Celebrating Southampton’s unique jazz culture

J Fashole-Luke

I’ve lived in Southampton for two decades now, after coming here to study music at Southampton University. I really enjoyed my studies and quickly became involved with many of the performance opportunities for musicians that could be found around the city’s music scene. I’ve always been interested in encouraging other people to pursue music, whether as a hobby, passion, vocation or career. Since my second year of university, I have been organising regular local jam sessions and open mics in the community as well as arranging thousands of live music events over the years for local audiences at venues around the city. 

Golden Groove Entertainment is a Southampton-based company that specialises in bespoke music entertainment for private events and public venues. In my capacity as a founder and director I have had the opportunity to provide paid performance opportunities for hundreds of either established or emerging professional performers.

I have also worked as a lecturer at the Academy of Music and Sound, specialising in Enterprise and Employability in the music industry. Thanks to opportunities that have arisen through local collaborators and colleagues, I’ve performed on multiple European tours, had dozens of festival appearances, supported a number of high-profile artists and even composed and recorded keyboard demos for a major global instrument manufacturer.

I’m currently working on an album of original jazz, providing links between local venue promoters and fresh new talent and collaborating with music departments at both universities to help support students’ integration into the local music scene. As well as session work and recording projects, I also play at public and private events and help to run weekly and monthly open mic and jam sessions, including one for musicians aged under 18, which has been made possible with support from Southampton Music Hub and Arts Council England. 

A few career highlights include a decade-long residency at Glastonbury Festival, a live performance on BBC2’s Later…with Jools Holland, working with top artists such as Usher and Alexandra Burke, and jamming with some of my heroes including Marcus Miller, India Arie, Roy Hargrove and Isaiah Sharkey.

Jazz for me is a unique discipline as it offers the performers the chance to interpret material in a manner that is entirely unique to each performance, drawing on influences from their surroundings, audience, personal experience and even decisions made in the moment by other musicians onstage.

It offers an opportunity to create endless new and exciting versions of repertoire and allows performers to search within themselves for their own authentic expression, which can deeply connect with members of an audience on a personal level. Musically I really enjoy the challenge of live improvisation, the rich tapestry of harmonic techniques that the genre indulges in, and the rhythmic counterpoint and syncopation between parts. What I love most about jazz is that by its very nature its evolution is endless, and it has something in common with every other style of music. 

I was approached by Claire Whitaker, the CEO of Southampton Forward, last winter for consultations about Jazz Story, a show that celebrates Southampton’s connections with jazz. She shared an overview of the narrative that community leader.  

Don John had drafted along with the musician and agent Olu Rowe and the founder of the Concorde Club, Cole Mathieson.

The project really took my interest, and I became excited to help this story unfold. In addition to performing on piano at the event, I have also had a role in recommending and liaising with most of the instrumentalists for the concert. I felt very strongly that the ensemble should reflect the city’s immense pool of musical talent, and with only one exception all the professional musicians I recommended are from Southampton. Most currently live and work here as well.

I wouldn’t want to give away too much about the show, but it’s been really interesting to learn about the connection this city has with some of the major household names of jazz, and how much of a cultural impact jazz has had on the city in general outside of the music industry itself. Similar stories could be told about other styles of music (and I very much hope they will) but the relationship Southampton’s culture has had with jazz is certainly quite unique. I’d recommend this show to anyone who enjoys live music, has an interest in local history, wants to learn more about the city or just fancies a good night out! 

Jazz Story is at Mayflower Studios on 18^th October.