Birmingham musicians hail jazz resurgence amongst young audiences

BBC News

07-03-2025

As four musicians finish rehearsing under neon lights, a bar fills up with music lovers waiting to get their weekly jazz fix. Organisers Digbeth Jazz have been running nights in Birmingham for more than a decade and said loyal followers having been "sticking around" due to the "great music scene and good community".But its popularity is growing. Shivraj Singh Matwala, 28, who started performing with his double bass as a teenager, has noticed a "steady rise" in young people attending his events.He believes social media and artists like Brit Award winners Ezra Collective are influencing the genre's popularity by increasing its exposure.
London-based Ezra Collective now have more than two million monthly listeners on Spotify and with their success they want to show future jazz groups that anything is possible. "You can get absolutely anywhere with a trumpet or saxophone in your hands," the Mercury Prize-winning band said.
Mr Matwala said jazz was an opportunity to create something "new and different", describing the genre as "freedom". "It's nice to have your music that you play become relevant again, especially music that was considered dead, its resurrection is a testament to how it's evolving," he added.
Another musician appreciating the genre's resurgence is James Romaine.An alumnus of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's jazz course, he said it played a big role in boosting the genre's popularity, bringing new musicians to the city every year."It feeds the whole music scene and there's been a growing interest for jazz," he said.Venues like Digbeth nightclub the Night Owl were important for performances, he said, because they provided a space for young people to listen to original music."It's all about keeping the excitement alive and the buzz in the audience, because without them we've got nothing to do," the 27-year-old said.
The Birmingham Jazz and Blues Festival has been celebrating all things jazz for more than 40 years, with this year's event due to take place at the end of July.The festival, run by Big Bear Music, aims to keep jazz "hot" by performing in more than 100 venues including furniture shops, canal boats and museums.Last year, 20% of festival attendees were aged 18-30 and the event wants to continue getting young people discovering the beauty of the genre."The aim is to try and interfere with people's daily routines and say: 'Hey stop, you might like this,'" festival director Jim Simpson said.
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