FIM

On the ini­tia­tive of UNESCO, the sec­ond edi­tion of the International Jazz Day was cel­e­brat­ed on Tuesday 30 April 2013. FIM and French musi­cians’ union SNAM orga­nized a round table in Paris (Carrousel du Louvre) enti­tled “Jazz: a pas­sion, a pro­fes­sion”, pro­vid­ing a back­drop for reflec­tion on the liv­ing con­di­tions of jazz musi­cians, as well as on how pro­duc­tion and dif­fu­sion of this form of music was evolving.

Six speak­ers* all addressed dif­fer­ent aspects of jazz musi­cians’ work, from stage to record­ing ses­sions, and paint­ed an alarm­ing pic­ture of work­ing con­di­tions for these artists. 

Although every­one applaud­ed the prin­ci­ple of an inter­na­tion­al day devot­ed to jazz, all par­tic­i­pants under­lined how this form of music has been for­got­ten in pop­u­lar cul­ture, the ever-​widening gap between rec­og­nized artists and those who are less well-​known and, to a cer­tain extent, the dis­ap­pear­ance of a sort of “jazz musi­cians mid­dle class”, also regret­ting the cold feet of music dif­fusers and dis­trib­u­tors when it came to giv­ing young peo­ple their chance. Moreover, this sit­u­a­tion is made worse by the fall-​off in pub­lic aid and back­ing from col­lect­ing soci­eties with­in the scope of artis­tic action.

Participants did, how­ev­er, under­line their deter­mi­na­tion to help young musi­cians live from the fruit of their pas­sion against this dif­fi­cult back­drop. They also expressed their hope that the International Jazz Day would help trig­ger a renew­al of this music genre where the media and gen­er­al pub­lic were concerned.