International Jazz Day special with music professional AJ Haseley from Influential

Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World, where I interview musicians about how their music helps make the world more harmonious.

This episode is a special one for International Jazz Day, featuring a conversation with music business professional and agent AJ Haseley, who I bumped into a few months ago at Bill Laurence’s gig at Cadogan Hall.

AJ has a lot to share about contemporary British jazz, so enjoy listening to our conversation.

Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and subscribe to support the show.

Don't forget the Quincy Jones quote that sums up why I do this: "Imagine what a harmonious world it would be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing."

Transcript

Hilary 0:00

Hello and welcome to a very special episode of Harmonious World just for International Jazz Day 2026. And I had a very interesting chat with AJ Hazley, who is really active in music in general, but jazz in particular in London. So I hope you enjoy listening into our conversation. So welcome to Harmonious World. I'm delighted to be joined by AJ Hazley from Influential.

AJ 0:29

There we go. Influential music in the house. Excellent. Good morning. Good morning, Hilary.

Hilary 0:36

Yeah, good morning, AJ. So we met at the Bill Laurence gig at Cadogan Hall.

AJ 0:42

Yes. And to give it some testimonial, this is the power of networking and not taking for granted who you're sitting next to because Hilary, you was. I'm gonna try to make a long story short. One of my artists on the roster is represented by an agent for her for her um European bookings. That agent invited me to see their act that was at Cadogan Hall, which was the supporting act.

Hilary 1:20

Right.

AJ 1:21

My friend who I told to come along, she knew the headliner act. So she said, let's stay for the whole thing, watch your supporting act, and we watch the headliner act. I didn't remember that the headliner act was part of Snarky Puppy. I didn't remember that.

Hilary 1:36

Right.

AJ 1:37

So I was watching the headliner act and not realizing as well that I was sitting next to his mother.

Hilary 1:45

Exactly. She was I was the other side. I don't know.

AJ 1:48

You was the other side of that. So it's a good thing I never said this was a bad performance or anything because his mother was sitting next to me, you know. So we got I got chin wagging with the mother. You I saw that you was interacting with her. So I out of kindness, I said, Oh, so what do you do? Because I saw you jotting down notes, and I said, Oh, are you a journalist? And you was like, Oh, yeah, somewhat, you know, you do your podcasts, etc. And I said, Well, I run the own agency, we must talk. So that is the you know, there's so many cogs to that, but it's almost like there you go. That's that whole that whole multiverse was supposed to happen just so that me and you, just so that me and you could connect.

Hilary 2:29

It's it's very it's very weird, but yeah, it is weird, but that's how, and I think that that's the thing that young musicians fail to see because they fail to see that actually just going to someone else's gig might introduce you to somebody else, might you know get you into a different venue or whatever.

AJ 2:51

It's the it's the it's the it's the Dr. Pepper theory all over. What's the worst that could happen?

Hilary 2:57

Yeah, exactly.

AJ 2:58

You know, because look what look what has happened. Like, I know you, I know I I also know um I forget his name, the headliner. What was the headliner? Bill Laurence. Bill Laurence. So I know more about him now. I've I've you know, I've passed on the contact details, I met some other people there. So sometimes you could just be like, Oh, I can't be asked to do this, especially, especially in my position as an agent, because I get invited to things all the time. So constantly, AJ come here, AJ come come there. And again, it was more about meeting the agent, it was less about seeing her act, it was more about let's let let's let me talk with her and blah, blah, blah. But then look how many things happen. You know, the artist, the supporting act, the headliner, the mum, you now interview. And now we're with we're hopefully going to feed some nuggets to the to the jazz world.

Hilary 3:49

Absolutely, and I think uh so this is going out on International Jazz Day. And the reason I, although we're recording this a uh a few weeks before, the reason I want to do this is because I think that there's a lot that you can say to artists, but also a lot that you can explain to uh to my listeners about how the music business works and how you get to where you where you want to be, whether that's in terms of performing or listening. Because actually, a lot of people don't know who to listen to, and they don't know the best way of supporting those act those acts. I'm constantly, you know, I send people to band camp, I uh I suggest that people, if even if you want to stream music of an artist, that you nevertheless go to their gig and buy their CD because your £10 to their for them for their CD is loads more than they'll get from streams.

