It's been a strange summer here in the UK. To be fair, that description can be applied with no trace of irony to almost any British summer—and the summer of 2011 seems to have been a strange one for much of the world. But this is a JazzLife UK article, and parochial concerns are paramount, thus the strange British summer takes precedence. One aspect in particular. Because it's a very positive aspect, a cheering and upbeat and oddly synchronous part of jazz life—the ways in which jazz can cross the generations, to benefit both the old and the young as it does so.

Of course, many people might talk about jazz "crossing the generation gap" at this point. But I don't buy the gap idea, especially in jazz. I routinely hear bands with players in their late-teens and their eighties, artists who name-check inspirations from the '30s and '40s as well as from this century. The Sax Massive that played at the 2011 Norfolk and Norwich Festival included mothers and daughters, and grandfathers and grandsons. I have many middle-aged friends who firmly believe that jazz is dreadful, and my sons have many friends in their early 20s who share that view. Jazz brings the generations together in numerous ways.

Much of this sharing simply happens, a by-product of the music. But when the jazz community acts deliberately to bring the generations closer together, then it can achieve some truly worthwhile things. Over the summer months, the UK scene has been full of examples of this sharing, of jazz as a genuine community of people.


Keeping It In The Family

An obvious way of spreading the word across the generations is to keep it in the family, and there are plenty of great examples in jazz. Here in the UK there's