Taking the jazz out of the jazz festival

I read with disappointment the MCCA's decision to "sign off" the Malta Jazz Festival's organisation to a private entertainment company (Jazz Will Have Company This Year, February 3). A brief look at the proposed line-up for this year's festival makes it terribly evident to me that this new management will aim to increase the commercial viability of this weekend, albeit seriously marring the respectability and reputation that this festival has gathered over these last 15 years.

Now that the decision to stop losing money from this festival has been taken, it seems all integrity and good taste has been put aside for a variety of expired and mediocre acts, most of which do not even fall within the genre of jazz music. Justifying such a line-up by having "looked at other festivals" is a petty excuse. Montreux Jazz Festival, for example, has recently opened up its programme to include pop acts besides its jazz programme, but to put things in perspective, Montreux spans over two whole weeks, presents more than one stage and is held in a country with an already healthy jazz scene. It is clearly ridiculous to compare. It might not be surprising to know that the Malta Jazz Festival was never the most financially lucrative cultural events to be organised in Malta, but is making money the aim of this festival? In a country with a very seriously deficient jazz scene and education, the festival had served as the only source of exposure musicians and listeners had to world class acts. Charles Gatt (the festival's artistic coordinator since its inception) always ensured a three-day programme of varied and top-quality musicians from the contemporary jazz scene. He ensured a festival of superb quality which has had its impact within local and international circles of musicians and jazz lovers alike.

It is, in fact, this festival that motivated people like myself to further their studies and delve deeper into this music. What does this new and improved jazz festival has to offer to the younger generation? From what I read, it will be all about cheap, expired fusion and blues acts, chill-lounge-bossa, even reggae. Contrary to last year's festival, none of the acts in this proposed line-up has any place in the contemporary jazz scene. Sure it will sell, but will the festival enrich the country's cultural profile the way it has always done until now?

I'm not blaming NnG for any of this - after all their aim is to make money, period. It is whoever decided that the festival should be a prime target of a national cost-cutting exercise who is at fault. Culture is not about profits, it is an investment of a country for the education of its citizens.

Yet, someone is clearly missing the point. Malta will be losing a very prestigious event, one of the few that our annual cultural timetable could boast about. The price which the country will pay for this decision is far, far greater than the losses the festival was sustaining. The well-being of a nation does not depend solely on financial profits.