AJ 4:48

So just to clarify, when you say people, are you talking about the general public, the audience, or the actual artist's talent?

Hilary 4:57

Both, but I think um, yeah. So I think there are things that you can say to the artists, but I think there's also things that you can say that that people will pick up. I don't want it just to be exclusively for for musicians, you know?

AJ 5:10

And straight away, as you said, you know, you you you you're putting this out on International Jazz Day. So weird. Um a lot of people are lovers of jazz, a lot of artists are in the jazz world, and a lot of people still don't know that there's an international jazz day. It's still under the radar, jazz is under the radar, even though it's like one of the most popular genres in the world, to tell the truth. But it's still quite like a cult kind of music. And International Jazz Day sits underneath that. Most people think that if I was to question somebody and say, when do you think International Jazz Day is, they they they refer it to EFG Jazz Festival, which is November, instead of the beginning of the year, which is April, which you know, International Jazz Day, April the 30th. So a lot of people don't even know about International Jazz Day. So this is where my people like myself and you have to do these these talks, these interviews, etc., to educate, to educate the masses, which leads on to what you're talking about with regards to where to send people, what they should do. I mean, I'm gonna caveat that first of all by you know, we're all human beings and people need to do their if if people really like something or really what or are really interested in something, they have to do their own research. They have to, you know, they have to um dig deep into the, you know, as we say, as DJs used to say, dig into the crates, dig into the crates and and get deep with it. And that's how you that's how you really indulge yourself, immerse yourself into the the scene and what's really going on. Um you know what can happen with myself and you who are deeply in it. I'm an agent, you're uh musician and and a podcaster now. What can happen is we're giving people this stuff off the off of the passion of of what we have, and people take it surface-wise. So we still fly the flag and still trying to educate people, trying to get them into the into the genre, um, or know more what's going on within it. But at the same time, there is a there there is a a limit of how much we can give and should give. It's also about the audience and the artists doing their own research, digging, taking a shovel and digging it into the themselves to to get the answers, etc. That they need. Honestly, they're you know, the public can be the worst at times, but then they can be the best at some times as well. And then artists can be the worst, or talent can be the worst sometimes. Well, a lot of the time, and then you know that they they're the best at some of the time as well.

Hilary 7:58

Yeah, I I've started when I go to gigs, I've started noticing how many other musicians are in the audience to see a particular artist. And those people who are who take the time to go and listen to other people who are not necessarily doing the same type of music as they are, but they're going to listen to them. I have a lot of respect for them because they're taking time out of their schedule to keep going and discovering new music, and I think that's brilliant.

AJ 8:30

And that's kind of like the break from the office. That's why I sometimes go to certain gigs, etc., because it's like even you if you work in music, you should always just be doing music, you should just be doing any activity that revolves around music. So even in your leisure time, even if you're at the gym, put the headphones on, jazz music, you know. Um, so even going to an a musician, going to a gig, it's like it's out of office, but it's still connected to what they do. So, this is another thing I tried to educate artists and new talent with with yes, you should have downtime, but maybe your downtime still includes what you do.

Hilary 9:09

Yeah.

AJ 9:10

Do you know? Do you know what I mean? So, like you're saying, go into a gig, it's not their gig, it's watching somebody else, but it's some downtown. It's sorry, some downtime. Go to other people's gigs, watch what's going on. You never know what could happen. You bump into an AJ, you bump into a Hillary, you know, just you know, just the universe has a way of trying to connect you with with people, and it's it's remembering that. It's remembering that, and it's not all about me, me, me. Like, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do what I'm doing and concentrate on what's coming, what the influx. No, sometimes you have to go out and let the let the magnet you know attack whatever it attaches. Um, so yeah, so so so so yes, so so yeah, talking to artists, you know, these are the kind of things that we have to encourage them. I encourage them to do. I mean, this and a thousand other things, yeah. But we have to encourage them to, you know, uh not just stay in their sphere, because a lot of them will. They'll stay in the studio, they'll they'll stay in the garage, you know, rehearsing, etc. etc. They only go out when it's their gig time, you know, and it's and it's for people like me to come in and go, no, you know, why not go to such and such or or go and grab grab a book that talks about this or go to a gig that is somebody else's gig, or just just be at just go to go to go to Ronnie Scott's when it's not kind of open and just kind of have a sit down and tell them that you're Ronnie Scott's would probably never throw you out if you say, Look, I'm a musician, I know you're not fully open yet, but do you mind if I just sit here for a couple of minutes just to because I'm a musician and I just want to absorb what's good. They'll probably say, Yeah, go on, then after five minutes, we're just you know, we're we're bottling up, we're changing the barrels or whatever. But yeah, how about that's what you know it's engrossing yourself in immersing yourself within this um as much as possible? So that this is this is one of the things that I I always tell artists, yeah. New talent, new talent, yeah, absolutely.

