Now in its second year, the Jazz Central Mentoring Scheme pairs emerging Midlands-based jazz musicians with established and experienced performers to offer them the opportunity to develop their compositional and performance skills, profile and professional network under the guidance of a mentor.
The scheme is managed by jazz bassist and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire tutor Arnie Somogyi, supported by Jazz Midlands chair and Birmingham Jazz trustee and promoter, Phil Rose and funded by Arts Council England.
Application to participate in the scheme is open to jazz musicians based in the Midlands below the age of 30. Each applicant submits a summary of the compositional project that they would like to develop through the process. Applications are reviewed and candidates selected by a panel of representatives from Jazz Midlands. Successful candidates are then paired with a suitable mentor from established professional artists in the UK jazz scene and receive a stipend to cover their time spent on the project.
The scheme’s inaugural intake in 2023 enabled five Birmingham-based musicians to develop projects with their assigned mentor throughout the spring and summer. Each of the projects were then performed live, with each mentee’s band featuring their respective mentor in a 3-day festival hosted by Birmingham Jazz at 1000 Trades in the city’s vibrant Jewellery Quarter in September, with additional performances presented by Jazz Midlands partner promoters in Coventry, Worcester, Stourbridge, Wolverhampton and Ross-on-Wye throughout the month.
In addition to providing a showcase for new music, Jazz Central Mentoring helped these mentees to realise a diverse range of career-developing outcomes, which included tours of other venues on the UK jazz circuit, enrolment on prestigious post-graduate composition courses in Scandinavia (http://nocom.info/) and successful funding applications to Arts Council England to further develop their creative practice.
This year’s successful applicants are James Borland (trumpeter) with mentor George Crowley, Alex Clarke (saxophonist) with mentor Alex Garnett, Torin Davies (guitarist) with mentor James Maddren, Andrew Duncan (drummer) with mentor Rachel Cohen, Dave Flanagan (bassist) with mentor Phil Robson and James Romaine (saxophonist) with mentor Gareth Lockrane.
The six projects will again be performed live over three days (6-8 September) at 1000 Trades in Birmingham, with one additional performance of each project hosted by Jazz Midlands partner promoters in Worcester, Stratford-upon-Avon, Ross-on-Wye, Stourbridge, Coventry and Walsall.
Full details of the festival and regional gigs can be found on the Jazz Midlands website.