The reciprocal relationship between jazz musicians and audiences in live performances: A pilot qualitative study

Despite the centrality of live musical performance to jazz, there has been little scholarly attention placed on the performer–audience relationship. This pilot study explored the factors that assisted and hindered this relationship among players and audience members attending live performances at a London jazz club. Semi-structured interviews were held with seven jazz musicians and ten audience members who had been present at one of their performances in a London jazz club. The central question was ‘what makes a successful jazz gig?’. Content analysis of responses identified that responses clustered in three major themes: the power of the audience, as experienced by both parties in positive and negative ways; the critical importance of venue size in moderating the quality of the performer-audience interaction; and the relative accuracy of each group’s beliefs about what the other group sought from this relationship. A major finding was that performers set clear limits on the degree to which they are willing to take audience views or behaviour into consideration, whilst acknowledging the very considerable power of the audience to influence events for better or for worse.