Everyday Jazz Lives: Encounters with the Birmingham Jazz Scene (EJ, 2024)

Everyday Jazz Lives: Encounters with the Birmingham Scene

Since 2019, jazz researcher and ethnomusicologist Pedro Cravinho and freelance photographer Brian Homer have been investigating the jazz scene in Birmingham, UK. By interviewing and photographing jazz musicians, they have been able to provide a glimpse into these musicians’ lives both on and off stage. Beyond the visual stereotypes of jazz performance, they have revealed some of the interesting activities musicians engage in. This has involved Brian in photographing musicians in some unexpected places, including on a building site, in an operating theatre and on a post round.

The photographs and interview quotes highlight little-seen aspects of musicians’ lives and how they negotiate developing their careers and their everyday lives. The book features 26 Birmingham-based musicians, each shown in a performance-related situation and in an offstage activity.

“Everyday Jazz Lives is born out of dialogues and encounters with musicians themselves. The book encourages us to think about scenes and the diversity of creative practitioners involved in their development and sustainability.” Professor Tony Whyton (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK).

To cite this book: Cravinho, Pedro and Brian Homer (2024). Everyday Jazz Lives: Encounters with the Birmingham Jazz Scene. Birmingham: EJ.

200mm wide by 260mm tall, black and white, 64 pages + cover, perfect bound.

£15 including post and packing (UK addresses). Available here

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