Hilary 11:07

Right. So let's start by going back in time. Why so I know your story. Can you tell my listeners a bit about your story? What gives you the right? What what have you done in your life? And I know you've done a lot of things, so let's have the potted history of AJ.

AJ 11:27

Um, so this is gonna be quite easy because I did this the other day for an interview, so I'm kind of gonna regurgitate how they plucked me and got it got this information. So the the furthest I can remember back getting into music kind of properly. I mean, I you know, I'm I'm uh I'm um you know, I'm born and bred in South London, um, you know, uh uh Caribbean heritage, Jamaican background. Um, so music is it was it was always there, you know, it was always there, it's always been around. And but reggae music was probably the the the primary one that was that was fixed into me, you know, in my early teenage years, you know, it was every you know, me and my me and my boys, me and my crew, whoever it was reggae music was the was the one to be part of to support, etc. etc. Um so reggae reggae was reggae was the music. Um I at 11 at 11 years old when I was first year in secondary school, um my uncles they were creating um these uh these kind of youth discos, these youth like supporting the community. Let's do some music activities, do it for the youth, do these youth discos. So they obviously I went to school, so I had the demographic that they wanted. So they would say, you know, tell your hair's flyers, tell your friends, you know, come to the disco and blah blah blah. So that was my first touch of actually being a promoter, you know, being a promoter, helping with the event organizing and helping with the the running of it and inviting people down and having a good time. When we went to school on Monday, it was like, oh, Friday was really cool, and etc. etc. So that was my first kind of touch of being within business and having kind of like somewhat like a job title, so to speak. Um, so fast forward doing doing again, doing my own, having my own sound system and DJing, etc. etc. It wasn't until I was around 18, 19 that I got into it professionally. I say professionally because uh, you know, that's when you start getting your first bit of money coming in um from music. So I did radio, I did, you know, I had a broadcasting, so I did pirate radio, which is the illegal stuff, but then that led into doing work with with like Radio One and with Kiss 100. Um, so we did stints and skits on on those platforms. Um and then I and then uh because I was like the the vocalist within my crew, um, I got into uh voiceover adverts and the record labels asking me to voice adverts for them for people album releases and soundtrack releases, etc., which was really, really cool. Good money as well. Um and I I realized I even then talking about you know immersing yourself in it, I realized then even as the main it's like it's it's a bit like Chris Martin, who's the frontman of Coldplay, but he still wants to do a job on the side because he still wants to learn. So that's kind of like how I was. I was a frontman and I could have looked at it as like, you know what, I'm crushed, I've got my DJing thing, getting booked here, there, and everywhere, and I'm good. But I still wanted to go into offices and sit with execs and learn the business and do what they do, kind of thing. So I I got a uh an internship with a company called uh MN2S, um Milk and Two Sugars. It was them that made me realize that the power of my phone book, because then at that time Google was brand new, right? I always I always like to tell people that. Google, when I was working in office, Google was brand new. I remember the guy behind me saying, AJ, just do a do a quick Google, you'll find it. And I turned to him and said, What is a Google? Like what? Like, you know, so you know, so it was the it was new for search engines to come and help you with the with with with finding things, but I had a lot of the information in my phone book. So I had people like Estelle was in my phone book, Terry Walker was in my phone book. I had all these artists, they were all my these people were my friends. I didn't know that I could support them. They were already artists, they were already doing their thing. I didn't know that I could support them, if that makes any sense. So it's like, but this company made me made me aware, like, AJ, like, you know, you could be you could be an artist booker as well, you know. You don't have to come in and do because I was helping them with like, you know, the tidbits of admin, the contracts, the amendments on contracts and stuff like that, and research stuff. But they made me know that AJ, like, you know, you've got we we can see that you know the industry, you know, all these DJs, you know, all these producers, you know, all these performers. Like, create your own roster and and we'll help you, we'll show you how to create your own roster, find your own clients and do mailers and get some bookings. And I was doing really well with that. Like, so I was getting people, you know, bookings and getting people who didn't have an agent onto an agency and stuff. And it was like, I just never I didn't get it at first. I said, like, what people phone you to book through you. Why don't they just go straight to the artist? And they're like, What people like to do with the company, you know, they like to do with an agency that will do all the tedious paperwork. And I was like, okay, so they taught me how to again be an artist booker, put together a roster, find clients, blah blah blah, do mailers, you know. And now 20 that was 2003. So now 23 years later, or 20 something years later, because I started influential music in 2020. I set up my own talent booking agency based on the same principles, the simple principles that they show to me. So, shouts out to Sharon, Tim, and Dave from Milk and Two Sugars for really showing me what I didn't know. They went to school for to and studied music and business, etc. etc. I didn't. I you know, I so I didn't really know the the power of contacts, connections, etc. etc. And using those connections to build a career, put money in my pocket, support the industry. I didn't know all of those things, so it was lovely that they they taught me that and showed a very young AJ who was a nightmare to deal with because I was just young and all over the place. But they showed me that, and I and again, and this is what I teach to my interns now. I show to them that you know, learn what I'm showing you because you could one day start your own label, start your own agency, X, Y, Z. And you probably you're they're young. All my interns, they're all young. They're all you know, they I'm I'm close to 50, they're close to 20. So they kind of I kind of say to them, like, you're closer to the industry than probably me. You're closer to you're closer to the next Ed Sheeran, you're closer to the next Adele, the next whoever, you know, um co-train, the co-train of today. You're closer to those people than I am because you're part of music schools and you're part of, you know, you go to these gigs and you go to these um jam sessions. So you're probably closer to the next Miles Davis than I am. Get networking, get knowing who they are, and keep connected and see how you can work off of the back of that and support the industry. It's not about it's not about leeching, it's about how do you come together as a partnership and they help you, you help them.

