The return of an Edinburgh music legend
The return of an Edinburgh music legend
"We've had determination and the support of the community" say new Jazz Bar team
by Sarah McArthur
The words of jazz great Louis Armstrong will take on new meaning when an iconic Edinburgh music institution reopens in front of a sell-out crowd next week, and there may not be a dry eye on the house.
“What we play is life” the legendary trumpeter said in describing jazz, and against all odds new life has been given to a hugely loved venue.
The Jazz Bar was a musical institution; the stage at the end of the small, unpretentious cellar bar was one of the few places in Edinburgh to attract world class performers on a regular basis. One of the few jazz venues in Scotland, the Jazz Bar has casually hosted Jazz legends from within and outside the UK, such as Martin Drew, Ravi Coltrane, Gerry Bergonzi and Don Menza.
Running an average of 1,300 gigs per year, the venue won multiple awards including UK Jazz Venue of the Year, and was a cornerstone of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, as well as a popular Fringe venue for Jazz. National jazz directories described it as “central to the Edinburgh jazz community”, with “an excellent quality of jazz music every night.”
Understandable, then, that the city was shocked and saddened at the sudden announcement of closure on 10 April this year. Shockwaves following the closure reached as far as STV news at six, British Jazz magazines and global culture outlet Timeout. The news even motivated statements in the Scottish Parliament from Edinburgh MSP and Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton.
“It had been amazing over the years… [now] a lot of people have lost pretty much their livelihoods, as well as an amazing place to play and listen to great music.” Phil Hopwood, guitarist performing at Jazz Bar since 2005, soon after Jazz Bar’s closure.
The Bar left a hole in Edinburgh's music scene that other venues struggled to fill. “There are some bands I haven’t seen since [the closure], because the only place they played was the Jazz Bar,” said Gregor Wilson, former duty manager and regular performer at Jazz Bar. While some bands like Hopwood's Wee Sara and the Texans or Wilson's Groove Down were able to pick up gigs in larger venues around town, there are few venues that can offer the physical space suitable for jazz, which left many performers adrift.
Former staff Justyna and Nick Mushlin have bought and resurrected the venue. The couple, alongside a solid community of staff, performers and customers, are determined to bring the Jazz Bar back for good, as a non-profit social enterprise. They're opening the doors for a sold-out first night on Monday. And the journey has been remarkable…
A passion project with little profit:
It came as a surprise to many, given Jazz Bar’s popularity, that it had gone under for financial reasons. Nick Mushlin met the original founder of the Jazz Bar, the late Bill Kyle, in 2005. He began working at the Jazz Bar in 2007 and was bar manager from 2009. Nick explained that the Bar had always been about passion, not about profit. “The place started off with a whim and a prayer… under Bill it was a quarterly battle, every three months the battle to pay the VAT… but we always pushed through… that was down to Bill’s determination, he would move heaven and earth to make it push through.”
Several former staff agreed that, while Jazz Bar was often busy, the small size of the venue made it difficult to turn over enough money to cover the costs of staff, performers and ever-rising energy bills. Wilson said: “They tried their very very best… They always put the staff first, it was never about oh we need to make money it was always about satisfaction of the workers and the people… but the operational costs were just nuts.”
The Jazz Bar, like many other music venues in Edinburgh, struggled due to rising energy costs, the end of post-covid business rates relief, a clientele living through a cost-of-living crisis, and a generational change in social habits. A study in 2023 found that Gen Z drink up to 20% less than millennials, who themselves drink less than older generations: many bars are struggling to adapt to this tendency to drink less alcohol and go to bed early.
“Even though we were busy we couldn’t make more money… the whole model of the business just didn’t work.” said Nick. Inevitably, after years of pushing through against mounting struggles, Bill Kyle's family were forced to close the business on 10 April. “We just knew that if we open another day, the people that have worked that day are not getting paid,” said Nick.
A tight-knit community shows its strength:
Nick and Justyna had been discussing what they might do if Jazz Bar were to go bust. But when it finally happened, they knew they had to act fast.
The couple established a company and maxed out their credit cards to buy the Jazz Bar’s assets - but with two children and having just lost their jobs at Jazz Bar Limited, they couldn’t do it on their own. The couple say that the trust and support that staff, performers and the general public have given them has been phenomenal.
Former staff chipped in to buy the assets in full knowledge that there was only a fifty-fifty chance Nick and Justyna could even get their CIC off the ground. Every single one of the Fringe performers booked for the Jazz Bar agreed to hold off relocating on the off chance that the venue was open in some capacity in August. “Every single person said if there’s even 1% chance we can be on this stage again, we’re willing to risk us not having a Fringe at all,” said Justyna.
Finally, Nick and Justyna were blown away by the rapid and generous response to their crowdfunder, asking for £30,000 to cover the initial setup costs for the Jazz Bar CIC. Having launched the appeal at 9am in the morning, by midnight over 50% of their goal had already been donated. Donations varied wildly, with several individuals giving one thousand pounds. But what touched the Mushlins most were the donations of just two or three pounds- “That’s someone who doesn’t have much,” said Justyna, “that’s when I got a tear in my eye.”
New Jazz Bar: what to expect
Nick and Justyna, having worked at Jazz Bar for decades, are arguably the best placed to bring it back to life. Having seen over the years what worked and didn’t work and understood the intrinsic problems with the business model; they already know what changes they want to make.
Crucially, the new Jazz Bar will be a community interest company (CIC)- basically, a non-profit organisation. However, Nick and Justyna argue that this is simply the administrative category which most accurately fits the Jazz Bar’s goals, and the goals of its founder.
“A community Interest Company makes perfect sense because we want it to be about the community and it kind of always has been, unofficially, it’s always been a community venture” said Justyna.
Nick and Justyna are confident that as a non-profit the Jazz Bar will be viable; but they also want to adapt the Jazz Bar and make it their own. Both keen woodworkers, they are building their own new tables, and have got new seats. Justyna also promised a surprise addition to the decor for those who are heading in next week, which will guarantee that Bill Kyle’s memory always lives on in the establishment.
The couple plan to change the programming, offering advance tickets for all jazz shows, and making the weekly programme more varied. They would also like, in the long term, to open during the day for activities with children. In September they’d like to take a break for more significant renovations to adjust the stage and make the space more danceable.
They are confident that they will succeed- not only because they believe they have a business model which now fits the operations of the organisation - but also because they are hugely committed to making it happen.
“We’ve made this happen out of thin air,” says Nick. “They say you need luck, timing and money to start a business; we’ve had none of those. We’ve just had determination, and the support of the community.”