The role of the door gig

As part of the team that run Jazz @ the North London Tavern on Sunday nights, I've spent a bit of time thinking about the consequences of running a night where we attract fantastic musicians, and are only able to pay them what we take on the door.

There is real risk that door gigs get held up as an example of the jazz scene finding ways to thrive without any funding or financial support whatsoever.

These nights exist to give opportunities for people to play, and fundamentally I think that is a good thing - we put on some fantastic bands that would struggle to get gigs at Ronnies or Pizza Express, but we need to be fully aware of the danger of devaluing live jazz.

It should not be the role or responsibility of nights such as Jazz @ the NLT, Jazz @ the Con Cellar or Jazz @ the Oxford to financially support jazz in the UK. These nights are an amazing undercurrent of innovative and risk-taking music, but they should be brewing under the umbrella of a network of jazz clubs paying good fees to our great musicians on a regular basis.

It often concerns me that we might be seen as an example of the "Big Society" - showing that you don't need to fund UK jazz. Relying on door gigs to support the scene would be completely unsustainable long term, and venues that can afford to pay a fee need to shoulder the responsibility of doing that. We operate a completely different model to the major jazz clubs, and door gigs should be seen as a feeding system for the big clubs, not as a cheap alternative model.