Four Perth bands recently braved World Cup pandemonium in Europe to take part in an Australian showcase at a major jazz festival in Rome.
Hip Mo’ Toast, Void, Speedball and Salamander played at the Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival, a regular event on the European summer circuit, which takes place between June and September. The Festival’s lengthy bill also featured the Oliver Lake Steel Quartet, Joe Zawinul, Marcus Miller, Mike Stern, Marilyn Mazur, Jason Marsalis and Enrico Rava.
The support of Austrade in providing funding and other assistance, and the Festival’s evident enthusiasm for Australian bands is significant, and suggests a template for further showcases performances of this kind.
However, as the showcase’s organizer, JazzWa’s Alan Corbet, explains, the lack of national jazz infrastructure would make it hard to replicate the touring model with bands from a number of states.
Jazz Australia: How did the trip come about?
Alan Corbet: We were originally contacted by Villa Celimontana through the Australian Embassy in Rome in 2004 in relation to sourcing artists for an Australian showcase. Blues musician Steve Tallis and Jamie Oehlers performed together, and Wanderlust also appeared on the bill.
We were approached again in early 2005 and while the festival received responses from across the country, the timeframe was too short for groups to apply for funding so the showcase fell through. However, the festival was clearly enthusiastic about presenting Australian showcases in the future, and at that point I felt that it might be possible to coordinate a showcase directly with them.
As it was already an ambitious undertaking, and in the absence of a national coordination body, I explored the possibility of presenting WA groups in 2006 and indicated to the festival and the embassy that we needed more of a run-up to have a reasonable chance of applying for funding.
One of the key points was that the festival wanted a minimum of four groups, otherwise the showcase would not happen, so I felt that a coordinated effort would be needed to make this happen this year. Obviously, it was more feasible to focus on WA groups, and we felt that it could in a sense be a pilot for a nationally coordinated showcase in the future.
As I had received a Fellowship grant from ArtsWA in 2004, a major part of which involved international travel, I was able to take the opportunity to have a face-to-face meeting with the artistic director, Giampiero Rubei, which I think helped to clinch the opportunity.
JA: Could you describe the event?
AC: Now in its 13th year, the Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival is the longest jazz festival in Europe, running from early June through to early September. It takes place in a dedicated open-air venue, which combines concert-style seating in a mini-amphitheatre setting surrounding the stage, with tables and a restaurant service at the top level.
It feels like an open-air jazz club, and can probably hold around 1000 people. In the summer months the jazz club (Alexanderplatz) closes, and the focus is on Villa Celimontana. It is different to other festivals which have multiple stages and run for a shorter period (two weeks for some of the bigger festivals like Umbria and Montreux) as there is only one group each day. The advantage is that the group is the centre of attention for the evening, which is a particular benefit for an unknown band that might be competing against big names in the same timeslot in other festival formats.
JA: How did Austrade get involved?
AC: I had been in discussions with Eric Gordon from Austrade in Perth for some time, as JAZZWA was looking specifically to develop export initiatives, which also fitted in with my own Fellowship project.
However, as JAZZWA is a not-for-profit organisation, we hit a stumbling block in terms of working directly with Austrade as they require organisations to be commercially focused. Austrade provides retrospective funding to exporters through the Export Market Development Grants Scheme. However, as it is a requirement that $15,000 be invested by the applicant, and with grant funding being excluded from this amount, it is outside of the reach of most artists and groups.
Earlier this year, Austrade contacted me to discuss a new model that they had developed (called the Consolidator Model) that had been applied successfully to other industries and which they felt would work well with arts organisations such as ours.
This meant two things: 1) that we could combine expenditure on a large scale project such as this to be eligible for retrospective funding and 2) that we could consolidate market research hours (through the New Exporter Development Scheme) for common export objectives (in Italy and other markets).
This enabled JAZZWA to act as the interface with Austrade, facilitating the process. This was an important and exciting development and one that will help us set a framework for commercial development of artists that are “export ready” as well as enabling us to guide other artists towards becoming “export ready”.
JA: Where did other funding for the trip come from?
AC: We initially applied to ArtsWA (Quick Response) for grants for each of the groups, and were successful in obtaining a total of $20,000 towards airfare costs.
We also held our own fundraising activities, including a showcase concert and raffles, organised in conjunction with the artists and the jazz clubs. A grant was also awarded through the Australia Cultural Fund (administered by ABaF), courtesy of funds generously donated by Eve Arnold from the proceeds of an auction of her artworks.
JA: Did you select the bands and, if so, on what basis?**
AC: We called for an expression of interest and then submitted the material to the festival. The decision was left to the festival as to which groups to present, and whether they wished to proceed with a showcase based on the material presented.
In the end five groups were selected: Hip Mo’ Toast, Void, Speedball, Salamander and the Garry Lee Quartet, although Garry Lee’s group was unable to take part due to the commitments of some of the members.
