Kind of Keith

At last amid the gloom themes this year include a realisation that somehow a renewed sense of Belonging has emerged, literally, metaphorically, however you want to think of it plus an Irish jazz resurgence and the dawn of a new age at Ronnie’s moving on up is almost here. No one can snuff out an endless love for the music even in a cruel world when minority musics like jazz know who their real friends are more than ever.

As long as you know you’re living yours: Surveying release upon release most weeks of the year feels and looks like a production line. But is there a pattern in 2025 that is more than a sausage factory?

We are in a post economic jazz world given how streaming for most artists does not function in terms of income that CDs or LP sales once did.

Touring “an album” is different today. The merch stand, something that is more for rock and roll, you rarely witness at a jazz gig.

Even buying a CD seems very decadent in a way. What are you going to do with it when you get it home? Formats aren’t so joined up any more. And isn’t a CD player to play it on more of an heirloom or like something cumbersome sat there in the corner with the hulking old fax machine, blameless but disconnected landline, and once cherished VHS recorder?

The change away from an older type of commercialisation – a long underway process that means jazz is largely adrift from big record labels who by contrast heavily invest in the necessary marketing and promotion to achieve public visibility – has its benefits as well as its difficulties.

This “adriftness” allows artists to be artier and more independent given the demands of a dumbed down A&R and sales operation are not as draconian as they might be if big bucks are calling the shots and shareholders need satisfying.

The streaming challenge is to at least aspire to get the hundreds of thousands, the millions of streams that are common for pop or hip hop. For digital labels whether that is run by artists or established companies the key thing is digital marketing. Jazz fans like everyone else use things like Spotify and Apple Music. The interested are out there but are they streaming enough?

However, within DIY efforts in what’s very much a jazz cottage industry mentality, where’s the filter, the quality control, the means to get an album into the right hands? Self publishing is everywhere, but so much quality is lost. Releasing records to an echo chamber of the usual suspects also means breaking out of a niche is hardly likely.

Certainly it’s no wonder – although live albums aren’t new – that live albums occur more and more. Their added value if you were in the audience is the ‘being there’ status. Venues love them as they are partly a free ad, partly a way of making the impermanence of one night lost in time gain possible legendary significance.

Irish jazz has been stronger this year – another 2025 talking point. It’s more an encouragement and better than output in recent years.

But overall US jazz is streets ahead addressing the tradition at least. Within that the music of Keith Jarrett as interpreted by Branford Marsalis has proved significant. The heart of US jazz in label terms remains at Blue Note and with a number of albums in recent years recorded there Van Gelder’s builds on its vast significance. But while I enjoy some of their releases I don’t buy into the middle of the road swinging approaches of labels like Posi-Tone.

More interesting are the developments at a resurgent Candid. But it’s a mistake to think that a label follows just one approach. Far from it. Nevertheless the chances of ECM issuing a smooth jazz release are about zero. I would argue that labels nevertheless lead the way in terms of shaping new jazz far more than festival programmers even if they have budget to pay for major new work.

The other important institutional pillars that are crucial especially in Germany are the radio station backed jazz orchestras which keep big band jazz going. Far from disappearing I would argue that big band jazz has more validity in recent years reinvigorated especially by commissioning work from living composers. What the future holds for the UK’s greatest big band the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, however, following Tommy Smith’s departure is anyone’s guess.

The piano trio as a format hasn’t had such a great year. Guitar led albums seem more inventive often. Artists from the 1990s are making their mark more and more. And the Soho, London scene has gained new clubs. But regional promotion is more reliant than ever on volunteers. Grants to help their promotions are pitifully small.