The Definitive History of Jazz in Britain
Jazz FM explores the 100-year long story of jazz music in Great Britain
Last updated 28th Apr 2021
It’s been over 100 years in the making, but a new landmark ten-part series finally lands at Jazz FM looking at the history of jazz across the UK. The series broadcasts every Sunday at 9pm from 4th April to 6th June.
Starting in 1919 when the ‘Original Dixieland Jass Band’ visited London’s Hippodrome for the first official performance of jazz music in the union, the series will take us on a journey of the genre in Britain. The programme will explore how jazz evolved over the decades, ending up where we are today with a thriving British jazz scene that is the envy of the world.
The Definitive History of Jazz in Britain is hosted by award-winning BBC journalist and presenter Clive Myrie who cites jazz music as one of his passions in life. Every week he’ll explore each decade, from the 1920s to the present day, with archive audio, reconstructions, and expert insight from a who’s who of guests.
The programme, produced by MIM (Made In Manchester), has been created courtesy of another Audio Content Fund win for the UK’s only jazz, soul and blues station with previous winning ACF bids being Jazz FM’s Virtual Jazz Festival at the height of country’s first lockdown 12 months ago and the station’s first ever drama series Space Is The Place.
Before listening to the series, brush up on the history of jazz thanks to the below gallery provided by The National Jazz Archive.
The National Jazz Archive holds the UK's finest collection of printed and visual material telling the story of jazz. Explore this treasure trove here.
A visual history of jazz in Britain:
1900s – The ragtime era
Ragtime, a new style of syncopated popular music, was published as sheet music from the late 1890s for dance and theatre orchestras in the USA, and the availability of printed music for the piano (as well as player-piano rolls) encouraged American – and later British – enthusiasts to explore the style for themselves. Ragtime became a principal musical force in American and British popular culture and it was a central influence on the development of jazz. Scott Joplin, dubbed the 'King of Ragtime', gained fame after the 1899 publication of his 'Maple Leaf Rag' and wrote many of the genre's most famous compositions.
1910s – A music called jazz
During this period, jazz (or 'jass' as it was originally called) became identified as a distinctive musical genre developed primarily by black musicians. It drew from ragtime, blues and popular songs and was based principally on improvisation. A thriving community of musicians, including cornetist Charles 'Buddy' Bolden (born in 1877 and romantically credited as 'the first jazzman') and later players such as cornetists Joe 'King' Oliver and the young Louis Armstrong had established New Orleans as the home of jazz by 1920. The first jazz record is often considered to be 'Dixie Jass Band One Step/Livery Stable Blues,' recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in February 1917.
1920s – Jazz takes root in Britain
By the mid-1920s jazz was a thriving preoccupation in British culture, and publication of the magazine Melody Maker from 1926 and the BBC's first broadcasts (principally of dance music) helped to build popularity. Records were available too, though the earliest to reach Britain from America were mainly by white artists such as cornetist 'Red' Nichols and trombonist 'Miff' Mole. But recordings by Afro-American players, including Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, quickly followed, and it was Armstrong whose solo recordings from 1925 with his Hot Five and Hot Seven definitively established jazz as a soloist's art rather than an ensemble-based music as most of the early New Orleans jazz had been.
1930s – Consolidation and acceptance
The arrival in London of seminal American musicians, especially Louis Armstrong (1932) and Duke Ellington (1933), inspired the British jazz community, generating excited publicity, popular and professional interest – and occasional controversy. Visiting stars set challenging performing standards for their British colleagues. Among the visitors were pianist Garland Wilson (1933), violinist Joe Venuti, saxophonists Coleman Hawkins (1934) and Benny Carter (1936), pianists Art Tatum and 'Fats' Waller and singer Adelaide Hall (1938).
The No 1 Rhythm Club opened in London in June 1933 and over the next few years many more such rhythm clubs were formed throughout the country. They fostered interest in (and serious intellectual consideration of) jazz by holding record recitals, discussions and sometimes musical performances for their members.
1940s – War clouds and silver linings
During the Second World War entertainment was needed to maintain morale. The danceable, virtuoso music of the Swing Era (1935–45) was provided – for both American and British ears – by famous bandleaders such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Harry James, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller. Thanks to radio, records, film and vibrant publicity in the popular press, they were the equivalent of today's rock stars.
1950s – Clubs, Tours, Festivals
The 1950s was the final decade in which jazz flourished as broad youth culture. It produced many British solo stars – traditionalists on one side, modernists on the other – and bandleaders.
During the 1950s immigration into Britain brought an influx of players from the Caribbean. Amongst others, Joe Harriott, flautist/saxophonist Harold McNairn and trumpeter Dizzy Reece (all from Kingston, Jamaica) joined a West-Indian population of British jazz performers that already included trumpeter Leslie 'Jiver' Hutchinson (father of singer Elaine Delmar), pianist-singer Cab Kaye, bassist Coleridge Goode, and saxophonist Bertie King.
Ronnie Scott opened his own jazz club in Gerrard Street, London in 1959, moving it to Frith Street in 1967 where it continues to flourish as one of the world's greatest jazz venues. During the 1950s traditionalist band leader and trombonist Chris Barber sowed seeds for what would become a musical revolution in the 1960s.