Hilary 18:55

Yeah. That's a great story.

AJ 18:58

I know that was a lot, but yeah, the the I'm just giving you the very, very start to kind of like, you know, who taught me, you know, my yoda, my yoda, so to speak, to where I am, to where I am now. So, you know, what gives me the right is is me just kind of saying, Well, I I was taught something, I was taught how to build a house, and look, I've got some tool, I've got some tools here and some wood. Let me build my own house because someone taught me how to build a house, and that's what's simply that's simply what I'm doing. So, me having the right, and I didn't know anybody from the jazz world. I come from the hip-hop and RB world. So when I was uh although I grew up on reggae, I moved over to hip hop and RB when I was doing my DJ and stuff. I actually didn't know anybody from the jazz and and and soul world, apart from the odd Omar, the odd Terry Walker. But I was listening to this music, I was listening to the Tom Misch, Barney artists, Jordan Racquay, Youssef Days, Kamal Williams. I was listening to these people, and I didn't even know that they were British until I delved more. This great music was, and I was listening to his music, and I was bookmarking it, and it wasn't until I researched I realized like, wow, this is the boy next door. Tom Mich, these are these are London people, these are South East London people. They're you know, they're in my town. Yeah, and I've just thought I've gotta get in on this. So, what gave me the right was nobody gave me the right apart from myself having that confidence to say I don't know any of you guys, but I'm gonna email you and say, Hey, I'm setting up a talent booking agency, it's it's it's dedicated to contemporary British jazz because I love the scene, I love what what you guys are doing. And if you're interested in twosing up and you know having someone represent you or adding yourself to our roster, so we can find you some performance bookings or brand partnerships or commercial projects, please let me know. And it was it was a tedious process, people are very wary. The the industry is very wary. They oh yeah, they've they're very wary, they're very yes, they're very wary of the industry side of things, you know, the the administration side of things. They you know, if you're a if you're a promoter or venue, they'll they'll jump at it like though, you know, if it's for a gig, they're oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, show me the money kind of thing. But when you go in and say, you know, you're part of a label, you're part of an agency, you're part of a management, you're part of PR, they're very skeptical. They're very, okay, tell me all about it. Like, you know, what am I signing? What am I getting involved with here? You know, you know, how do you do you just need my heart or do you need my kidneys as well? Do you need what all good? They think it's they think it's all like that kind of thing. So uh it's sometimes it's a bit of push and pull. But again, we started agency in 2020, opened the doors November 20, October, November 2020, and we started with zero artists. I had zero, and now we have. I mean, I have I concentrate on about 80. I concentrate on about 80 on our roster, but I have my database is like honestly, yeah, thousands. I have to go through it every day finding whom whomever, but we have thousands. Thousands in the database now, but I concentrate on a core a core 80. So if you go onto the website, you'll see about half of that who are who are who primary primarily get most of the bookings. And on our Instagram as well, those are the core ones who probably get most of the singular and repetitive bookings. So those are the ones who we we we market on our roster. Sorry, on our Instagram and our and our website. But again, just to answer your question, it you know, it was just me saying, I don't know these people, I didn't know Heidi Vogel. I didn't know Dominic J. Marsh. I didn't know none of these people. But it was just just I just reached out to them. And technology is so there right now. Where, like I said before, Google was brand new. So you had to be to be on Google, you had to be like Woolworths, you had to be like Ford, you had to be a massive brand to be on Google. But now everybody's findable on Google. So you can, you know, you go on Google, and now we have AI, so everybody's findable on AI search engines. So it was kind of easy to find people's email addresses and stuff, but you had to be have the confidence to reach out to them and say, hey, I'm setting up this over here, you know, whatever it is. I'm a I'm a I'm a jazz photographer, I'm a I'm a I'm a jazz producer, I'm a jazz agent. You have to just have the as Omar, as Omar said about me, you have to have the cojones. AJ's got AJ's got big cojones. That's what Omar said about me. He's got big cojones to go out and do this. But it was like, again, it was like I didn't know anybody, but I just thought I'll just reach out to them. I'll reach out to them and just say, look, this is who I am. I'm Sainsbury's. You're Heinz. Do you want our product? Do you want your product on the shelves? That's it.

