Festival founder Mike gave Capital its jazz injection

Published on Monday 14 July 2008 10:21

We catch up with man who started famous music event in 1978, and recall day a former US president played a part.

WHEN former US president Jimmy Carter steps into the pulpit at St Giles' to play compere for you, there's no doubt you've made it.

Today, the Edinburgh's jazz and blues festival is established on the international map, the biggest event of its kind in the UK, and regularly attracting some of the world's biggest stars.

It's a far cry from 30 years ago when the festival was born in a handful of pubs with a smattering of acts bussed from gig to gig.

"It wasn't very big back then," nods Mike Hart. He's now 74 and founder director of the Festival, but back in 1978 he was just a 44-year-old jazz musician with a flare for the banjo, an avid fan who decided the festival city wasn't complete without a jazz injection.

"We didn't really have any money or much of an idea how to do it, but somehow we managed it.

"I'd heard about the Sacramento Jazz Festival in the US and it sounded like it was a fantastic event," says Mike. "I thought we really ought to have something like that here in Edinburgh.

"So I jumped on a plane and went out to San Francisco where I met the festival director who filled me with vast quantities of ale and told me that we must do it," he laughs.

Mike arrived back in Edinburgh filled with enthusiasm and determination to make the city a key destination for jazz fans.

"I approached the proprietor of the Adelphi dance hall, Rayner Voss, who was a jazz fan, and he kindly put up 500.

"We got one star from the States, Benny Waters, who played with King Oliver – a great break for us to get him – and we somehow managed to break even."

Certainly this year's event has morphed from those early days into a colourful and lively pageant, funded thanks to more than 125,000 from public grants and sponsors.

The scale is dramatically different from the early days when a handful of pubs were drafted in thanks to input from the now defunct Drybrough Brewery for the second festival in 1979.

"They had pubs across Edinburgh and the idea was that we would have three bands a day in each pub, bringing jazz to the people – for free – who would never have gone to see a jazz band.

"We were shuttling 25 or 30 bands across the city by bus. It become quite an operation."

The turning point in the Festival's success came when the organisers hit on the idea of a Mardi Gras-style parade down Princes Street and a string of leisurely free events that have become mainstays in the summer events calendar.

This year, the Mardi Gras is in the Grassmarket and the popular Jazz on a Summer Day will be held place at the Ross Theatre in Princes Street Gardens, on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 July.

Mike says: "We got gradually bigger and bigger. There were events at the Queens Hall, the Usher Hall, the Festival Theatre – even St Giles' Cathedral."

Jazz fan and former Lord Provost Eric Milligan recalls one event in 1995 with enormous fondness.

"Dick Hyman, a great pianist who is now honorary president of the Jazz Festival, was appearing. We had a new organ installed at St Giles thought 'why not get him to play jazz in St Giles with say a gospel singer?'

"Former US President Jimmy Carter was coming over and I knew that Dick had played at his presidential inauguration, so I thought I'd ask him along.

"The place went crazy – there were whoops from people and then Jimmy Carter was in the pulpit introducing Dick Hyman. It was the kind of thing that makes a great memory," adds Eric.

There are certainly plenty of great moments in the 30 years of the festival for jazz lovers to remember with affection – and there's still plenty more to come.

&#149 The Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival runs from July 25 to August 3. For programme details go to www.edinburghjazzfestival.co.uk