From niche to the centre of the arts
How jazzahead! works
Interview Peter Schulze by Joanne Kee – How jazzahead! works
JK: I am here with Peter Schulze, one of the Artistic Directors of jazzahead! and we’re just going to chat about how jazzahead! works.
PS: It works because we really focus on jazz we realised when we looked at other exhibitions like Womex, Popkomm or Midem, they all used to have jazz, but the longer these exhibitions went the less jazz there was. So we thought well why not just put jazz at the centre and take it from there. So kind of not inductive but deductive from jazz.
We have a very open definition, we don’t even have a definition of jazz, but we know what we’re talking about because we knew what was missing. Basically all the improvised stuff was missing from the other fairs.
So from the very beginning as jazz is a small market we had to think about how to expand audiences. So the first year of jazzahead! in 2006 we had a symposium going on, on jazz and management. Not management of jazz groups, but management in general and how can managers, not of factories but white collar managers and white colour companies, how can they benefit from jazz.
Because it’s all about small or flat hierarchies in jazz you have a minimum of structure and a maximum of freedom so hopefully everyone plays at the same time and hopefully everyone plays on the same changes, same tempo, but apart from that everything is free. So this is a role model that could work for companies as well. So how can leaders let their people be creative without narrowing down their possibilities so give a lot of freedom within certain frameworks. So this worked with about 30 to 50 managers there of other companies and they improvise as well.
Second year we had music and medicine, and jazz and medicine as a topic for two or three years with symposiums and lectures. We had 150 Doctors come who were not connected to jazz at all but they got connected there. So this is how we try to expand our audience and possible attendance.
From 2011 on, we started to have partner countries to connect with other arts, not only with partner countries but with other arts as well. This is what we did with Turkey, Spain with Israel and with Denmark most lately to get a broader picture of what is happening initiated by jazz, what can happen.
So jazz is at the centre of everything because we initiate these things. It is not all about jazz but it’s about the other arts, we have classical music there as well. A Danish string quartet opened this year’s cultural festival. So we don’t care about the definition of jazz that’s what I wanted to say there, but we really want to embrace as many arts as possible and this really works out. So we continue with these partner countries.
The thing with Denmark this year was that it was extremely successful which was a two month festival based around jazz which turned out to be long, but we will next year have three weeks before and one week after because otherwise you cannot really get the impact and the benefits. But I think for three weeks, four weeks its fine. So that is what we are going to do next year.
JK: So at jazzahead! last year I was struck by the number of people from the jazz industry that actually attend now and it’s a wonderful thing to see because jazz which has always been regarded as a niche, it’s actually a very serious player.
PS: Yes it is and because we always try to balance out offers and demand for this, because I mean it’s like in many arts, it’s not a question of demand of offer. There are so many people offering interesting stuff but there were other people asking for it. So we always try to focus on getting the demand, and if that balance is right this will work. If there are only people offering, I mean, you don’t go there.
So this is something that works out and many deals are made during the fair on various stages, from agencies with musicians, from labels with distributors because all the industry in a vertical way is there. So as a label you can find a distributor there, you can find artists there, artists can find a label there so this is all the whole scope of it, and if the balance between offer and demand is OK then it works. This is how it grew.
We started with I think 80 – 90 exhibitors, now we are closer to 700. We started with 800 professionals and now its 2800 professionals coming from 50 countries from all over the world literally.
Those are of course good examples but we had last year for example we had an artist from Quebec Canada, Chloe Charles a wonderful singer nobody knew. Offstage she was approached by eleven international festivals from all over the world. So this is something. She made tours in the UK, she had sold out nights at the London Jazz Festival, so this is really inspiring, this is how it should work.
It does not work with all the artists, no doubt because we can only offer and we have four different showcase models here. Every time four international juries.
We have German jazz expo which is a German showcase theme. German bands have their booth at the German jazz market as well in the exhibition, so they can contact and can be contacted there any time during the exhibition.
We have partner country nights, that will be France next year. We have European Jazz night which is on Saturday and a German day as well and we have an overseas night and that is where the Vampires played this year.
So all these showcases are jury driven with all four international juries. So we don’t have a German jury for the German showcases which would be ridiculous because you might get what in Germany is considered to be the best and most interesting stuff, but as the purpose is to get people abroad we have to think well, which people from abroad might be interested and want to listen to them. So we get them into the jury already and many of those international jury people they keep in touch with bands that do not even appear in the showcases, so this is background. And all these juries are built by Festival Directors and programmers so very strictly run, as those are the ones who should book them. We had more than 380 applications for showcases, we have 40 showcases.
JK: It’s a very big honour to be selected.
PS: Yes it is
JK: I know there are lots of Australian musicians who are interested in coming to jazzahead! so what advice would you give to someone coming for the first time.
PS: To go there, well just go there, as a visitor, as a participant, as a professional participant. Find your way through it.
We have these speed datings as well, speed meetings where you can connect with other people. Make yourself known there and bring your good promotional stuff with you, then you can talk to as many promoters, festival directors and labels as possible. This is just up to the means that musicians have, but you can beforehand, and what you can do once you are registered as a participant, is that you get access to the database so you know beforehand who comes and you might found out who you are interested to get in touch with, so you can connect with them beforehand and I think for a musician, its for them free of charge to get the speed meetings. You think you want to meet this or that person and so you can have a fifteen minute chat with this person.
Because otherwise you might get lost as you might have realised, because it’s so huge but you know the point is that it is hopefully big enough to really carry itself, but its hopefully small enough to still give this rather intimate feeling that you have there.
From next year on we’ll be in a slightly different location
JK: It’s bigger?
PS: It’s a bit bigger, yes because the demand was there for booths and this is one hall and another hall just for the showcases, with two showcase stages and we have a third showcase stage so lets see how this will turn out, but it was simply too cosy in the conference centre
JK: Thank you very much for talking to me.
PS: You’re welcome
Stay tuned for an update on international applications to the international showcase.
If you are interested in applying for 2015 and want to know more you can email editor(at)jazz.org.au