Hilary 23:45

Right. Brilliant. So so influential music now is I mean, it's becoming influential. What other what do you feel is the state of the British jazz scene at the moment? I mean, I feel like it's really buzzing. I mean, there's some amazing, amazing artists.

AJ 24:07

It it is really buzzing, buzzing more than you know, honestly, it's really growing. What's unfortunate with it? I just it's funny. This morning I came off a um a Zoom Teams call with with with um this was about educational stuff. So this is more stuff that community, my community work that I do via influential music. But so these people were community stakeholders. Now, what was interesting when I I I introduced myself and said, Yes, I'm influential music and we have work placements, etc. etc. Just to let you know, and we work around contemporary British jazz. And the guy was like, Oh, yes, that is such a great scene at the moment with you know, with people like Ezra Collective. And I I just knew he was gonna say Ezra Collective. Of course. Now, the funny thing is, Ezra Collective has been going for how long? All the individual members have been going for how long, but it's not until they're doing major stages, they're signed to a major label, they're doing major touring that they get notice. And that's that's what I'm trying to change. My little bit, where it's it's I'm trying to tell venues don't try to book them when they are Ezra collective now, because now they're gonna cost 10, 20 grand to have them. Let's try to do them when they're maybe at 500 pounds, 1000 pounds, 1500 pounds. So, you know, it's so it's it's buzzing, but it's still not buzzing until it's still not getting commercial recognition, and especially it with it being jazz. It's not getting commercial recognition until there's major festivals, there's major stages, there's major awards giving them these awards. You know, even the artist must feel like, wow, I've been doing this for 20 years and now I've got my mobile. And mobile is like the not the lot, I don't want no disrespect to mobile, but it's like mobile is like somewhat the first award that people generally get before they get like a maybe like a Brit award or yeah, or their a their Grammy or whatever, you know. So, you know, even them as artists feel that they've been doing it for so long and it's it's only now they're gonna get the recognition. But what can you do? But all I'm saying to the public and to industry is let's let's try to get people, let's try to make this is a funny equivalent. This is a funny equivalent, right? But it's it's similar to like we have men's football and we have women's football, and I can see with the women's football, they're trying all their best to really give it recognition, like more recognition, because the sales aren't there, you know. It's it with the business, the sales aren't there, but what they I can see what they're doing is plugging it so heavily with the PR, even having you know, the football, the women footballers as commentators and doing interviews, and so don't use Thierry Henry, don't use Peter Crouch, don't leave, don't use Steven Gerrard. Let's use these women footballers to do these other bits and pieces as well. And that's kind of like that's what the that thing, that's what the scene needs a bit of now as well. It needs the gr just because someone has isn't isn't award winning, isn't doing, you know, isn't doing South Meet Southwest or you know, isn't on Blue Note, it it doesn't mean that the grassroots ones shouldn't get recognized. And I I just want everyone to be recognized as much as the as much as the Gregory Porters or whoever, you know, like yeah. So that's what I'm trying to do. I just I don't I tr I really try to stay away from numbers. So when artists come on the I to say, yep, I don't I don't really need to see your numbers, but I do need you to be working. That's what you know, be working, be active. I don't care if you've only got 100 followers on Instagram, I don't care if you've only got a hundred monthly listeners on Spotify, but keep working, put an album out, put another EP out, put another single out. Show that you're working, show that you're doing this, even though you may have low numbers, it doesn't matter, it will pay off in the end. And I'm happy to represent you regardless of your numbers. I will, I will as much as I might push a um, you know, uh tall black guy who has, you know, a healthy Spotify list, a healthy Instagram list. I will push the boy next door who doesn't have that, I will push them both in the same email. I'll say, check out check out tall black guy, but also check out this person as well, and I'll put them in the same email.

