Jazz FM - Here we go again

[Jazzjet]

Jazz FM has just relaunched in the UK and it looks like we're back to the same old same old.

Lunchtime, they've just played Nutbush City Limits by Ike and Tina Turner, shortly followed by

Maxwell. Nothing wrong with the tracks but it sure as hell isn't jazz.

[BillF]

Jazz FM has just relaunched in the UK and it looks like we're back to the same old same old.

Lunchtime, they've just played Nutbush City Limits by Ike and Tina Turner, shortly followed by

Maxwell. Nothing wrong with the tracks but it sure as hell isn't jazz.

Groans from another disgruntled UK jazzer!

[Rosco]

So, what happened to Smooth FM?

[A Lark Ascending]

I don't think a pure jazz station will ever succeed in the UK. After tuning in to a couple of programmes regularly at first I lost touch with The Jazz after a month or so.

Far better would be for the BBC to use its public service remit to operate a station for non-classical, noncommercial music. Jazz could share with blues, folk, world, reggae etc. Each would get a greater range than is eked out over Radio 2/3 at present; and the dons could stop whinging that jazz gets in the way of the Haydn string quartets on Radio 3 as the existing programmes are transferred.

I'm not bothered about 24 hour jazz streaming (which always tends to reduce to a limited number of genres). What I do like is hearing someone who cares playing music that enthuses them. Peter Clayton, Charles Fox, Humph in the olden days...Alyn Shipton at present. Just a few programmes like that would do me.

I'd really like a jazz equivalent of Radio 3's 'CD Review' - Shipton does the 'Building a Library' element but the only new release programme is the occasional episode of Jazz on 3.

[Rosco]

Far better would be for the BBC to use its public service remit to operate a station for non-classical, noncommercial music. Jazz could share with blues, folk, world, reggae etc.

Now, that I would listen to!

[BillF]

Far better would be for the BBC to use its public service remit to operate a station for non-classical, noncommercial music. Jazz could share with blues, folk, world, reggae etc.

Now, that I would listen to!

With you there!

[sidewinder]

I'm not bothered about 24 hour jazz streaming (which always tends to reduce to a limited number of genres). What I do like is hearing someone who cares playing music that enthuses them. Peter Clayton, Charles Fox, Humph in the olden days...Alyn Shipton at present. Just a few programmes like that would do me.

Bring it on !

It's so obvious - yet no-one in this damn country has got the balls to do it.

Instead I guess we get another 30 years of Wogan, Jonathan Ross etc.

[sidewinder]

So, what happened to Smooth FM?

Hopefully liquidised.

[Jazzjet]

I'm not bothered about 24 hour jazz streaming (which always tends to reduce to a limited number of genres). What I do like is hearing someone who cares playing music that enthuses them. Peter Clayton, Charles Fox, Humph in the olden days...Alyn Shipton at present. Just a few programmes like that would do me.

Bring it on !

It's so obvious - yet no-one in this damn country has got the balls to do it.

Instead I guess we get another 30 years of Wogan, Jonathan Ross etc.

Not to mention endless food and cookery, makeover shows and those damn programmes following round trawlermen, lifeguards, traffic cops etc etc. What next? Toliet attendants? Our broadcasting is capable of being world class but has dumbed down to a significant degree.

[BillF]

I'm not bothered about 24 hour jazz streaming (which always tends to reduce to a limited number of genres). What I do like is hearing someone who cares playing music that enthuses them. Peter Clayton, Charles Fox, Humph in the olden days...Alyn Shipton at present. Just a few programmes like that would do me.

Bring it on !

It's so obvious - yet no-one in this damn country has got the balls to do it.

Instead I guess we get another 30 years of Wogan, Jonathan Ross etc.

Not to mention endless food and cookery, makeover shows and those damn programmes following round trawlermen, lifeguards, traffic cops etc etc. What next? Toliet attendants? Our broadcasting is capable of being world class but has dumbed down to a significant degree.

Thank goodness for the little gems that remain; e.g. Alyn Shipton talking to Junior Mance on Saturday at 4pm about his best records.

[BillF]

Incidentally, just how long can the classical stranglehold of BBC Radio 3 - often bemoaned on this board - go on? Here the Royal Northern College of Music, long a classical-or-nothing bastion, has a new principal who digs contemporary Norwegian jazz. As I go past on the bus I can now see vibes and drum kits through the windows of the practice rooms. The winds of change!

Edited October 8, 2008 by BillF

[A Lark Ascending]

Incidentally, just how long can the classical stranglehold of BBC Radio 3 - often bemoaned on this board - go on? Here the Royal Northern College of Music, long a classical-or-nothing bastion, has a new principal who digs contemporary Norwegian jazz. As I go past on the bus I can now see vibes and drum kits through the windows of the practice rooms. The winds of change!

Oh, if only.

But I fear Oxbridge still has its grip on the BBC. They understand 'high culture'; they understand 'market forces'. It's the world in between they are clueless about.