Jazz FM to support British jazz community with UK Music Day

Easter Monday is UK Music Day and Jazz FM is to celebrate it across the whole day to show support for the British jazz community which has been strongly affected by the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

From 6am until 7pm, Nigel Williams, Anne Frankenstein and Jamie Crick will play jazz, soul and blues music from only British musicians or those who call the UK their home. There’ll be feature interviews and archive session performances each hour, plus Mark Walker will present a supercharged UK only Jazz FM’s Greatest.

At 7pm, Jazz FM will open the gates to its Virtual Jazz Festival – a multi artist jazz festival hosted by Helen Mayhew.

Helen will take listeners on a virtual journey of the festival site, going from virtual stage to virtual stage, with artists from all over the UK and the world who are performing exclusive performances from their own homes, studios and offices, all in support of UK Music Day.

Nick Pitts, Jazz FM’s Content Director said “One thing that became very clear to us at the start of the Coronavirus crisis was how deeply this was affecting our UK jazz community.

“The idea for UK Music Day started with an email from Helen Mayhew to the entire station saying ‘what can we do to help?’ and the rest just flowed from that.  I’m really hoping that Jazz FM through its excellent presenters, producers and programmes can make a difference and show our musical family across the country that we are there for them.”

The station will be revealing more artists taking part in the virtual jazz festival every day on Jazz FM Breakfast with Nigel Williams throughout this week and will provide more details on how listeners and jazz fans can get involved.