Sebastian writes: The Season Press Launch today at the Southbank Centre contained an announcement that the Montreux Jazz Festival will be embarking on its first partnership in the UK. The first manifestation of this initiative will be an exploration of the music of Nina Simone next January/ February, but the collaboration will be broader than that, and include an artist development strand, with SBC Contemporary Music Programmer Alex Carr, who is also a board member of the Europe Jazz Network, in the co-ordinating role.
(Press release begins) “The Southbank Centre and Montreux Jazz Festival are entering a new three year creative partnership exploring the theme: ‘What is Jazz Today?’.
Both organisations have a rich history of presenting traditional jazz and wider contemporary music genres, along with a huge crossover of iconic stars that have graced both stages over the years. Beginning in spring 2025 the first collaboration will explore the music of Nina Simone who gave memorable performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976 and then later at Southbank as part of Nick Cave’s Meltdown in 1999.
To celebrate Nina’s work this first event will showcase black female artists, bringing together legacy artists with some of today’s best new talent and rising stars. Alongside the creative programming there will also be a new artist exchange programme which will support two artists from the UK and two artists from Switzerland to engage in a one week residential taking place in both London and Montreux.” (press release ends)
This announcement came in a much broader context of setting the scene for the Centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations in 2026. A couple of nuggets of (OK sometimes tangentially) jazz-related content are:
- Cassie Kinoshi is one of the first group of six Associate Artists. This is a three-year scheme with an emphasis on creative freedom… “enabling artists to take risks, be adventurous and collaborate across art-forms, these six new Associate Artists will be supported by the Southbank Centre to create ambitious new works at the end of their three year tenure that will showcase the art of the future.”
- The book by Emma Warren “Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through the Dancefloor” is going to be the spark for a major project: “Dance Your Way Home will transform the Southbank Centre’s public spaces into dancefloors for the summer. It’s a five-week celebration of the dance floors that have brought people together across space and time, and of the joy to be found in both moving with music and in connecting to communities through dancing together. From nightclubs to Irish dance halls, youth club discos and street parties, take a deep dive with us onto the dancefloor, wherever and whenever it may be, to answer the question: what happens when we dance together?”
- The Centre is inviting applications to join a “Technical Academy” to address a skills shortage among production professionals
There is certainly a mood of optimism about the Southbank, and it was mentioned to me more than once at today’s event that the clear, broad vision of Artistic Director Mark Ball – previously Creative Director of the Manchester International Festival – has truly given the centre a new lease of life.
LINK: Montreux partnership
