The UK jazz invasion

Since it’s first recordings in 1917 by the Original Dixieland jazz band, jazz has undergone many
significant transformations. It’s gone through being the most popular music of an era to the least
popular of another (Rosa, 2015). It’s a musical art form that has often reflected the changes and
developments of our culture, given a voice to a whole generation of musicians while taking it away
from a whole generation of others. It’s a genre of music that is constantly evolving, expanding and
changing, passing through several distinct phases of development since it’s creation (Schuller,
2018). Until recent years jazz has been considered to be stuck in the past, but a new generation of
British jazz musicians have been wrestling jazz from it’s gatekeepers and making it their own
(Hutchinson, 2018). Through experimentation and cross pollination (Bakare, 2015), these
musicians have started a movement which critics around the world are calling “The British Jazz
Invasion”(Orlov, 2018). This essay will endeavour to evaluate the consequences this current
development has on the music industry by identifying it’s origins, the musicians behind the scene
and by shedding light on the opportunities or threats it brings.

A brief history of the Origins of Jazz

Jazz is a musical art form that emerged out of New Orleans at the beginning of the 20 th century. It’s
distinctly American and is commonly referred to as “America’s classical music” (Taylor, 1986, p21).
Born out of the interaction and inter-change of people among different cultures, such as Africans,
Americans and Europeans, it’s a means of communication between people who speak different
languages. Slaves that were brought over from Africa were forbidden to speak their native
language and music became a means of survival and a form of relief. They would sing spirituals and
work songs to express common emotion, the more rhythmic of these spirituals contained all the
characteristics of jazz and would eventually turn in to ragtime, the first authentic Jazz style.

Jazz has a distinct vocabulary and repertoire with characteristics such as call and response, breaks
and syncopation and has a “certain distinct rhythmic and melodic character, one that constantly
involves improvisation.” (Ulanov,1995, p7). Improvisation is one of the essential components of
Jazz where performers exchange musical ideas, creating and composing spontaneously. But
improvisation is only made possible through a thorough knowledge of the tradition in which it is
taking place. (Sara Ramshaw and Paul Stapleton).

The nature of recent British Jazz genre

A new generation of British Jazz musicians are approaching jazz from a variety of interesting angles
by experimenting and adding their own influences on the genre. They are going about it in an
open-minded approach and moving on from the rigid traditions of the 1920s. Young musicians are
not trying to satisfy the standards that were set in the past (Hutchings, 2018), they are embracing
the fundamental elements of jazz and simultaneously liberating the genres boundaries. Previous
jazz players would look to America for inspiration, but today’s young generation are taking their
inspiration from the British genres they have grown up listening to. Artists are integrating grime,
hip-hop, drum and bass, afro-beat, dub, house, jungle and calypso into their music. It’s creating a
new original sound which is dance orientated and energetic where experimentation and cross
pollination are at the heart of a new jazz (Bakare, 2015). In the current day, exposure to music
genres is transient, ever-changing, and accessible, contributed to the originality of modern artists.
In recent years British Jazz has been growing in popularity and critics across the world have been
referring to this new wave as “the British Jazz Invasion” (Orlov, 2018) and “the British jazz
explosion” (Hutchinson, 2018). This new generation of jazz performers are attracting younger
audiences that would not have previously been drawn to the more traditional form of the genre.
Figures show that in the summer of 2017, jazz received 56% more plays on Spotify in the UK
compared with the same period in 2016 (Whitehouse, 2018). With the help and support of the
internet, and online radio stations such as NTS and Worldwide FM, these musicians are bringing
their music to the attention of a wider community of listeners.

Characteristics of British Jazz culture and expansion – Projects and Organisations

Tomorrow’s Warrior’s
Over recent years, London has been slowly turning into a new jazz epicentre and it has become the
meeting ground for this generation of jazz musicians (Orlov, 2018). Tomorrow’s Warriors, an
organisation that has been running bespoke jazz education and artist development programmes
since 1991, are at the very heart of this new development. They have been nurturing and providing
a platform for young emerging and established artists and giving special attention to girls, and
those from the African diaspora. Taking residency on weekends at the London Southbank centre,
they have been inviting young musicians to take part in their young artist development
programmes, providing completely free lessons and giving the opportunity for everyone to join.
They have helped nurture and develop the new generation of jazz musicians of today, their alumni
students have gone on to win multiple awards and the organisation won the Parliamentary award
for Jazz education in 2017 (Quinn, 2017).

Jazz Re:freshed
Jazz Re:freshed, a London based organisation established in 2003 that runs a wide range of
services from their promotions company to their record label, have also been playing a major key
role in the development of the scene. With an ethos intended to challenge the elitism and
prejudice within the jazz community, they have re-established London on the map of
contemporary jazz (Residents’ hour, 2016). Their live jazz residency held in west London has given
up and coming musicians a platform of opportunity in order to showcase their music. It’s been a
breeding ground where multi-cultural musicians can share the stage in jam sessions and take the
music to new and exciting places.

