A National Jazz Orchestra here down South?

Things are different North of the border. This is Scottish Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop listening to Tommy Smith, with board member Michael Connarty MP looking on, and Martin Kershaw and Paul Towndrow either play or pose for the camera (?) The picture demonstrates the support which the Scottish Government puts behind SNJO.

Meanwhile here down South, hats off to blogger Jack Davies who has been keeping the debate about a National Jazz Orchestra alive HERE

First convince Gilles, Jamie and Jez....

BBC Introducing, a format developed in rock and pop to bring new bands to the airwaves - here's Melvin Benn of Festival Republic explaining how it works - is being tried in jazz in a collaboration between BBC Introducing and Jazzon3.

The BBC is inviting bands to upload demos, home-made recordings or CD tracks to the BBC Introducing website. I am told sternly-"You need to make sure you select Jazz on 3 as your national show choice in order to be considered for this opportunity."

The producers of Jazzon3 (Somethin' Else) will then construct a longlist which will be submitted to a panel of Gilles Peterson (Radio 1) Jamie Cullum (Radio 2) and Jez Nelson (Jazzon3)

FOUR bands will be chosen from this process to appear on a freestage at the Cheltenham Festival and be recorded, and the resulting recordings will be made available to all sorts of shows across other BBC networks.

Here's the Press Release, which also has contact details.