Jazzreloaded: Jazz Publication of The Year 2009

www.Jazzreloaded.com was last night voted  “Jazz Publication of The Year”  by   Phonographic Performance Limited  and the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group ( APPJAG) .   If you were not there, or if you were “late” ( he said sheepishly…), here is the acceptance speech that you missed:

The Parliamentary Jazz Awards are sponsored by music licencing company PPL,  and Jazz Services who, together with APPJAG, aim to encourage wider and deeper enjoyment of jazz, to increase parliamentarians’ understanding of the jazz industry and issues surrounding it, to promote jazz as a musical form and to raise its profile inside and outside of parliament. 

 APPJAG is run by MP’s  Joan Walley and Michael Connarty, and Co- chaired by Lord Colwyn.

 

Zem Audu and Jason Yarde were also nominated in the categories of  jazz musician of the year, and  Zoe and Idris Rahman were nominated in the category of Jazz ensemble of the year, alongside  The Jazz Warriors AfroPeans.  Orphy Robinson received a nomination for Jazz Education, and jazz journalist Kevin LeGendre picked up an award for his work on Blues and Soul, Echoes, Jazzwise and a raft of other titles.  Charles Alexander’s Jazzwise magazine, now in it’s eleventh year as a publication, was also nominated in the best publication category.

These are all people and groups  who have been – and are -  pivotal to the ongoing success of the jazzreloaded project.  Without these people doing what they do to the best of their ability, there would be no reason for the jazzreloaded project to exist. It’s that simple.  So I thank you all for your continued efforts in your respective endeavours.  Jazzreloaded will continue to report on the work that you have done, tell people about the work you are doing, and support you in the work you continue to do.

The core  media technologies that make  www.jazzreloaded.com possible did not actualy exist when I was a teenager ( let alone when I was born!).  That for me makes the achievement and recognition all the more impressive. It is for me a true reflection of the term “vanguard”, and I am pleased to be considered at the forefront of this media technology.

I believe you only need two things to achieve anything you want in life:  resolve and a method.   And while internet technologies provide the method of rapidly disseminating relevant information to the relevant people, this would be nothing without the resolve of a few good men and women, who time and time again have been called upon to be the difference between the success and the failure of the project, and time and time again have answered that call unerringly.  So I would like to thank, in no particular order:

Danelle Harvey, for doing all the legwork behind the scenes, which have made my bright ideas a virtual reality.

Suraj Shah, above, and Chandesh Parekh, below for the many hot coffees and cool conversations that have turned my dreams into binary ones and zeros, and them back into dreams. 

Which in turn has allowed reviewers and contributors  Debbie Purdy, Victoria Woode, Fiona McKinson, Rachel Forsyth, and Jaie Miller, to deliver so much of what has made the project a success.

Thanks to www.Jazzrefreshed.com for delivering live jazz  every Thursday in London’s capital for £5 without fail and without anything but the support of your die hard fans.  You’ve been doing this as long as I have been playing jazz.  You are London’s best kept secret. But if you do not win parliamentary recognition for this next year, I shall be returning my award.  I mean it.   I’ll be campaining like Lumley and The Ghurkas, mate.

www.jazzservices.org.uk .  Which does exactly what is says on the tin.  A rare quality nowadays.

Similarly, Thanks to  Gerard Presencer and  Nick Smart, at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Jazz department ,  for cutting out the bullshit and delivering jazz education and opportunities to young people of all extractions, for as low a cost as possible.  Which is what it’s all about.

Of course, Thanks to my sponsors,  for providing me with the highest quality equipment  in the most unusual situations!  Which helps me to make the music that makes jazzreloaded:

Mark Bass, makers of the highest quality Bass Amplification

Thanks also to Se Electronics – makers of high end microphones for studio, broadcast and live:

Thanks To Mick And Gillian at Crossbow Tours for getting me – and thousands of other musicians – safely home after gigs, night after night after night.

And of course thanks to Sandarac Bass  – bespoke double basses as heard on recordings by Courtney Pine CBE and Omar Puente.  