Artists at the forefront of this movement

Shabaka Hutchings
Shabaka Hutchings is one of the leading figures to bring London’s jazz scene into the spotlight
(Russonello, 2018). A thirty-three-year-old tenor saxophonist and clarinettist born in England and
raised in Barbados, he returned to England to undertake classical studies on the clarinet at the
Guildhall School of Music where is was awarded a scholarship in 2003. He is a part of numerous
projects and is the bandleader of 3 major projects, ‘Sons of Kemet’, ‘Shabaka’ and the ‘Ancestors
and the Comet’ is coming. In 2017 he was awarded the jazz act of the year and in 2018 was
awarded Jazz innovation of the year. Earlier this year he announced that he had signed to the label
Impulse!Records, a division of Universal Music Group. He got involved with Tomorrow’s warriors
while studying at Guildhall School of Music, which in turn led him to meet his fellow band
members that he plays with today and became involved with the wider community of like-minded
musicians that are behind this new wave. He was approached by Gilles Peterson, BBC radio 6
presenter and owner of Brownswood recordings in order to act as the musical project director of
the album “We out here.”The album which came out on the 9th of February 2018, showcases the
new generation of London jazz (Yeung, 2017) and features recordings from artists such as Maisha,
Joe Armon-Jones, Kokoroko, Theon Cross, Moses Boyd, Ezra Collective, Triforce, Shabaka Hutchings
and Nubya Garcia.

Nubya Garcia
Nubya Garcia, a female saxophonist and composer from London, is another leading figure in the
UK’s jazz resurgence. She was awarded ‘Breakthrough act of the year 2018’ following the release of
her debut album “Nubya’s 5ive”. Like Shabaka Hutchings, she is also an alumnus of Tomorrow’s
Warriors and has met fellow band members performing at Jazz Refreshed’s events and live shows.
Many of the musicians pioneering the British jazz invasion are critically acclaimed alumni’s of
Tomorrow’s Warriors. The organisation has nurtured and mentored a lot of the young generation
of jazz musicians behind the UK’s scene (Peterson, 2018). Their ethos of encouraging young
performers to broaden the boundaries of jazz has helped put the genre back in the spotlight.

By integrating genres from British culture such as Hip-hop, Drum and Bass, Jungle and Grime in to
their music, this young generation of jazz musicians are creating a sound that is proving to be more
appealing to a younger audience of listeners. Venues such as Ronnie Scotts, a renowned jazz venue
in Camden Town, is witnessing a shift in the age of crowds these young musicians are bringing to
there shows. ‘The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble’ played to a sold-out Ronnie Scotts club on a
Wednesday evening to a crowd whose audience was predominantly ages under thirty, which for a
jazz club is quite young (Gumble, 2016).

Another contribution to the popularity of the British jazz wave has come from the rise of American
jazz acts in the United Sates, thus creating an open mindedness to the genre. Jazz musicians
overseas have been collaborating with mainstream hip-hop artists exposing jazz to a wider
audience. Kendrik Lamar’s album, “to pimp a butterfly,” which was released in March 2015 marked
a positive shift for jazz. Kamasi Washington, a jazz tenor saxophonist from Los Angeles acted as
musical director for the album. He is part of a generation of jazz musicians that were brought up
listening to hip-hop alongside the jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong and Miles Davies. The result
is a thrilling reinvention of a genre that has been guilty of fixating on its past (Lewis, 2016).

Another platform for these musicians to reach a wider audience of listeners has been through the
integration of songs on playlists created on streaming sites such as Spotify. It is giving jazz artists an
open door where the genre’s rule book and the negative etiquette previously related to jazz do not
come in to play. Take for example Neil Cowley, a jazz pianist and composer of his meditative song
“Grace,” has seen his streaming figures rocket overnight. His track was slowly gaining momentum
and achieved figures of around 3000 plays before Spotify integrated it on the peaceful piano
playlist which has 1.9 million subscribers. This gave his track a wide exposure that was liberated
from the traditional jazz genre. This new exposure saw his song go from 3000 plays to 25000 a day
and reach 2m plays in the space of 8 weeks following its release (Cowley, 2016). Evidence that the
internet is a lucrative platform for the transport and exposure of new music.

What public/audience is this music reaching out to and where? Clubs/festivals...

