How Jamie Cullum blazed a trail in remote music making
World-first 5G music lesson
Way before lockdown turned us all into remote technology experts, virtuoso musician Jamie Cullum took advantage of wireless technology.
Cullum led the world’s first 5G music lesson from his piano at the two thousand year-old Roman Amphitheatre in London, playing live with amateur musicians in Bristol and Birmingham using 5G technology, on behalf of Music for All.
When Simon Saunders, a trustee at the charity, joined me on my Radio Reverb show, he told me that the challenge was to get musicians playing together across three cities.
He said: “We wanted a teacher who was well known in public and could play improvisational music.”
The idea to get Jamie Cullum involved was more of a dream than an aspiration, he told me.
“We reached out to Jamie and we were delighted that he was really enthusiastic. He wanted his participants to be young musicians who were not professionals. We ran an open call for musicians. We had hundreds of people from all over the world apply. After much sifting, Jamie chose six young folks. On the night they played together for the first time.”
In Bristol, the musicians were: Rosie Patton – sax & vocals; Taylor Paisley-French – keys & vocals; Lexi Milligan – vocals; and in Birmingham: Jeremy Levif – guitar & vocals; Jakob Terry – drums.
Simon said: “Music For All believes that making music changes lives. It does that in lots of ways. It keeps you younger. It makes you healthy and it makes you smarter. Those aren’t just assertions. They are claims that we have got great research to back up.
“Music For All recognises that not everybody has the opportunity to do that. Maybe they can’t afford an instrument, or can’t find the right kind of tuition or spaces to play in. We promote practical help for people by giving grants.”
Simon gave me the example of a young man called Scott who was a guitar player living in Sussex.
His dad was very supportive and saw a lot of potential in him. They got together the money to buy a left-handed Gibson Les Paul. Scott fell in love with the instrument and really enjoyed playing it.
Sadly, Scott had a serious heart condition. Tragically, he died while undergoing an operation. His Dad was keen for Scott’s gift to live on. He got in touch with Music For All and said he wanted Scott’s guitar to have a second life with somebody else.
Simon said: “We conducted a long search and eventually we found a young man called Patrick, a keen guitarist studying in Brighton. He suffers from cerebral palsy. Music for All was able to hand over the treasured guitar and that’s hopefully set him on the road to a guitar playing career.”
You can find out more about Music For All via this link.