The Culture Box
Part of 12 Points! Festival 2013
Friday 15th February
1100 Setting the Jazz Futures agenda – Gerry Godley, 12 Points Festival
1120 Winning Hearts & Minds – Diana Spiegelberg, Development, Serious
1200 Mapping the terrain 1 – Scandinavia
Maati Rehor,Finnish Jazz Federation
Lars Winter, Jazz Denmark
Nina Torske, Vest Norsk Jazz Senter
Lennart Stromback,Umea Jazz Festival
1245 The Great Disruption – Music & The Web right now
Jim Carroll, On The Record, The Irish Times
1330 lunch
1415 Mapping the terrain 2 – Ireland & The UK
Peggy Sutton, Somethin’ Else BBC
Ben Cottrell, Beats & Pieces
Shane Latimer, OKO
Gerry Godley, 12 Points Festival
1515 The Future is Multidisciplinary
Aisling O’Gorman, The Ark Centre for children
Sean MacErlaine, musician
Saturday 16th February
1100 Mapping the terrain 3 – Continental Europe
Reiner Michalke, Statgarten Cologne
Lukas Koenig, keonigleopold
Piotr Turkiewicz, Jazztopad
Jasper Stadhouders, Cactus Truck
1145 Build it to last – communities online
Darragh Doyle, Community Manager, World Irish
1230 Live long and prosper, strategies for longevity
Marcus O’Dair, Jazzwise UK
1315 Lunch
1400 Filthy Collaborators! Collectives & networks in Europe
Dave Morecroft, Match & Fuse
Nadin Deventer, Jazz Plays Europe
Annamaija Saarela, Europe Jazz Network
Martin Roen, Swinging Europe
1445 Brainstorming, mapping the next steps for Jazz Futures
Gerry Godley, 12 Points
12 Points & Jazz Futures are part of Culture Connects,
The Cultural Programme of Irelands EU Presidency 2013
Jazz Futures – Who’s Coming
Germany Nadin Deventer, Jazz Plays Eurupe
France Antoine Bos, AFIJMA
Denmark Lars Winther, Jazz Denmark
UK Marcus O'Dair, Jazzwise
UK Dave Morecroft Match & Fuse
Denmark Martin Roen, Swinging Europe
Poland Piotr Turkiewicz, Jazztopad
Norway Nina Torske, VestNorsk Jazz Senter
UK Diana Spiegelberg, Serious
Estonia Merli Antsmaa, Jazzkaar
UK Sutton Peggy BBC
Sweden Lennart Stromback, Umea Jazz Festival
Poland Marek Dusza Rzeczpospolita
Norway Jan Granlie, JazzNytt
Norway Eilen Markusson, Bergen Jazz Forum
Finland Maati Rehor, Finnish Jazz Federation
Germany Reiner Michalke, Statgarten Cologne
Italy Paula Mastrobuono, CAM jazz
Italy Ermano Basso, CAM jazz
Italy Daniela Floris, Jazz Italia
Finland Annamaija Saarela, EJN
Germany Korneila Vossbein, Moers Festival
UK Amy Pearce, Serious
Ireland Gerry Godley, 12 Points
Ireland Jim Carroll, The Irish Times
Ireland Sean MacErlaine, 12 Points Alumni
Ireland Aisling O’Gorman, The Ark Cultural Centre for Children
Ireland Darragh Doyle, World Irish
Jazz Futures – Some Context
Every February for the last six years, 12 emerging bands have travelled from every part of Europe to participate in a small jazz festival. Alternating between Dublin and other European cities like Stavanger, Porto and Umea and with an artistic mobility programme that has brought it to many other European urban centres, 12 Points has quickly established itself as an important link in the developmental chain for young artists. 12 Points is a “mezzanine” festival, a stopping point for artists to negotiate the journey between success in a national context and breaking through in the international arena. These artists are at a pivotal point in career development and are highly motivated, generating persuasive material and forming new ensembles with their peers. The importance of international performance in artistic development is well understood, and yet significant barriers exist for younger, less established performers, markedly so in Europe’s smaller member states, where talented artists can quickly exhaust the opportunities afforded by their domestic performing environment. Unlike the dynamic, fast reacting structures that prevail in rock and pop music for example, the wider European jazz sector can be slow to pick up on emerging trends, creative directions and important emerging artists. Like keyhole surgery, 12 Points is a targeted response to this structural issue.
12 Points is programmed through an open call, which annually brings forth 300 submissions. The call requires applicants to provide an unusual level of detail, including detailed performance and pedagogical history of all band members, in addition to audio, video and biographical information. Thus the application process itself has become akin to an annual audit of the evolution, migration and creative preoccupations of emerging European musicians. This process gives us insights into the forces at work in European jazz, positive and negative, and the festival’s gathering of artists, media, producers and programmers give us an opportunity to share this learning. Its something we’ve always done informally, and now we’d like to take this process a step further, with Jazz Futures.
Over two days, together we will consider the key issues facing our art form, working collectively to identify themes and strategies to help up flourish in the years ahead. None of us are under any illusions as to the headwinds for all cultural actors in Europe right now. The economic challenges are profound as funding at all levels, be it philanthropic, corporate, regional, national or European continues to contract. Europe’s citizens have less money in their pockets, and live jazz is low on their list of priorities. The existential crisis in the newspaper business means that niche art forms like jazz are struggling to maintain visibility in that space. Public service broadcasters throughout Europe are under similar strains. Record retailers are disappearing fast from our high streets and labels and distributors are fighting for survival. Europe’s many jazz schools produce a disproportionate number of graduates for a contracting market place, with less places to play and less appetite for risk. We lack the institutional support structure that other areas of European music making can rely on, such as orchestral music. Lastly and of the greatest concern, audiences are getting older, and we’ve yet to figure out how best to exploit the web to bring fresh new eyes and ears to the music.
But all is not lost! Not for the first time, the music itself is proving itself immensely durable and adaptable, as evidenced by the artists who will perform at 12 Points this week. You could argue that its having a renaissance, as young musicians grasp the new tools of technology to embrace new ideas, new sounds, new concepts, using all available resources to renew the principles of creativity and spontaneity, the threads that have connected jazz musicians through the ages. The world is changing, very fast in some respects, and the music reflects that. Now its time for those of us who work in other roles to reflect those same changes, and explore smart solutions to the challenges ahead. This is the work we will undertake at Jazz Futures.
Gerry Godley, 12 Points.
Further information:
T +353 (0)1 670 3885
E [email protected]
