About Jazzfuel

Who we are, what our mission is, when and why the website started, where we’re based and how we can help YOU!

Hi, my name’s Matt Fripp. I’m a booking agent & manager and host Jazzfuel to help jazz musicians around the world build their careers and jazz fans to discover more great music.

I set up Jazzfuel in 2016 as a way of providing resources, tips and tools for independent jazz musicians around the world who wanted to book more gigs and build their careers.

To date, we’ve sent more than 1 million emails to more than 4,000 brilliant musicians – and met many of them at in-person conferences, online events or through our courses and consulting programmes. If you’re a professional, you can get started with our free resources here.

Since 2020, we’ve also published more than 300 articles about the history of jazz to help fans worldwide in their quest to learn more about the music. If you’re a fan, you can get dive into our articles here.

The Jazzfuel goal is simple…

To share consistent, valuable content for everyone who wants to make independent progress in jazz.

Musicians: we’re not selling a get-successful-quick scheme or some magic pill! We believe that consistent focus on the right things can make a real difference in the long term.

Our experience – and that of the many guests we welcome onto the site – can hopefully help you figure out the right steps for your project to get the attention it deserves.

About The Jazzfuel Team

Matt Fripp

Hi, Matt Fripp here.

I’m British but currently based in France, where I live with my wife and our two sons.

I’m a jazz fan who became a musician before moving onto the ‘business’ side of the music industry. I’ve been working as a booking agent and artist manager for jazz musicians since 2008, representing more than 40 artists for more than 2,000 club, venue and festival gigs in Europe, North America & Asia.

I graduated from a 4-year jazz saxophone degree at The Guildhall School of Music in London back in 2008 and, about a year later, started out working for one of the UK’s leading jazz music companies, which dealt with bookings, management & publicity.

It was there that I had the chance to learn about the music business, booking tours for band and musicians including Kyle Eastwood, Marius Neset, Get The Blessing, Empirical, China Moses, Tim Garland & Michael Wollny – as well as developing my own management roster featuring Anthony Strong (UK) & Hailey Tuck (USA).

After about 6 years of that, I left to set up my own agency – and started writing articles which I posted here, at Jazzfuel.com…

1995: began learning piano
1999: began learning saxophone
2004: started a 4-year degree in jazz [saxophone] at London’s Guildhall School of Music
2008: graduated music college with a BMus(hons) to work as a freelance musician & teacher
2010: started working as a booking agent for a leading UK music company
2016: set up a booking & management company and launched Jazzfuel.com
2017: launched the How To Get More Jazz Gigs online course
2019: began working album release press campaigns for independent jazz artists
2020: started writing and sharing articles for people who want to discover more jazz music

The Jazzfuel Authors

There is a small team of professional jazz musicians and journalists who have contributed, or continue to contribute, articles to the site including:

Sam Braysher (and also a killing sax player!)
Will Arnold-Foster (also a guitarist to check on the UK scene…)
Nick Lea (also founder & editor of Jazz Views)
David Ingamells (drummer extraordinaire
Adam Sieff (all-round music man and writer)
Geno Thackara (also a prolific writer at AllAboutJazz.com)
Anthony Dean-Harris (San Antonio-based writer (Downbeat, Next Bop), artist and radio host of KRTU 917FM’s The Line-Up & Evölve)

The Jazzfuel Industry Team

Our jazz press outreach campaigns are worked on by a small but effective team of publicists including:

So, whether you’re a jazz musician looking to ‘speed things up’ or a jazz fan looking to discover more about this great music, I think you’ll find some valuable information and support on this website!

Jazzfuel Live

Some of the Jazzfuel ideas and strategies have been presented live in seminars & workshops (online and off) for various jazz organisations around the world, including:

Jazz Denmark
InJazz conference
12 Points Festival
The Lithuanian Jazz Federation
jazzahead!
Jazz Scotland
Nordic Comets
DJBFA (Denmark)
French Export Bureau
Serious

Jazz Industry Professionals

There are many promoters, journalists, publicists & managers who generously share their experience via interviews and articles on this website, including:

Christian McBride
Jazzwise Magazine
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club
Jazziz Magazine (USA)
Howard Mandel (jazz journalists association)
Greg Osby

Why Do We Do This?

Finding great jazz music in 2024 is not so hard.

But too often, these musicians are overworked and expected to wear so many different hats as an independent arts professional that things can get missed on the ‘business’ side.

In an ideal world, maybe great music would be the only factor that led to a projects’ success.

But in reality, it’s not.

So our goal with Jazzfuel is to help and support musicians by showing some of the things that need to be managed to a high standard in order to build a career, grab attention, communicate the music in words, build a personal network and motivate your fanbase to take action

What Can You Expect From Jazzfuel?

If you join the free newsletter, you’ll get consistent & in-depth practical information, subscriber-only content and notifications when new interviews or articles are published.

The articles, emails, guides, resources and interviews on Jazzfuel cover 4 main areas:

You can visit each of the categories to find out more, read the articles and download the resources.

Here’s the important thing to remember: knowing this information is valuable, but the real magic is in putting things into practice.

So that’s your challenge today: get started and keep learning.