 

Thanks to Charles Alexander  from www.jazzwise.com – It seems every time I win a jazz award Charles is there to give thanks, guidance and support.  and his 20 + years in the jazz industry as a performer and a publisher certainly put this award into perspective!

 

Thanks to Alice Lemon, Dave Webster, Jo Laverty, Keith Ames and, of course, my bass teacher Richard Watson at the Musicians Union for advice, guidance,  and for sharing and supporting my passion for  live music in all its manifestations.  playing solo on stage is one thing.  But when it comes to the business end, I’m glad I did’nt go it alone.  Join the Musicians Union.

Thanks to Gary Crosby, Courtney Pine CBE , Orphy Robinson,  for being the guardians and gateway to my own history as an AfroPean in the UK.  Again, no (j)azz (w)arriors, no jazzreloaded. Simple.

 Similarly,  thanks to Onaje Allan Gumbs for daring me to dream that I might one day stand amongst such people on merit.

There’s a lot of talk about a so called “lack” of so called “black” role models.  That may well be the case, but If anyone would like to see  positive AfroPean role model, check out my myspace to 40, and all the people they are connected to.   I’ve had the pleasure of being inspired by Tony Thomas, Mervyn Afrika, Claude Deppa, Cheryl Alleyne, Selwyn Charles, Miles Danso, Lauren Dalrymple, Julie Dexter, Daniel Crosby, Omar Puente, Robert Mitchell, David Okumu, Natalie Scahill, Robert Fordjour,  Juliet Kelly, Eska Mtungwazi Ayanna Witter Johnson,  the original Empirical crew, the new Empirical crew,  any and all manifestations of Empirical,   Maxi Jazz, Cameron Pierre, Brian Edwards, Chris Jerome, Alex Wilson, Cleveland Watkiss, Rod Youngs, Jay Phelps and Denys Baptiste, Danielle and Dennis Rollins  to name a few.  Thanks to all of you, my family on the stage, backstage, and on the road.  It is upon your shoulders that the jazzreloaded project stands tall, and upon your continued success that the jazzreloaded project hinges.  Touch one, touch all.

Thanks to Sheron Wray’s  www.jazzXchange.com – the natural predecessor to www.jazzreloaded.com and thanks to Clive Powell’s www.jazzalive.co.uk – jazzreloaded’s natural successor!

 

Thanks to jazzreloaded live – Nanar Vorperian, Jacqui Bennet, Alison Evelyn, Rolph Webster, Paul Camo,  Tom Skinner, Alan Weeks, Joy Jones,  joel Webster,  Mike Gorman, Angela Al Hucema, Donald Gamble, Andrew Salida, Kathleen Lord,  Luke Webster, Jonathan Idiagbonya, Samy Bishai.    -  Due to the workload of the jazzreloaded blog,  The jazzreloaded live gigs have been few and far between.  So much so that when I picked up the award, a lot of people didn’t realise I also play music! But  I suspect there will be a few oportunities to remind people  before the end of the year…

Blessings to Andrea Somasumdram and Jasbir Matharu and Paul Kirsarkye  for just being friends.  We hardly talk about jazz or “the industry” when we are together, and I believe that plays a large part in keeping me sane.  respect to the original Tottenham Massive! Ya git me?

Thanks to Mum and Dad, for sewing coats and cutting sugar cane and making teas and driving buses and catching fish and cooking breakfasts and unloading containers rasing kids and paying “The Man” and  teaching me never to say “I can’t” and for accepting bedraggled jazz musicians at their door at any and all hours of the night, and putting up with the racket that the Mighty Jeddo make, and  doing everything else required, without reservation or complaint, so that one day I might become editor of an award winning jazz magazine if I should so chose.

 

If there’s anyone I’ve left out, please accept my apologies and know that  the people mentioned above are looking out for you in any case.  Like I said; touch one, touch all.  Thanks once again for this award, which I accept on behalf of the  20,000+  people a year that have visited the jazzreloaded portals, and continue to contribute to and participate in its success.  Bless.