Write Stuff

The Write Stuff Is Back @ The London Jazz Festival!

The closing date for taking part in The Write Stuff course - an intensive music journalist course led by Kevin LeGendre and run by the London Jazz Festival and Jazzwise - has passed, but you can still get your work up alongside the participants. It's a great way to get started in the business and get your first taste of working to a tight brief and an even tighter deadline!

This a great an opportunity for all aspiring music journalists to get their material published. By writing a review - up to maximum of 300 words - on any gig you see during the festival your work will be published here on the jazzwise website.

Simply submit your copy to mike@jazzwise.com for on-line publication. Please note all reviews will be subject to editing before publication.

More Detaiils On Our Pioneering Writing Scheme

Jazzwise is once again collaborating with the London Jazz Festival, in association with BBC Radio 3, to build on the success of The Write Stuff initiative for aspiring new music writers. Now in its fourth year the scheme offers the opportunity to work with professional journalists to improve their writing skills, receive insights into career paths and develop an understanding of jazz criticism – as well as getting to go to lots of concerts!

The initiative will include sessions on feature writing, reviewing and editing, and will be led by Jazzwise writer and broadcaster Kevin Le Gendre, with sessions from Jazzwise editor Jon Newey and other leading industry figures and writers. Previous participants have gone on to receive editorial commissions and one described the experiences as, “an inspirational experience and a turning point that I'm sure I'll look back on in future years. I know I felt inspired to carry on writing."

Previous participants have been of all ages and have come to the Write Stuff with a wide variety of different experiences. A number of previous participantshave gone on to have work published in Jazzwise and other publications andone selected review from this year will be published in the February 2008 issue of Jazzwise. This year’s participants will have their work on the London Jazz Festival’s websites and posted here in our all new Write Stuff section which will be an ongoing forum for new writers in the UK.

Browse the Jazzwise archive

Write Stuff

Neil Cowley Trio – Cargo, London 2/4/08

Last night The Neil Cowley Trio launched their new album Loud…Louder…Stop! at trendy Shoreditch club Cargo, not usually the kind of venue you’d expect to find a piano trio playing. But then they aren’t your typical piano trio. As the audience files in there’s a building sense of excitement and by the time Cowley and Co. take to the stage the room is jammed full. “Aren’t you going to cheer us on?” Cowley quips wryly. This sets the tone for the evening to follow, music matching Cowley’s playful, fun and excitable personality.

Portico Quartet plus Basquiat Strings - Union Chapel, London Friday 22 February

Basquiat Strings take the starkness of modern classical music and wrap it around a subtly pervading jazz beat. But while they maintain the haunting quality of classical string music, they generate an atmosphere which is constantly disconcerting and pleasantly surprising.

Dave Liebman/Phil Robson Quartet, RNCM, 31 January 2008

With the raw expressionism of John Coltrane, the punchy ballistics of Michael Brecker, the harmonic invention of Wayne Shorter: saxophonist Dave Liebman tells the story of the modern jazz saxophone. Particularly memorable was his meditative rendition of Coltrane’s ‘India’. As engaging as any solo was his magnanimous stage presence; the hunched shoulders, the facial contortions and the limp. You could feel the blood and sweat of an artist truly committed to what he really believes is important.