1960s - A change is gonna come
From 1960 to 1962 a popularity 'boom' in British traditional jazz ('trad') was headed by Barber, trumpeter Kenny Ball, and clarinettist Acker Bilk, all of them topping the record charts. But soon after, jazz began to fade from mass popularity. From 1963 the rock music revolution diminished jazz as a vibrant part of youth culture. Bands such as the Beatles and Rolling Stones became the focus of popular music as the decade progressed and many clubs transferred their focus to the new styles. However, young British musicians began to develop new approaches to modern jazz, often now influenced by rock music and eventually also rebelling against Scott's, Hayes' and Dankworth's reliance on American musical models. These approaches came to be called 'contemporary jazz'. Young musicians created their own styles (often looser than the conventions of modern jazz), and no longer automatically followed American trends.
1970s – On the International stage
World-class British soloists who had emerged in the 1960s such as baritonist John Surman, altoist Mike Osborne, tenorist Alan Skidmore, trombonists Malcolm Griffiths and Paul Rutherford, pianist John Taylor, and vocalist Norma Winstone, began to achieve lasting international recognition during the 1970s and found enthusiastic audiences throughout Europe and beyond. Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, John Stevens and others continued to explore 'free jazz', sometimes now called simply 'improv'. Pianist Keith Tippett led his 100-piece Centipede ensemble, then the small group Ovary Lodge (1973) and the 22-piece band Ark.
From the mid-1970s Peter Boizot's Pizza Express venue in Dean Street, London began presenting American artists from the classic era, complementing the modern jazz policy of Ronnie Scott's. Artists to make frequent appearances, alongside British contemporaries, included cornetist Ruby Braff, trumpeter Billy Butterfield and clarinettist 'Peanuts' Hucko, as well as new-generation mainstream performers such as tenorist Scott Hamilton and cornetist Warren Vaché Jr.
1980s - New music, new diversity
In the 1980s a new generation of black British musicians helped to re-energise the UK jazz scene, amongst them pianist Julian Joseph and saxophonists Steve Williamson and Courtney Pine. In 1984 Pine formed Abibi Jazz Arts with the intention of interesting young black British musicians in jazz and a year later this led to formation of the Jazz Warriors which fused jazz with other musical styles. As an active musical collective the Jazz Warriors continued into the 1990s. Many new stars emerged from the organisation and its off-shoots, including vocalist Cleveland Watkiss, flautist Phillip Bent, vibraphonist Orphy Robinson, bassist Gary Crosby, saxophonists Gail Thompson, Jason Yarde and Tony Kofi, trombonist Dennis Rollins, trumpeters Claude Deppa and Byron Wallen, and guitarist Tony Remy. Many subsequently gained international reputations.
The Association of British Jazz Musicians (ABJM) was founded in 1987 and the National Jazz Archive (NJA) in November 1988. The NJA, located in Loughton, Essex was founded by trumpeter Digby Fairweather with the aim of collecting the written and printed history of jazz, blues and related music, including periodicals, photographs, letters and personal collections.
1990s – Standing still?
Female performers continued to grow in numbers, among them singers Tina May and Claire Martin, and pianists Nikki Yeoh and Nikki Iles. As opportunities for women jazz musicians now seemed to be far fewer than had been hoped after the breakthrough of women's jazz groups in the 1980s, guitarist Deirdre Cartwright and bassist Alison Rayner (former members of the Guest Stars) took the initiative to start their Blow the Fuse organisation in 1989 to create playing opportunities for themselves and other musicians, especially women instrumentalists. The organisation played an important role throughout the 1990s (and still does today), establishing new venues, setting up events, and encouraging jazz musicians in a period marked mainly by consolidation rather than innovation in the music and its presentation. However, one wholly new development, acid jazz, combining elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop and utilising looped beats, grew in popularity through the 1990s, pioneered by new-wave DJs and Jazz FM presenters including original Gilles Peterson, Jez Nelson and Chris Phillips.
2000s - A new century
By the Millennium, seven of Britain's music conservatoires were offering full-time degree courses in jazz. Many books on jazz in Britain and British jazz were published, reflecting burgeoning scholarly interest. Over the next decade and a half their 24 publications included autobiographies by saxophonists Peter King and Vic Ash, bassist Coleridge Goode and trumpeters John Chilton and Digby Fairweather, biographies of Joe Harriott and Nat Gonella, and revised editions of Jim Godbolt's A History of Jazz in Britain, 1919–1950 and Ian Carr's Music Outside. The Parliamentary Jazz Awards and British Jazz Awards provided welcome recognition for new and established talent, and funding for jazz projects was provided by both the Arts Council of Great Britain and Jazz Services Ltd. After pianist-singer Jamie Cullum made his first TV appearance on the Michael Parkinson show in 2003, he signed first for Candid Records and then a £1m contract for three albums with Universal. Singer and now Jazz FM presenter Clare Teal also achieved notable popular success. Her 2004 album Don't Talk reached No. 1 in the UK jazz chart.
Towards the present – and what follows…
After 100 years of British history, jazz in every style continues to enjoy success despite limited media recognition. New musicians continue to arrive on the British jazz scene and jazz courses in the music academies provide many more routes than in the past for young players to acquire the technical skills, versatility, and broad arranging, composing and improvising experience they will need if they are to sustain enduring careers in music. Women musicians have gained an increasingly important place in the British scene. Funk, hip hop and rap continue to influence Britain's jazz scene encouraging regular crossover between these genres. And black British jazz traditions have been strengthened by the reassessment of Joe Harriott. Harriott is now viewed as a key pioneer and symbol of Black British jazz achievement and identity. The list of British musicians who are adding their distinctive voices to jazz in the early decades of the 21st century is far too long and diverse even to begin to represent here.
Catchup with The Definitive History of Jazz in Britain:
Listen to The Definitive History of Jazz in Britain with Clive Myrie on Jazz FM, every Sunday between 9-10pm from 4th April to 6th June.