Hilary 28:37

Right. And I think that we've got to be, we've got to be actively promoting musicians. I mean, I I fundamentally believe that we need to be promoting British jazz musicians ahead of the especially the Americans, just because they've usually got big deep pockets, and well, I mean, they certainly have if they're being heard over here, you know, they've got big record labels behind them and that sort of thing. And these guys who are in the UK, who are, as you say, they're just working, they're just going out, they're gigging this, they're going in the studio, they're rehearsing, they're doing all that. Let's promote them. Let's, you know, if their music is good, I want to hear it, and I want to review it, and I want to talk about it, and I want to um help them up the up that ladder.

AJ 29:28

But to give some pushback on that as well, the artists have to play ball as well.

Hilary 29:33

Oh, absolutely, yes, they do.

AJ 29:35

Because I've had so many stalemate um positions where the it as especially as an agent, the artists or the new talent, they want me to do, they actually want me. It's almost like when I sit down in meetings, if I have a coffee with an artist, they only want to hear what I'm gonna do for them. They only want to hear what what 20 things are you, what 50, what hundred things are you gonna do for me, AJ? Because all I'm gonna do is one thing for you, and just and it's almost like they're just that one thing is just them, them breathing. Like all I'm gonna do, all I'm gonna do, AJ, is breathe. What hundred things are you gonna do? So, so my thing is come to the table. We can all come to the table, the industry, i.e., the artists, the industry, i.e., the agents, the managers, but it has to be 50-50. It should be fit, and it should be 50-50 for every one thing I'm gonna do. So if I say, okay, I will mail, I would send a mailer to all my clubs and venues about you once a month, they should be able to kind of go, okay, cool. I will make sure that I'm at least updating my Instagram with up-to-date posts on what I'm doing. I will at least put an album every year, I will at least put an EP out a year, I will at least put out a single every year, I will do a radio interview, I'll do something so that when I because it's it again, I'm sitting down trying to convince a client, a brand. I'm I'm trying to convince Mitsubishi, Samsung, and say, look, these are they're doing it, they're really doing. And all Samsung are gonna go and say, Oh, I've heard about this Ezra Collective. And I'm like, Ezra Collective, forget Ezra Collective, that's gonna be way too much. Like they've they've they've gone. You you missed the chance. You should have, but yeah, I've got the new, I've got the next Ezra Collective, let's do with them. But again, if I it's embarrassing if I if they if I say, Okay, well, here is Mr. XYZ, and then we they say, Okay, let's let's go to their Instagram or let's go to their Spotify, and then there's the there's nothing on there. It's like yeah, you haven't posted for years, you don't have to have numbers, but show your active within it. So again, yes, we as the administrative side, i.e. the the PR side, the label side, the agent, the management, us on this side, yes, we we do want to push the scene more, we should push the scene more, we do want to push the artists more, we should push them more. But as well, artists, new talent, they need to play ball as well. They need to understand that as much as I'm gonna do 20 things for you, you need to do 20 things for yourself so that it shows that when I'm whoever's representing you and putting you on the table, those people who they're putting you on the table to can see that. Oh, this person's I can see that this person's active, they're doing something, they're showing some, you know, they don't want to go to, you know, just go to an education, go go to a music school, do a music short course. That so at least I can say, oh, that they're alumni of Trinity or they're alumni of Guild Hall or something, or they went to BIM study. They're trying to engross themselves into the into the world of music, into the world of jazz, and all I'm doing is just showing you who they are. But you know, it's but it's