KENNY MATHIESON looks at the work of KEN RAMAGE in establishing the Nairn International Jazz Festival.

LONG BEFORE I ever actually attended a concert in the Nairn International Jazz Festival, I had been regaled with tales of superb mainstream jazz gigs in a marquee overlooking a beautiful stretch of the Moray Firth. Ken Ramage, who launched and runs the festival, has moved indoors again this year, and even if old Nairn hands will tell you that the atmosphere was never quite the same in the bigger indoor venues, the music remained equally excellent.

Ken launched the Nairn International Jazz Festival in 1990 largely because he wanted to hear jazz on his own doorstep. Love of the music remains his primary motivation, although the festival itself has grown into one of the leading events devoted to traditional and mainstream jazz in the country. Ken readily admits that, to the dismay of his accountant, he routinely subsidised the festival out of the profit from his successful fruit and vegetable business over the years.

That avenue closed when he retired from business, and the core funding must now come from a combination of box office income, sponsorship (Hawco, the Inverness-based car dealership, is the principal commercial sponsor again this year), the Scottish Arts Council, and some local authority funding.

In the early years of the festival, the late Lachie Shaw (then running Inverness Jazz Platform) booked the artists, but Ken took on that responsibility, and does all of the booking for the festival himself.

“I listened a lot to jazz when I was young,” he explained. “I used to hear my brother’s Jelly Roll Morton records at home, and I remember going to hear Norman Granz’s famous ‘Jazz At The Philharmonic’ touring shows in Glasgow, with people like Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie.
“Those were fantastic experiences, but when I started my business and was working round the clock, there just wasn’t time to listen. Eventually, though, I got back into it. I remember specifically coming to hear the great guitarist Herb Ellis in Inverness, and then saxophonist Scott Hamilton.

“I decided then that I would love to bring these artists and others like them to Nairn, and that is what I have done. I had an excellent team around me in the business, and they took on the jazz with the same kind of enthusiasm, or I would never have been able to do it.”

The main venues this year will be the Conference Centre at the Newton Hotel, but a number of events will also take place at the Knockomie Hotel in Forres. The Brodie Countryfare and The Stables at Brodie Castle will also host events, and there will be special performance from the New York-based Gully Low Jazz Band – back for the third year running – with Warren Vache and John Allred at Fort George.

The festival has attracted many big names over the years, drawn by the lure of the beautiful setting and Ken’s five-star treatment of his artists. The director’s particular passion is for jazz piano, and it is no surprise that the guest list over the years includes stellar pianists like Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, Ralph Sutton, John Bunch, Gene Harris, Junior Mance, Benny Green and Bill Charlap. Mance returns this year, and Eric Reed makes his debut.

It has not survived by pianists alone, however. His guests have included stars like cornetist Ruby Braff and bass player Ray Brown, both sadly no longer with us, and guitarist-singer John Pizzarelli, as well as favourites like Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache and Ken Peplowski. The latter two are back this year, along with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.

Scottish artists have also been well represented, including expatriates like Jim Galloway and Joe Temperley, as well as home-based stars like Carol Kidd, Martin Taylor and Brian Kellock.

“My aim right from the start has always been to present top-quality mainstream jazz here, and to let people in this part of the world hear music that they wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to hear.

“We do have people travelling up here every year to the festival, but the audience is very much a local one. I feel my experience in business has been crucial in getting this festival established. You can’t just put these things on and wait to see what happens, you have to get out there and sell it. If people like what you are selling, they will come back for more.”

That festival received a grant award of £80,000 from the Scottish Arts Council’s National Lottery Access and Participation Scheme last year. The cash is spread over a three year period, and, as Ken explained, is intended to develop various complementary aspects of the festival, rather than to offset the running costs of booking and presenting concerts.

“I was delighted by the success of the Lottery application,” Ken confirmed. “Towns like Nairn have often seemed to be on the periphery when awards like this were handed out, but I think this has been a great achievement for the team who have run the festival over the years, and the people who helped put the application together.

“The money cannot be used to run the events – they still have to be funded by our own efforts. Even with excellent box office returns, that still only covers about one third of the costs at best, so there is a lot of fund-raising still to do.”

The Nairn International Jazz Festival runs from 3-9 August 2003. For further information, contact Ramage Jazz on 01309 674221.