Abstract

The 1960s and 1970s are regarded by some historians as being particularly creative decades for jazz in Britain, when British jazz developed its own sound that was distinct from that of American jazz. While not denying that this was a creatively fruitful period in British jazz, in this paper I argue that a ‘British sound' in jazz is difficult, perhaps impossible, to define, even though some authors have referred to a sense of ‘Britishness', particularly in the work of certain musicians discussed by Ian Carr in his book Music Outside: Contemporary Jazz in Britain. Some British jazz, performed largely by white (and mostly male) musicians at this time, was influenced during the 1960s by the contribution of immigrant black musicians from South Africa and the Caribbean; at the same time, musicians such as Michael Garrick and John Surman were drawing to some extent on British folk music for inspiration. Referring to examples from the period, I suggest that although much British jazz from 1960 to 1980 was innovative and became less ‘American', development of its styles was affected by many musical, cultural and political factors. To what extent this music sounds ‘British' is debatable, but its influence has led to the pluralism of jazz styles in Britain that continues today.

Highlights

  • Was created is part of a narrative shared by other historians such as John Wickes and Duncan Heining

  • In the postscript to the second edition of Ian Carr’s book Music Outside, Roger Cotterrell writes: ‘During the few years this book takes us back to [late 1960s/early 1970s] Britain really was a special place of jazz innovation.’[1]. Alyn Shipton takes a similar position, stating that ‘[t]he 1960s was to become the golden decade of creativity in British jazz.’[2]. Carr titled his book Music Outside to refer to way in which jazz was being sidelined—or even ignored—by the British cultural establishment, describing jazz as ‘a perpetual Cinderella of the arts in Britain’

  • Its lack of cultural status is a continuing issue for Cotterrell, who suggests that, even in 2008, ‘[j]azz in Britain still receives inadequate recognition as part of the national culture.’5 ‘Music outside’ is used by Carr to imply that certain musicians at the time were developing a type of jazz that was something ‘other’, something different from the music modelled on the American tradition

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Summary

Tom Sykes

In the postscript to the second edition of Ian Carr’s book Music Outside (originally published in 1973), Roger Cotterrell writes: ‘During the few years this book takes us back to [late 1960s/early 1970s] Britain really was a special place of jazz innovation.’[1]. The approach to British jazz historiography adopted by authors such as Wickes, Heining and Shipton suggests that the 1960s and 1970s marked a period when the music was innovative and developed, perhaps for the first time, a distinctly British character to its sound This is problematic in the sense that it is difficult to define precisely what characteristics of this music make it sound ‘British’ (as those making this claim generally struggle to do) and in any case, British jazz covered a wide range of styles, as becomes abundantly clear from reading Wickes’ book. There is a BBC television documentary series, Jazz Britannia,[23] of which the second episode in particular, Strange Brew, contributes to the narrative of innovation and distinctiveness of British jazz in the late 1960s and early 1970s,24 as well as a number of biographies of musicians on the British scene at the time including Ronnie Scott, Joe Harriott and Chris McGregor.[25]

Some factors affecting the British jazz scene
Conclusion
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