IMPORTANT NEWS, Dec 2004:
Our concert with Lianne Carroll and Mark Bassey on January 9th (at Darwen Library Theatre) will offically mark the beginning of a whole new chapter in the band's history.
After seven fantastic years as the Musical Director of the Jam Factory there seems no other option but to step aside due to the sheer weight of my weekday teaching schedule at LIPA, Chethams and the RNCM. There just are physically not enough hours in the week for me to do everything justice (and i'm doing more gigs presently than at any time in the last ten years).
Accordingly former AMD Richard Ormrod will guide the band forward from this point on.
Once the new structure is in place, I hope to place a link on this page for future enquiries about the band. I'd like to think there may be some future, project-based involvement for me with the band, so hopefully this is only a stepping to one side and not a so long, and thanks for all the fish* moment.
Of course I wish this unique phenomenon a bright future, and for those who haven't yet encountered the remarkable creature, please read on.
(* A Douglas Adams reference...)
THE JAM FACTORY
A unique community-based creative jazz ensemble, based in Blackburn.
"If every community in this country had a Jam Factory...... just
imagine......"
(Pete Churchill, choir director for Jam Factory choral projects)
A collection of local musicians, the band was formed in 1997 as part of
an initiative between Blackburn, Burnley and Morecambe, and the remarkable
community musician and composer: Pete
Moser.
Funded jointly by the three boroughs and North West Arts, three such bands
came into existence, the other two being known as The Jazz Pyramid
and Off The Rails respectively.
Steve’s original wording on leaflets and posters that announced the
formation of the band read: "open to all and any who regard themselves
nervously or otherwise as musicians....expect improvising, and much groovesome
fun". And so the Jam Factory started with 16 people, and has since
trebled in number.
At its heart, the
Jam Factory seeks to entertain and educate, offering an opportunity for
the ‘buzz’ of live music performance to be experienced by players
and audience alike. In particular it seeks to advance the cause of improvisation
and a creative ensemble which is accessible to a community much wider
than the ‘jazz audience’ per-se. That said however, the breadth
of resources drawn upon happily and necessarily include jazz music and
its traditions.
In 1999, the three bands (JF, JP & OTR) held
a concert with guest star Andy
Sheppard,
at Burnley Mechanics. A phenomenal and memorable event, it was captured
on the subsequent CD release "Red Sky" (rfm103).
Since then, the Jam Factory has continued and grown, and now has an assistant
MD, Richard Ormrod, the Leeds based saxophonist who met and studied
with Steve Berry en-route to his degree in Jazz Studies. Richard brings
the contrasting elements of Jamaican influences and Indian classical music
(to name but a few!) into the heady musical mixture.
May 2000 saw the band successfullyundertake an ambitious collaboration
with three local choirs, drafted in to form a large ‘gospel’-style
choir, under the direction of Pete Churchill. A set of material
was put together, with Liane Carroll as guest star lead-vocalist.
The band itself was augmented by guest soloists Gerard Presencer
(trumpet & flugelhorn) and John Parricelli (guitar).
The concert was recorded and released as "Vox JAM" (rfm105),
and is still available, direct from Room For Music.
The Jam Factory has regularly put on concerts in collaboration with visiting guest soloists, more often than not at our regular haunt, the Darwen Library Theatre. In addition to the guests already mentioned above (Vox Jam, Red Sky) we been graced by the presence of Mark Bassey, Byron Wallen, Tim Whitehead, Steve Buckley, Mike Walker, Iain Dixon, Dalbir Singh, Mark Lockheart, Richard Iles, Ian Shaw, Andy Schofield, Tim Garland, Josefina Cupido and Chris Batchelor.
Funding
The May 2000 Vox
Jam concert was funded by the National Lottery under an Awards
for All scheme.
The October 2000 Concert
with Byron Wallen and Mark Bassey was funded by a North
West Arts Jazz Award.
Since early 2001 Jam Factory has been funded principally by a three year
award from the Regional Lottery Fund administered by North West
Arts. We have also received some smaller awards from Blackburn
with Darwen Arts Council towards specific projects.
