The Essay: Jazz among the British

The Essay: Jazz Among the British

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The Essay: Jazz Among the British: The British Audience

The British Audience

Jazz Among the British

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Jazz Among the British, The British Audience

Geoffrey Smith looks at the how the audience for jazz in Britain has evolved over time.

Geoffrey Smith continues his series on the changing perceptions of jazz in Britain, focusing on the audience.

Writer and broadcaster Geoffrey Smith continues his series on the changing perceptions of jazz in Britain, focusing on the audience. 

In a culture obsessed with interpreting social signs, the British are fascinated by jazz as style, attitude, behaviour. In the 1920s, jazz was the vogue music of the Bright Young Things: the Prince of Wales himself was fond of sitting in on drums with visiting Americans. On the other end of the political spectrum, the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm saw the music as the epitome of working class art. And the fixation with the purity of jazz's folk roots drove the trad jazz boom of the 1950s, a playing style that was once seen as a sign of hip progressive politics. For Geoffrey, all this signifying makes it harder to get through to the music.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Veteran broadcaster Geoffrey Smith reflects on different perceptions of jazz in Britain.

Radio 3's veteran jazz broadcaster Geoffrey Smith reflects on different perceptions of jazz in Britain, filtered through his own experience as an American settling in the UK.

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