This week musicians and music lovers from all over the world descend upon London for the annual London Jazz Festival

This week I’m playing music on my show by various artists performing at the festival including Aaron Goldberg, Marilyn Mazur and Randy Weston.

I was in debate with a group of musicians yesterday, and there were differing opinions about whether the London Jazz Festival is really a jazz festival or whether it is a music festival which features a few jazz musicians (like the above mentioned names and Branford Marsalis to name a few). Certainly there are a large number of concerts by ‘singer songwriters’, claiming in some way to be influenced by jazz, but I myself cannot see how a festival comprised entirely of music from the American jazz tradition could support itself financially.

I would be interested to know your thoughts, so please do e-mail in to the show, or look over to my personal blog where I will continue the debate.