JA: What were the challenges of organizing such an enterprise?
AC: It was challenging on a number of levels. As with many of these projects you often look back and think that if you had fully appreciated all of the challenges you would probably not have taken on the project in the first place!
I was fortunate that I work as freelance Italian translator, so I was able to communicate with the festival in Italian, which was particularly useful as the artistic director speaks limited English.
Despite the fact that we were well ahead of things compared with the previous year, by the time the festival made its final selection, we were already into early March. We then had to go through the grant application and assessment process, which meant that it was into mid-April before we had confirmation of funding, at which point we had to reconfirm availability of all musicians (20 in total) and willingness to participate.
Some of the musicians were also overseas or in other parts of the country, so the logistics of bringing this together were fairly complicated.
It was an intense process with trying to organise a fundraising event, generate potential sponsor contacts, and in many areas we were breaking new ground and making new contacts as we went.
Seemingly simple things like organising accommodation become complex when booking for 23 people at the height of the summer, and flights to Europe were generally more difficult to organise due the World Cup. Trying to keep within budget in terms of flights and accommodation was definitely challenging, and ultimately the groups travelled two different routes to take advantage of low cost fares.
And as much as you try to cover for every eventuality, there are always the unknown and unpredictable factors, like delayed flights, lost or delayed luggage, jetlag and viruses. Oh, yes … and the World Cup! Would Australia have been welcome in Rome after putting the Italians out in the second round?
JA: How were the groups received?
AC: The reception was fantastic. It was really heartening after all the organisational effort to see a near full house each night (with the exception of the Italy-Ukraine quarter final night). More than that, the audiences were hugely appreciative. From some of the feedback I received, people were not sure what to expect and genuinely surprised at the quality of the performances. Particularly when presenting predominantly original material to a new audience, the warm and enthusiastic responses every night were an affirmation of the quality of our musicians. On the final night I had people coming up to me thanking me in person for bringing our music over.
JA: Did people know anything about Australian jazz?
AC: Generally people don’t know much about jazz in Australia, and I think that it comes as a surprise that we are producing such high quality musicians and exciting original music. It is probably fair to say, in Italy at least, that not a great deal is known about Australia.
From what I understand, Italy is not a priority market for Australia from a tourism perspective and that would certainly filter over into knowledge about Australian culture and arts. It does raise questions in my mind about utilizing such opportunities to jointly promote tourism and the arts on a wider level. Unfortunately, we were not taken up on it this time round.
JA: What did you hope to get out of the trip and were your objectives realized?
AC: I had a number of objectives in mind when pursuing this opportunity. For many of the artists involved, this was the first time they had had the opportunity to perform outside Australia. I think it helped to create a focus and energy amongst all the musicians, and perhaps to broaden horizons, which is particularly important when living in a city as isolated as Perth. The reception from the audience, which was entirely unfamiliar with the groups and their music, was both affirming and inspiring, and for many it will be one of the highlights of their careers so far.
For both JAZZWA and myself, it was an opportunity to gain important experience in setting up an international showcase, particularly at an event where there could be scope for this to happen on a regular (annual or biannual) basis. The aim was to develop credibility with the festival, so that potentially this could act as a “key date” for Australian groups to launch European tours in the future.
I was also looking at this relationship as creating the potential for ongoing cultural exchange, rather than a one-way proposition, which I think is important for the longer term. Cultural organisations like Villa Celimontana are equally looking for opportunities for their own artists, and I think it is important to look at how we can cooperate to build a long-term relationship.
JA: Is it possible to repeat such an exercise with Austrade on a national level? How might that be done given there is no national administrative infrastructure?
AC: I believe that it would be possible to do this on a national level, and not just with Villa Celimontana, but also in other major cities such as London and New York.
Ultimately, in the absence of a specific infrastructure with a brief to develop these sorts of opportunities, it will always come down to one individual who is prepared to take on the responsibility, which often goes unremunerated and is another addition to their general workload.
JA: Any other comments, Alan?
AC: As with any project like this, you always question the sustainability. It is one thing opening doors, and another being able to go through them. The possibilities are certainly there but, again, in the absence of a national infrastructure backed by adequate funding, it is difficult to have any organized approach to international development on a national scale. It tends to be left to the artists to carve out their own route.
I believe that Australian jazz needs to be outwardly focused. It would be beneficial to have some structure in place that could work with the Australia Council, Austrade, and Tourism Australia, and build alliances with other organisations promoting Australia overseas to help our top artists get their music out to a wider international public.
However, this is jazz that we are dealing with and therefore commercial expectations and outcomes can never really compete when looking at things from a business perspective. Perhaps by looking at business and arts outcomes together, rather than in isolation, which often tends to be the case where jazz is concerned, more can be achieved.
More information on the Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival
An article on the participating Australian musicians’ response to the experience of performing at the event will be published on the site soon.
Photo: Carl Mackey performing with Salamander at the Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival.
