cullum will host the first BBC Introducing & PRS for Music Foundation showcase on July 1st.

Cullum, who hosts a jazz radio programme on BBC Radio 2, says he regularly finds music to play on his show through the BBC Introducing uploader, where unsigned groups and musicians can upload their music to heard. Following on from this, he will now be selecting groups to perform live at the Montreal showcase in the same way and is inviting groups to upload their tracks to be in with a chance.

It's expected that more information will be released soon, but for now this article on the BBC website contains links to the uploader and some information on the showcase.