Gwen Ansell
CLUB-OWNERS and artists aren’t always bosom buddies. And when jazz clubs close, the musicians are often ambivalent mourners, finding it hard to regret the passing of managements that paid them poorly or not at all.
But this week it’s the musicians who’ve come together to try to save Melville’s Bass Line, which, with three summonses for non- payment of bills steaming on owner Brad Holmes’s desk, had decided to close its doors on December 15.
The benefit For the Sake of Jazz will happen this Saturday night, November 25, at Carfax. The list of artists volunteering their services so far includes George Lee, Vusi Mahlasela, Zim Ngqawana, The Jazz Hounds, Music Ye Afrika, Tony Cox, Bheki Khoza, Paul Hanmer and Steve Dyer – and it’s still growing.
Ringing these names up for quotes gets monotonous – they all say the same thing: “Brad’s the only club-owner who always pays us what he promises, even when the club doesn’t fill. He really cares about the music.”
Holmes himself knows exactly why the broker’s men are lurking outside his 100- seat shoebox. “On weekends, when we could fill, we’re too small to take advantage. On weekdays, when we’re quiet, we couldn’t handle the overheads on a larger place. That’s our Catch-22. And then there’s the September problem.”
September is Arts Alive month, and poses a financial problem for club-owners across town, with all available ticket money going to large-scale, city-centre events. “No one’s saying stop the festival,” Holmes says, “but there has to be a degree of decentralisation. The festival should work with us to put clubs on a formal fringe basis, and give them billing in the festival programme. And some suitable events should be placed in clubs. A classic example was the Jayne Cortez jazz and poetry this year: a small audience rattling around in a venue whose acoustics were not designed for the spoken word.”
Other promoters also point to a major decline in spending and sponsorship for music events this year, with rugby, football and the Olympics attracting all the cash. The September to year-end period is usually rich in outdoor festivals: 1996 has seen a scant half-dozen. One promoter whose business is arranging music for corporate Christmas parties says that, this year, “the money just isn’t there”. Yet internationally, sponsorship is an important part of the jazz picture, with the Blue Note receiving support from Heineken, and Ronnie Scott’s Club from Guinness.
Maybe there’s a South African corporate out there listening. Meanwhile, jazz fans should take their cash to Carfax on Saturday to save the club which, in Holmes’s words, “has tried to make a difference to jazz”