LEEDS JAZZ FESTIVAL: AN INTERVIEW WITH ASH DOHERTY
In their explosive return to the limelight over the May bank holiday, Leeds Jazz Festival is turning out to be bigger and better than ever this year. With music, art, lessons and more taking place across the whole city, I’ve had a very eventful weekend attempting to take in as much of it as I possibly can while also fending off hangovers, depressingly barren wallets, and sunburns brought about by uncharacteristic English heat.
Nevertheless, I’ve come out triumphant. Not only do I know a lot more about jazz now, but I’ve listened to a lot more of it too. And let me tell you something: I have a newfound respect for the musicians who make up this city – not just the jazz aficionados who performed, but the wider community of artists that worked tirelessly to put this whole event together too.
We really are blessed in Leeds to have such a fruitful and deep connective thread of artistry running throughout every corner of our city. It’s easy for us to wander around on a Saturday and stumble upon the Welcome to Leeds stage, stay for a while and listen to some free, local music, and then walk on again. But it got me thinking: what’s it like on the other side of it? Who are the people who make a wonderful event like this come to life?
These questions are how I ended up getting in touch with Ash Doherty. She’s the coordinator of Leeds Jazz Festival, and I had the good fortune of being able to chat with her about all things music. Obviously experienced, easily chatty and unquestionably knowledgeable about the local music history, I knew I was in for a great conversation as soon as we kicked things off. Here’s how it played out:
“So how was Leeds Jazz Fest born?”
ASH: “It was a fairly natural progression, to be honest. Leeds has always had a really active jazz scene, but what it’s previously lacked has been a centralised festival which streamlines all that talent into one celebration. Of course, there were iterations: Jazz Leeds did one for a few years, but I think Leeds Jazz Festival as a concept was unique because it involved a lot of different organisations coming together – people like Jazz Leeds and Jazz North – and saying, ‘hey, we should be doing something bigger here’. They ended up talking to the founder of Music: Leeds, whose whole thing is connecting and elevating the music scene within the city, and then Whiskas (the founder) was the one who ended up galvanising it and giving the festival some real legs.”
“What work goes into coordinating something on this scale?”
ASH: “I ask myself this all the time! The main element, really, is maintaining relationships with all the people and organisations that are involved. Because of the structure of the festival, the focus needs to be primarily on the partnerships with other businesses and musicians - so coordinating when and where they should perform, who exactly it is we’re booking, what kind of music they’re going to play, and then balancing all of that across the programme so that no one puts the same kind of thing on during the same evening.
Then of course, you’ve got to tie it all together: marketing, branding, promotion, that sort of thing. I think this year we definitely gave more emphasis to the festival feeling of it all. The Welcome to Leeds stage was a big undertaking, and we worked on it with a few other organisations to make it the central hub of the whole week. But we also expanded out a bit more, with things like the DJ workshops and art installations too, so you know, there were lots of different elements that needed to be planned and considered.”
“I think one of the concepts that appeals to me is the community element of Leeds Jazz Fest. Could you talk about some of the positive impacts that a festival like this has on the city?”
ASH: “I think one of the key things to consider is that there are already so many people who are engaged with Jazz in the city, but a lot of the time everyone tends to get stuck in their own bubble. The awesome thing about this festival is that it encourages people to branch out a lot more. You get a much bigger range of audiences coming to the Jazz Fest. For example, I went down to Brudenell Social Club to watch a set that DJ Lubi had put on – often when I see him, it’s mainly Leeds Conservatoire students in the crowd, because obviously they know the scene - but during the Jazz Festival there was a much larger, more diverse audience there, who’d found out about it through the festival promotion. You could genuinely see the direct impact of our work first-hand, and how effective it was at providing the entry point into jazz that was hard to find elsewhere.
There’s also a big sense of pride surrounding the Leeds music scene. Everyone who’s already involved knows how good Leeds is, but the point is that it shows the wider world what we’re succeeding at. It gives everyone a focus, too. People who usually just go down to perform their weekly set are suddenly finding themselves more deeply engaged – there’s conversations about sustaining the community, encouraging jazz in younger people, that sort of thing. So it’s a really, really productive event all around.”
“Your website refers to Leeds as the Second City of Jazz. Could you tell me some of the history of jazz in the city?”
ASH: “There’s a huge history to the scene! It’s actually a lot longer and more expansive than many people think, and some venues have been really important historical scenes for jazz. Sela Bar used to be a place called Studio 20, and it attracted all these international jazz artists in the early days. Back then it was unlicensed, so in the peak era of jazz, when musicians were travelling all over the world to perform, they’d often end up at Studio 20 after their gigs and just jam out with each other all night before getting their trains back in the morning. That was happening in Leeds. Places like New York, Berlin, Paris, they’re known for having those scenes, but Leeds is one of the quieter ones, where you maybe wouldn’t expect that.
The Leeds Conservatoire also played a really big part in the history of jazz around Leeds. They actually set up the first jazz course at Conservatoire-level in the UK. A lot of people have trained there and gone on to have really successful careers, and then those people often graduate and start contributing to the jazz in the city.
Another organisation which did loads of work was Leeds Jazz. They were set up in the 80’s, and at that time there wasn’t a lot of international talent that came through the city, which they wanted to change. So they’d put on loads of gigs which hosted people like Art Blakey, Abdullah Ibrahim, Archie Shepp. These were huge names in jazz who were coming to Leeds, and it changed the landscape of the jazz scene here permanently. It’s only gone on to grow more and more since then. One thing to remember is that Leeds hasn’t had its musical heyday yet. Manchester, Liverpool, they’ve had theirs. But here, in Leeds, it’s still happening. And I think Jazz could be the thing it’s known for.”
“What’s the Long-Term Goal for Leeds Jazz Festival?”
ASH: “In a perfect world, I’d like it to be known as a forward-thinking jazz festival that brings in big audiences. I love that it celebrates the local scene and I don’t think that needs to change. We don’t have to bring any international talent in, because we’ve got so much of it at home. I would love to see it expand wider though. We work collaboratively with loads of people, but that means we know that there’s even more people out there who we haven’t connected with yet! And they’re the ones that’ll be pushing the boundaries of what jazz is, so I want to keep picking up that talent and rolling with it. The Jazz Festival is still so young, and there’s so much potential for where it could go. I do still want it to retain its jazziness though. I’d hate for it to be a place where you could just turn up and think, oh, it’s just like any other gig. I still want everyone to know that this is Leeds, this is who we are and what we do, and this is why it’s so awesome, you know?”
“What does Leeds Jazz Fest do to make Jazz more accessible for people?”
ASH: I think there’s two main ways we’re doing that. One is presenting jazz for free in the city centre. Obviously, if you’re not linked with the communities and you don’t know where the jazz is happening, or you can’t afford the ticket, then you can essentially risk getting blocked out. That live, free stage is really beneficial in that sense. A lot of people have just stumbled upon it with no idea what it was they were seeing, but obviously by the end of it they’d become aware of jazz music in Leeds, the jazz festival, and the local performers, which was amazing.
The other thing we’re doing is making that access into Jazz a common goal which underlines the whole program. We’ve got some DJ workshops for women and minorities, because we know it’s a pretty male-dominated industry. We’ve also got a few panels on about Jazz – careers and diversity. Having those conversations is so important – not to be negative, but to give people positive role models and show people they can do it, how to do it and why they should do it.”
