From the jazz scene, for the jazz scene

The Swiss Jazz Days is a new networking and scene event that, according to the program, focuses on current topics in the national and international music industry. The two-day event, which took place for the first time in Bern at the end of February, also served to "develop ideas and strategies together in order to meet common challenges".

The Swiss Jazz Days were initiated by Simon Petermann and Christoph Jenny in particular. "I had the 'aha' moment back in 2015. At the Jazzahead trade fair in Bremen, I realized what I was missing in Switzerland - the feeling of being part of a scene," recalls Petermann. The musical director of the Fischermann Orchestra and broadcaster at Radio RaBe therefore set about developing an event "by the jazz scene for the jazz scene" together with his partner Christoph Jenny in 2020. It quickly became apparent that such an event would not only meet with lively interest, but could also be financed.

The 1st Swiss Jazz Days not only offered workshops such as "Social Media & Digital Communication" and "Media Promotion for Musicians", but also concerts and discussion panels - for example on the topic of entrepreneurship in jazz or the "Opportunities of an umbrella campaign in Swiss jazz". According to moderator Milena Krstic, the panel "Sustainable promotion strategies" focused on ecological aspects. Lea Heimann, who is responsible for booking, fundraising and mediation at the Bernese jazz club Bee-Flat, explained that everyone is actually still in a learning process in this regard. The head of Popkredit Zurich, Niklaus Riegg, on the other hand, emphasized: "I have a mixed relationship with so-called green booking." Although it is absolutely right that the festivals are making efforts to become increasingly "greener", the responsibility for this should not be delegated to the musicians.

Presenter Krstic, herself a musician, talked about her own efforts to travel by plane as little as possible, both privately and professionally. She pointed out: "If you really want to be successful as a musician, you almost can't avoid flying around a lot." A statement that Riegg supplemented with the realization that the local jazz scene offers its protagonists too few performance opportunities: "As a Swiss jazz musician, you are more or less forced to tour abroad." Although the train has proven to be a good alternative to the plane within Europe, the distances involved should not be underestimated, as an example cited by Lea Herrmann illustrates: when booking a concert, she asked the performers to travel by train. This meant that the musicians from Sicily had to travel for 21 hours and were correspondingly exhausted on stage. An earlier journey, including an additional overnight stay, would have been appropriate for recreational reasons, but there was no budget for this.

The panel participants agreed that better coordination between the organizing Swiss clubs was needed. This could sometimes prevent formations from performing in Madrid today, Basel tomorrow and Barcelona the day after tomorrow, for example. "We need more collaboration and less competition," said Niklaus Riegg. Carine Zuber, director of the Zurich jazz club Moods until last fall, also spoke from the audience. She reported on talks with SBB about a possible Interrail pass for artists. Developments that indicate that the topic is becoming increasingly relevant for the music industry.

And what is Simon Petermann's conclusion after the 1st Swiss Jazz Days? "The start was a success and thanks to the many positive responses, we feel encouraged to hold the event every year in future." In Petermann's view, it would be desirable for the event to attract more organizers and representatives of cultural sponsors, foundations and labels in the future. This time, the 130 or so participants were primarily musicians. Which means that the first goal has already been achieved: to connect jazz musicians with each other.

"We are very open about how the Swiss Jazz Days should continue," Petermann states. In order to feel the pulse of the jazz scene even better in future, he and Christoph Jenny have set themselves the fixed goal of not holding the event exclusively in the federal city. This step should help to counteract the fragmentation of the jazz scene in the best possible way. One thing is particularly important to Petermann: "Collaboration with other scenes is very important to us; we don't close ourselves off to pop or rock."