We went to a jazz performance the other evening in a pub back garden in Lidköping (Sweden). ‘Trad’, and pretty good. Also well attended – a couple of hundred at least.
But …. nearly all of us, musicians and audience, were elderly, and male. A sea of grey heads and beards. I’ve found the same in the UK; and even in New Orleans where I visited once, and was greatly disappointed to find most of the musical pubs blaring out amplified pop music into those famous streets – Frenchmen, Bourbon, Basin, Beale…. Eventually I found one with a proper jazz band (I bought their CD); but when the leader asked us where we all came from, only one was a local. The rest were Canadians, Bostonians or Europeans. And grey-haired, again.
Was I just unlucky? Or has jazz, in all its genres, become an old man’s kind of music exclusively, picked up in the fifties and sixties when it was for the trendy young, and now supplanted by pop music – and so bound to disappear when most of us oldies have died off? What a tragedy for such a glorious musical heritage, if so.
By contrast, last night we attended an outdoor performance of Verdi’s Macbeth in a 17th-century castle – much like the mediaeval Scottish castles I’ve visited, and so an apt setting for this (literally) bloody opera. I’m not a great Verdi fan (and of Macbeth least of all – no tunes); but it was a superb production; and the audience only about 20% grey-heads. Lots of youngsters there; indicating, perhaps, that classical opera has a brighter future ahead of it, at least in Sweden, than does jazz.
Porter’s Pensées 
Copenhagen jazz festival is still one of the biggest summer events in Denmark with an attendance of 250,000 average p.a. It takes place in the entire city region inside as well as around the inner city moats/lakes of Vesterport, Nørreport and Østerport. It diverges into suburbs such as Frederiksberg, Valby and diverse satellite towns too.
Many seniors do attend but the audiences are both male and female in equal numbers. It has always been quite a family affair, mothers with children and so on. And of course lots of dancers. Many of the jazz bands are Danish, a number of performers are Americans. Some American musicians actually settled here in the 60s and 70s.
C J F Caters for all jazz tastes from New Orleans through the 30s etc. to modern jazz, much of which is free attendance. Personally I find the experimental modern stuff too experimental for my taste but I still get around the many open air concerts in squares, in Tivoli, and so on. Recent years have seen the advent of swing dancing in period costumes around the venues (from young dance clubs). Which I have to say is absolutely marvellous.
I know a few of the musicians too so it’s great to attend with their followings, who happily inform when and where they’ll be performing next. Been attending C J F more regularly since 2006.
https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/planning/copenhagen-jazz-festival-gdk474738
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Encouraging! Thanks.
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Ezra Collective just won the Mercury Prize. Maybe jazz does have a future after all…
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