StayTuned Records was formed as a reaction to other labels whose involvement in the record business is primarily money motivated. Although, it has to be said, without cashflow it's impossible to exist, it's obvious that if money is the prime motive for getting involved with an artist then music is not. This shortsighted attitude has kept the coke dealers busy but has precipitated the decline of all major record labels.

Small, independent labels are flourishing because there are still individuals out there who love music & want to get involved at grass roots level without having to have meetings with "men in suits" (mainly accountants) in order to get a decision agreed. They are also flourishing because there's an audience out there who just love music & don't want to be force fed something by the marketing arm of a multinational record company who go about selling music as if it's a breakfast cereal.

Jazz, by it's very nature as mainly instrumental music, will always have a small market - it's no coincidence that, generally speaking, jazz singers sell more albums & pull larger crowds. But there is an audience out there for instrumental jazz & there are people who want to be challenged by something that is new, vibrant & constantly changing.

StayTuned is committed to finding this audience & expanding it. Too many of the people who believe that jazz "goes over people's heads" have a vested interest in keeping jazz to themselves so that they can be part of an "exclusive club". This kind of elitism is patronising to say the least & bad for jazz as instead of trying to bring others closer to the music it's insulting them by telling them they wouldn't understand it.

These days when jazz means a multitude of things (from Louis Armstrong to Thelonius Monk to Albert Ayler to Michael Brecker + a thousand things in between) it's possible, I believe, to find some form of jazz that almost anyone would enjoy - and I don't mean Kenny G!!

Jazz has always been an influence on popular music & one that few people in that world are prepared to acknowledge. This is because jazz has been a dirty word for some time & also because press departments of major record labels like their artists to take the credit for everything they do. They believe it's in their interest to make the artists out to be original & special.

There is not, & never has been, much originality in pop music - it's possible to tell where virtually anyone is coming from. Originality is not so common in jazz these days either & overall standards of jazz playing are very high without there being many players who stand head & shoulders above everyone else like Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane & Miles Davis & many others did in the past.

But despite this, jazz continues to be a mainstay of live music at a time when live music is no longer a major part of popular music. There will always be an audience for live music & as pop music bows out it will be jazz that carries the baton.

StayTuned Records is, along with other like-minded labels, dedicated to the furtherance of live music & artistic integrity in the jazz world.