Leading musician finds BBC Radio Scotland’s programme cull “puzzling”
Saxophonist Tommy Smith has spoken out against BBC Radio Scotland’s plans to axe its Sunday evening Jazz Nights programme as part of a series of cuts that will also affect classical and traditional music.
Smith, the founder-director of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and head of jazz at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, finds the timing of Jazz Nights’ impending demise puzzling.
It’s only a matter of weeks since Georgia Cécile won both the UK Jazz Act of the Year and Vocalist of the Year titles at the Jazz FM Awards and pianist Fergus McCreadie won the Scottish Album of the Year Award. And yet our national radio station is withdrawing a programme that gives these talents an essential platform. ~ Tommy Smith
Smith emphasises the value he places on Jazz Nights:
We need a programme such as Jazz Nights to continue to attract young people to the music and to draw attention to musicians’ successes through providing live on-air sessions and playing their recordings. Jazz Nights can also help with promoting the concerts and festivals that provide outlets for players and opportunities for audiences to hear the high standards being attained.
As head of jazz at the RCS Smith has watched as the number of musicians who once headed for London to study and further their careers has reduced noticeably. Since the jazz course was established in 2009, the jazz scene in Glasgow has been thriving as musicians remain in the city when their studies are complete and continue to form bands and release their music.
We have so many remarkable young jazz artists coming through the Royal Conservatoire, emerging musicians who require an outlet for their music. I don’t want to advise my students to move to London to get their feet on the first step of the career ladder.
Smith hopes that it’s not too late to reverse the decision to axe Jazz Nights, along with Classics Unwrapped and Pipeline.
I support the arts across the board and it’s great to see Scotland excelling in so many disciplines. But I especially urge Radio Scotland to keep this invaluable programme, Jazz Nights in place and to continue shining a light on Scotland’s jazz scene, which is currently the envy of many countries around the world.
I am fully behind Tommy Smith, on his disgust of BBC Scotland to get rid of the Jazz Nights Programme. All music is relevant to the listener of their chosen genre, otherwise why do we have so many different music stations catering to a wide audience if that is not the case?
It is because if we all liked the same music, what a boring world we would live in and the BBC would only have Radio 1, playing the Top 10 over and over again until you can take no more and you have pulled your hair out, or smashed the music system into a million shards of plastic, for lack of a wider range of music.
This is a disgrace and the BBC Scotland should take a long hard look at themselves in a mirror and think, do I really want to leave music lover’s and especially those of Jazz in the lurch like this?
Music is life and life is music, no matter what genre, I listen to Jazz, Heavy Metal, Electronic, Blues, Classical, Folk. But what you are actually saying BBC Scotland is – No you will listen to what we will let you hear!
Clearly the BBC has turned into a Bloody Boring Company.
Come on BBC you are the world’s best broadcaster, you cannot let things slip, for without the listeners, what are you?
Regards
An angry jazz listener from England.