Jazz music is one of the most celebrated sounds in the world. These days, it feels like the sound is continuing to grow in stature. Particularly in the UK which has enjoyed a golden era in the last decade. Think of names like Moses Boyd, Yussef Dayes, Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings. Ezra Collective, who won the 2023 Mercury Prize, the UK’s highest music honor. All homegrown talents taking their brand of Jazz beyond the UK. Platforms like Jazz re:freshed have been integral to this growth. 

The creative organization, co-founded by Adam Moses and Justin McKenzie in 2003, has a weighty portfolio. A live events platform, music festival, record label and radio show that has flown the flag for the genre for over two decades. From its humble beginnings as a weekly music event in London (still going to this day), Jazz re:freshed now travels the globe to spread the experimental, expansive world of the genre they love, finding new ways of championing the finest emerging talent.

This year marks a host of celebrations for the platform. 20 years of Jazz re:freshed, one year of weekly events at London’s 91 Living Room, one year of their Dope Jazz Radio show on Mixcloud, 10 years of JAZZ RE:FEST and 15 years of the label. In the midst of these anniversaries, we spoke to Adam Moses about the organization’s past, present and future, and how he sees Jazz music in the here and now.

Congratulations on 20 years of Jazz re:freshed! Do you guys pay much attention to these milestones when you reach them?

Adam: The Jazz re:freshed model is to hustle all the time. Every opportunity that we’ve been able to create, we just had to hustle non-stop. Literally the day after we acknowledged the 20 years in May, we had three meetings about funding and applications! So we didn’t really get to acknowledge it because we’re just still in this mode of hustle.

It’s a massive milestone but I guess the work is never done. You just feel like you’re carrying on. But at the same time, you do feel the weight of what you’ve done. Especially when you get feedback from people who have been around for years coming to shows, and artists who were young when you started with them and now grown ups. I think we’re just grateful to be in a position where this is our job and we created that ourselves.

Could you paint a picture of the Jazz scene around the time Jazz re:freshed was formed, especially in the UK?

I wouldn’t refer to it as a scene. Apart from people like the Jazz Warriors, Jason Yarde and artists like that. People were doing events but none of it was really tied together. We come from Black music and soundsystem culture. It was through DJing and collecting vinyl that we got into Jazz music, but we did a lot of things in-between, throwing Hip-Hop events, Soca events. We were in the middle of that but also the Nu-Jazz, Broken Beat scene, along with promoters. So we were able to create a space for artists coming up at the time to perform live.

We always used to say we wanted to ‘sex up’ the scene a bit because at the time it was very dry. The music was good but it needed to be presented better by promoters and labels. When you come to a Jazz re:freshed night, it’s a Jazz night but Jazz is part of this Black music umbrella. So we’d play some Hip-Hop, we’d play some Soul, some Rare Groove. That was what set us apart.  It was like the traces of something that could be referred to as a scene later on.

What was your original aim for the organization and has it changed over time?

Initially we had this Hip-Hop collective called Uprock Recordings and we threw loads of events as well as releasing music. When we started Jazz re:freshed it was actually a DJ night for us to play the vinyls we were now collecting. Before that, I remember going to established Jazz venues as a young Black male and not being able to get in. I had an argument outside a very well known Jazz venue with the personnel saying they need an injection of young blood and listeners to this music. If they don’t support them coming through the door, their old fans are going to die away and then you’ve got nothing. 

We used to go to Jazz events and there were maybe three black people in the venue, other than the people performing on stage. So it was trying to create something that worked from where we came from. To do something that we love musically but also trying to bring a diverse audience in. We should be represented in this Jazz space and create safe spaces for other Black folk and people of color. To come in and just feel comfortable. Our events were free in the beginning, and we were covering the costs of the bands. We just wanted to promote this idea of what a Jazz event can be in London. Representative of London, which is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. But also pushing the spectrum of Jazz music, incorporating African Jazz, Soul Jazz, Nu-Jazz. Booking bands that would bring something different every week.

How does each component of the business – live shows, releasing music, radio, the festivals – feed into one another?

For us it was a natural growth. When we started the festival, we looked at the landscape and saw no one was booking the bands that we are working with. So we wanted to do our own one as almost a proof of concept to show that it’s about putting on all kinds of great bands. So for the first festival we did in 2015, we reached out to people who over the years have become friends, paid them with our own money and just fell short of breaking even.