just like dragging a kid down to down to a work placement and saying, Oh, here's my kid, they want work experience, and the kids just there like okay, whatever. Like, and then the manager trying to say, Oh, so do you want a job here? Okay, yeah, right. Yeah, it's like that kind of thing. It's like and the parents sitting there thinking, oh my god, like I've I've sold, I've sold this to this person, and look, look what I'm bringing them. So we need it needs to be a partnership, it needs to be, you know, blah blah blah. And trust me, I've had so many phone calls, and you know, it's uh artists they don't keep it consistent a lot of the time, and new talent, they don't keep it consistent. Where when they're when they're on a high, when they're surfing, and they're surfing, that wave has come and they're surfing that wave. I can't even, you know, they're not answering the WhatsApp anymore, they're not answering the emails anymore, they're not answering the phone calls. Soon as that wave dies out and they have to find another wave, and they're sitting in, they're sitting in the ocean, just kind of waiting for that next wave. Now I can, but I'm like, no, I needed to to feed the masses when you was you just did if you just did uh Kaduggan Hall, I need to feed that out to the masses, let me feed that out to Roy Labot Hall. Yeah, no, don't go quiet, you know. Let me let's let's surf the wave properly. So again, it's again just you know to go a long way around answering your question, it was it's more about partnership and 50-50. Um and yeah, you know, Brit the Britain. Remember, we're a small America, American artists, and I've seen the difference in the attitude, but American art and but America funny thing, America American artists have way more territory, but they're bigger hustlers, they hustle more. British, British have a small culture, and we're a small country as well, so it's like you have to do a lot more because we're the resources is small, we're we're a small country. That's why people like Ed Sheeran, Adele, even my girl Estelle, that's why they go to America because the opportunities are way more. So even if you've just got a little bit of hustle in you, you can go to America and do well. But if you've got a lot of hustle in you, you can go to America and do well. In England, you have to have a lot of hustle, and you might only still only get a crumb. So if you only got a little bit of hustle and you're in England, it's never gonna happen. It's not going to happen unless you have a tremendous voice, unless you are seriously tremendous on the trumpet, and a Simon Cowell spots you and says, you know what, I can make something kind of you. But that's that's very unique cases. Generally, people have average talent, but they can take it somewhere. Everyone's got like a medium talent, which is fine, but you can take that somewhere, you can earn a living from that, and that's where I try to get to people as well. It's like, look, let's try to just earn a living from this. Let's let's let's earn a living, let's try to make you make earn a living first, or let's say if you can make some money first, let's get let's try to make you get minimum wage, let's try to make you earn 100k a year, and then let's let's look at let's let's look at more. But they want to skip the stage of even making, we don't even know if you can sell. Like let's try to sell one album, like one one one unit. Let's sell one unit, let's see if this is actually sellable first, and then let's move on to minimum wage because a lot of they're not even making minimum wage. No, I I know that, yeah. Not even minimum wage. So if we get to the I want to get to the 100k a year stage with everybody, but we need to we need to first let's sell some units, let's see what what we can do, then let's try to earn minimum wage, then let's talk about 100k, then let's talk about making making the money that Drake and Taylor Swift and Beyonce makes. Let's talk about that later. That's way later.

Hilary 36:41

Yeah, um, yeah, brilliant. Well, um, I think uh the in the UK jazz world is in good hands. I think people like you fighting the corner of musicians, but also holding them accountable, and I think that's really important.