This new approach to the genre, which is dance oriented, is introducing jazz to wider audiences
and “the boundary between club culture and jazz is finally breaking.”(Peterson, 2018). Promotors
such as Jazz Re:freshed, are putting on weekly shows throughout London in places outside of the
traditional Jazz circuit. The Total Refreshment Centre in Stoke Newington is one of these places, it
is showcasing up and coming Avant Garde live bands alongside big club nights. Club nights have
played a big role in the development of the British sound and have acted as a breeding ground for
the new wave of British jazz (Bakare, 2017). British jazz has been gaining recognition across the
world and it has been infiltrating music festivals on different continents.
In 2017, British Underground and Jazz Re:refreshed, supported by funding from the Arts Council
England and PRS Foundation, showcased a group of UK jazz musicians at ‘The South By Southwest’
(SXSW) festival in Austin. A music and film festival that attracted up to 168000 participants in 2017.
Among the UK jazz bands to perform were GoGo Penguin, a Manchester based piano trio that
received standing ovations (Pareles, 2017). Such bands as these that are part of the British Jazz
wave have bridged new ground taking this revitalized and innovative Jazz back to its birth place.

What are the benefits and opportunities it brings to the music industry (musicians, songwriters,
producers..) who is benefitting from it? Why are they benefitting from it and how?

This new wave of British jazz has brought many benefits along with it. The musicians themselves
are benefiting from a musical freedom that was difficult to attain in the more traditional form of
jazz. Before the new wave, the jazz world seemed impenetrable and uninviting to these young
musicians, platforms were not in place and the rules were stricter (Bakare, 2018). This creative
freedom has enabled a young generation to acquire a voice of its own (Murph, 2017).
Sound engineers will also feel the rewards of this new wave as the scene expands and requires the
opening of additional venues, thus providing them with new opportunities of work. Venues
throughout London have enabled the opening of several different jazz events such as Total
Refreshment centre, Church of Sound, Cable Cafe and the Jazz Cafe (Orlov, 2018).
Tour managers will surely see an increase in the number of job opportunities as most of these
bands are being programmed at festivals throughout the world. Jazz Re:freshed outer-national
showcased a number of emerging UK jazz artists at the SXSW festival for the last 2 years (Frometa,
2018). It is not just the UK jazz artists that are benefitting but all jazz related artists in general, the
genre has been considered to be locked in the past but this new wave is bringing the genre back in
to the spotlight and the new generation are making jazz cool again (Hodgkinson, 2018).

Since it’s first recordings in 1917, jazz has been used as a tool of communication for the
generations of musicians that have chosen to embrace it. The open mindedness and creative
freedom of the genre in it’s true form have gone hand in hand with the cultural evolutions of the
past century. By embarrassing their cultural heritage and experimenting with the genre, the young
musicians behind the “British jazz invasion” have given a voice to a whole generation of aspiring
musicians. They have expanded the boundaries of jazz and brought the genre back in to the
spotlight providing a platform for the generations to come.

References:
Hutchings, S. 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/08/british-jazz-invasion-moses-boyd-
matthew-halsall-nubya-garcia
Orlov, P. 2018 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/new-london-jazz-shabaka-hutchings-
nubya-garcia-moses-boyd-w516682

Hutchinson, K. 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/08/british-jazz-invasion-moses-boyd-

matthew-halsall-nubya-garcia

Whitehouse, M. 2018 https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/qvwj3m/jazz-but-not-as-you-knew-it

Quinn, P. 2017 https://theartsdesk.com/new-music/2017-parliamentary-jazz-awards-votes-are

Residents’ hour, 2016 https://boilerroom.tv/residents-hour-jazz-refreshed/

Russonello, G. 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/arts/music/sons-of-kemet-shabaka-hutchings-

your-queen-is-a-reptile-review.html

Yeung, V. 2017 https://crackmagazine.net/2017/12/brownswood-recordings-celebrate-new-jazz-album-

we-out-here-two-day-launch/

Peterson, G. 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/16/gilles-peterson-club-culture-jazz-

nubya-garcia-nightports-shabaka-hutchings

Gumble, D. 2016 http://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/the-gregory-porter-effect-how-jazz-is-

reaching-a-new-young-audience/065746

Cowley, N. 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/sep/16/ride-the-spotify-wave-

playlist-jazz-hits-neil-cowley-trio-jazz

Lewis, J. 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/06/new-cool-kamasi-kendrick-gave-jazz-

new-groove

Bakare, L. 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/mar/15/jazz-london-moses-boyd-united-

vibrations

Pareles, J. 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/19/arts/music/sxsw-south-by-southwest-best-

music.html

Murph, J. 2017 http://downbeat.com/news/detail/we-out-here-documents-london-scenes-young-

jazz-talent

Orlov, P. 2018 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/new-london-jazz-shabaka-hutchings-

nubya-garcia-moses-boyd-w516682

Frometa, RJ. 2018 http://ventsmagazine.com/2018/02/14/jazz-refreshed-british-underground-host-

sxsw-showcase-celebrating-best-new-uk-jazz/

Hodgkinson, W. 2018 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-jazz-got-back-its-cool-vzd9v9p3k

Rosa, D. 2015 https://news.jazzline.com/news/jazz-least-popular-music-genre/

Schuller, G. 2018 https://www.britannica.com/art/jazz