We’ve since had Arts Council funding which has allowed us to bring the festival to other places. We started the record label as another extension of what we’re doing in pushing the scene forward. At the time, streaming hadn’t come out yet. It was just going into digital music from CDs to downloads. The Jazz audience and musicians hadn’t quite clicked with the new technology coming through. We were doing CDs for £5 and eventually that morphed into our International Showcase where we got to take bands out to SXSW. So, you’re constantly thinking of ways to push yourself forward and keep yourself relevant, which is really important to us.

How has Mixcloud factored into the journey of Jazz re:freshed?

We’ve been on Mixcloud for 11 years. Initially, we were doing DJ mixes and uploading them to help promote what we do. So you might have a new Jazz mix, a Soul mix, a Latin jazz mix. We’ve moved our radio show to Mixcloud and the platform allows us to have consistency with our delivery of content. We strive to make sure we have a show every week of the year.

The radio show has been a big part of our promo campaign for when we do the festivals. We always have a festival mix for example. Or there will be a couple of Boiler Room sessions that live on our profile as well. Having something like Mixcloud is great. Where you can have people comment, leave a message, encourage what you’re doing and even Creator Subscriptions where they can donate a little something every month to your upkeep. I think it’s vital for communities like us because you can engage with your followers in a meaningful way.

Jazz re:freshed has given a platform to so many Jazz musicians that we know and love,  from Nubya Garcia to Moses Boyd. How do you describe what’s going on in UK Jazz right now?

It’s a double-edged sword, really. On one level it’s amazing you’ve got all these young guys coming through and you can see them grow to every possible height they can. On the other hand, there is an element of success that comes to these bands where everyone wants a bit of it. There are certain bands I can’t book now and they’re my friends! I understand the game, but it’s kind of sad that it’s come to that point. But I’m always reminded of the support and the community we gave them before they got to a certain level.

One of the things that’s not said about this scene at the moment is its connection and reconnection to Blackness. In the UK, so many musicians have tapped into the essence of Jazz, meshing it with so many sounds that make up Black music in general. We’ve been able to do what we’ve done so far by putting on more Black-led bands year in year out than any other promoter. Bringing in people like Nubya, Moses, Theon Cross and Shabaka Hutchings was only possible because of Tomorrow’s Warriors, another black run organization who worked with these musicians when they were kids. So it kind of completes a cycle of giving back and inspiring.

What do you think is UK Jazz’s ceiling? We’ve just seen Ezra Collective pick up the Mercury Prize…

That’s an interesting one because I think Ezra’s proved there isn’t necessarily a ceiling. I called [them winning the Mercury Prize] a long time ago. But whether it’s gone mainstream or not, all scenes have their time. About seven or eight years, and then they disappear. Look at Acid Jazz, Drum & Bass, UKG. So it’s less for me about the heights Jazz could reach and more about, how do we maintain longevity? The ability to go 10, 15 years? As guys like Nubya and Moses get older, how do we make sure those who are 14-15 years old now are being prepped to take their place? We’re kind of seeing this as now at our events and this is exciting.

The scene is bridging a gap of trying to bring in a new generation to fill that space. My brain thinks in the long term and that’s kind of how we’ve always viewed Jazz re:freshed. It’s like doing the work for the scene to prepare it for its future.

What have been some of the more satisfying aspects of running Jazz re:freshed for two decades?

Getting to know people around the world. The internet has made the world a very small place and we’ve got friends who are now promoters in different parts. Meeting people who have been influenced by what we’ve done within our scene which is kind of incredible. I went to a festival earlier this year in Romania and the guy who runs the festivals said he wouldn’t be doing it if not for Jazz re:freshed. That feels so weird to me that you go into these different places and they’re telling you the UK Jazz scene is where it’s at. The same happened when we went out to Brazil.

I’m still really excited about the music coming through in this scene, especially in Europe. The radio show helps with that. Running the label has definitely been a labor of love but we’re still passionate about being able to create opportunities and get music out there and work with really nice people as well.

As you continue to celebrate all of your milestones, what are your plans for 2024 and beyond?

2024 is when our international work really takes off. We’re running the SXSW UK Jazz Showcase again. But in addition to that we’re also going to South Africa for the first time, doing a showcase out there with a promoter. Towards October we’re doing a Jazz re:freshed showcase in Australia and Japan. Above everything, we want to keep creating opportunities for people to go and perform around the world and make most of it. I think that’s our main thing for next year; it will be tiring but worth it!