About us
Steve Mead - Artistic Director
Born down south in the sunny and pleasant home counties in 1965, Steve grew up listening to the Test Card, then became a teenage singer/songwriter with a repertoire about buses, odd family holidays and girlfriends (lack of). Following a degree in composition and classical guitar, he got fed up of trying to sight read, so turned to jazz instead. Manchester became his adopted home, and after 10 years with a touring performance company, and another 13 with mjf, he still has a deep love for all types of music and the arts, doesn't own a telly and likes really old things that are still being used. He currently drives a 1969 Triumph 2000 that uses more oil than petrol and travels at a leisurely pace befitting of Steve's approaching middle years.
Mick Waterfield – Producer
Born and educated in
Festival history
When we were putting together the very first festival back in late 1995, we really had no idea that the event would take off as it did, blossoming into an annual celebration of the region's talented, creative musicians that we now look forward to each year. We were initially a voluntary group of musicians, jazz fans and event organisers with the common goal of wanting to give
By 1998, the festival was growing, so we introduced new features such as commissioned work and education projects, which inspired us to apply to, and subsequently get, a major Lottery grant from the then Arts Council of Great Britain. This would allow us to operate from an office in the city centre, secure funds to produce the next two festivals, and almost actually get paid for doing it. In 2000 we became an Arts Council 'Regularly Funded Organisation' and a Manchester City Council 'Pillar Event'.
With 2005 marking our tenth festival, we commissioned four very special and very diverse new pieces of work from regional composers to première at the festival. We held an enormously enjoyable launch, covered by BBC Radio 3, produced a special commemorative compilation CD (still a few copies left if you're interested!), T-shirts, and presented a sleepless 9 days of non-stop jazz: - which was widely recognised as our biggest and best up until then; certainly the most exhausting for the tiny team of staff and volunteers…
New ideas keep coming in; exciting young players continue to emerge and musicians continue to view mjf as a chance to create something special. We'll carry on doing what we hope we do best: pass it on! More exciting commissions and collaborations unique to Manchester were presented in 2008 and 2009, and 2010 will be our 15th anniversary, which we'll mark with the continuation of our mjf originals programme and plenty of special events and great live music. See you there!