AJ 37:00

Exactly. It's a it it just kind of you just know who's who's trying, you know, and that's again, it's not about the numbers. Yeah, it's nice to see numbers when you go onto in people's Instagram, people's Spotifies, etc., people's socials. But if if I see that somebody is is trying to be a mover and a shaker, regardless of what's going on in that day, they just put the camera on and say, Oh, maybe they just talk about something, maybe they just say, Okay, uh, I play trumpet, and this is a couple of scales. This is let me just show you a couple of scales that you can learn that you just think that's good on you, like you know, you're not yeah, you're not gigging at Royal Lambert Hall, but you're just you've got something, you've got you know, you've got some kind of content or you're something. So all you want to see is you just want to see people helping themselves, yeah. And and you as a podcaster, you know, you having you know your your platform, you're gonna get people are gonna go, oh yeah, I'll have a bit of that, I'll have a bit of that. Well, oh, you do interview, I'll have a bit of that. But you're like, no, you won't have a bit of this. I need I I need you to fit with everybody else who's helping them. Then I will look after, I will support you in that way. But if you're not supporting yourself, I can't just have you coming on my platform. Think about the think about the cue. I can imagine as a podcaster, oh the queue that you must have, the waiting list that you must have of artists that want to talk to you because they they want they want to, it's not uh forgive me for using this word, but they want to they want to leech off of what you're doing. So if they can just turn up and get a free interview and you know you post it to your to your following, they might not even post it to theirs and they just get your audience. No, that doesn't work. No, no, let's sit down and say, I I will publish this to my audience, make sure you're active, but I want you publishing it to your audience as well because it's a two again, that's the two-way thing.

Hilary 38:44

Absolutely, and you'd be amazed how many people come on here and they let me do all the posting and thing, and they do nothing. And it's like, well, hang on a second, do you want to do this or not?

AJ 38:54

You know, no dis no disrespect to you, Hillary. I won't be amazed by that. Totally, I totally know what you're talking about. So I won't be, I'm not amazed by that. Yes, this is this is I'll be amazed when you say to me, you know what, they're posting it as well, as much as this one. I'll be amazed.

Hilary 39:11

Oh, brilliant. Hey, listen, it's really good to talk to you, and when you when this goes out, it'll be really interesting to see how many of your artists say, Oh, AJ, you know Hillary. Can you get me on Harmonious World? Let's see how many do that.

AJ 39:27

Fingers, fingers crossed. I really hope it does. So, yeah, um, so going back to I know you got to run, but going back to uh International Jazz Day, um, so two things might happen. We may have our own International Jazz Day event in London. If that if that that might not happen only because I might be going to Macedonia to do International Jazz Day over there. So I'm I'm working with an artist over here, taking them to Macedonia and being part of their festival. So we may not do our own London one um here here this year. But um, but yeah, that's that's an up the update on International Jazz Day. But there's plenty of festivals throughout the rest of the year. I want to shout send a shout out to uh Brick Lane Jazz Festival. Oh, yeah. Another big one in in April. Obviously, Giles Peterson has we out here festival in August as well. Um, cross the tracks will be coming up. South Meets, Southwest will be here. Uh, a lot of people are heading to Jazza, Jazz Ahead as well. So that's an that's another I'm I'm giving the big ones away, but there's a lot of smaller, smaller festivals as well. Have a people have a good Google, um, go on AI, support the festival, support not just the major ones, but support the um the grassroots ones, etc. etc. And yeah, if you want to know more about contemporary British jazz and look into Hillary more and support Hillary's platform, it's it's it's it's you know, it's touching on who the movers and shakers are. And also come over to Influential Music. You can find us on Google, we're on um uh we're we're on Instagram, we have our uh website influential music uh.co.uk and I'm findable as well on on Google as well, AJ Haseley, H A S E L E Y. Hillary, thank you so much for for for for for having me. And again, people, this is the power of going out and networking and you know being part of the scene. Again, I didn't know who Hillary was, but I've showed you the kind of six degrees of separation which has brought me and Hillary together. But if you don't take action, nothing happens. So this is this is quite this is a beautiful testimony testimony to what can happen when you make the moves.

Hilary 41:48

Thank you so much to AJ Haseley for joining me for that episode of Harmonious World. Very different one. Uh just looking really at the way the music industry works in the UK and what contemporary jazz is all about right now. And uh I'm looking forward to finding out more about the talent that AJ represents and the people that he works with. So back to Harmonious World again next Monday, and uh, I will see you then for wishing you all a very happy International Jazz Day twenty twenty-six.