1. Contentious News Piece – Guardian Publication

Generative AI in Music – The Facts

Daniel Harrod

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Suno CEO, Mikey Shulman (pictured above), has defended generative music stating :that making music is “not enjoyable”. With many other users claiming that it is making music, and all other types of art, more accessible to those who don’t know how to play instruments. “Since day one we have focused on delivering an extraordinary experience for anyone who wants to make music.”

2. Opinion Piece – Guardian Publication

AI Music to Downfall of Humanity?

Daniel Harrod

Generative AI poses a huge threat to all members of society, as in the current day many people’s jobs and livelihood are being threatened by AI’s continuing advancements. We don’t need it invading the arts any more than it already is.

Right now, anyone can make a Sona and Sora account and start typing in prompts about whatever they want, gain rights for commercial and copyright use and claim it as their own “creation”. When in fact all they provided was the idea, and let a bunch of soulless computers do the rest. That is the complete opposite of creativity. A computer does not have the comprehension to understand feelings, and is physically incapable of ever doing so.

3. Gig Review – Guardian Publication

Free Jazz and Leeds are Interlocked!

Daniel Harrod

30th May 2026 – Hyde Park Book Club (Snug)

Drummer Tommy Norbury (Tommo) during his first year at Leeds Conservatoire (LCON), formerly Leeds College of Music, has put on an incredible first gig at Hyde Park Book Club (HPBC) playing the music of the free jazz giant Anthony Braxton. Labelled Tommy Norbury’s Braxtet (a brilliant play on words), the chord-less quartet was formed of other, up-and-coming Leeds jazz musicians, all recently graduated from LCON:

Sean’s energy behind his harmony-defining instrument was ecstatic and created a well rounded performance by comping conversationally with the other members of the band.

The audience was packed full of captivated onlookers, both young and old.

Finally and most notably, Tommo’s playing was as tasteful as it was purposeful – with every solo and rhythm being performed perfectly. Not only was the playing sublime, Tommo’s introduction and conversation to the audience was both engaging and humorous – making the evening even more intimate than it already was.

4. Interview Feature – Guardian Publication

Murray Robinson: From First Year to Free Year

Daniel Harrod – Transcript and Recording in appendix

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Born in England, Murray moved and was raised in Australia where he first started his musical journey playing the fife – which he described “which is kind of like the recorder sideways, more like a flute”. Much like how British school children play recorder when they’re younger. He would then be asked to make the move to flute. When Murray’s family moved back to the UK, Scarborough, after progressing enough on the flute, he also made the switch to saxophone – and introduced to improvisation. He described it as “there’s a whole new way to play”.

Murray’s “birth” into jazz was through playing in secondary school jazz ensembles. Playing the “classics” like Jaco Pastorius’ “The Chicken”, which is a staple in secondary school big bands. It was from then that he discovered what jazz “standards” were, finding “polar opposite” charts like Autumn Leaves and Coltrane’s fiery Giant Steps.

Not only was the sense of community electric, the tutorage that Murray was from some of the best musicians in the country, and it “really shaped him so much”. It was from this journey of learning, that Murray was able to play in several student and LCON run projects, one of which being “Jazz House Casa” – a friendly jam night hosted weekly, featuring a house band and a guest.

Jam nights have always been a staple in a jazz musician’s growth both in musicianship and networking. Over time, as jazz has become more and more obscure, there are only a few jams running in Leeds. After Jazz House Casa had to shut down, due to the restaurant’s sale, Murray does not have the “motivation” to create another, unless the scene is in an even more dire need for one.

As previously mentioned, Robinson does believe that LCON has some shortcomings – one of which being the amount of opportunities that are offered to students. “it seems like that’s all they do is show the graduated bands and tutors.”. Throughout Murray’s 3 years, popular jazz night “B-Side” (a night of jazz with a student support and a guest band, before a jam), used to happen once a month, where it has now reduced to only 4 times a year. He described this as a “crime”. 

Since graduating, Robinson, and his peers, have found it difficult to balance life and work. With many musicians needing to have part-time jobs to be able to pay rent every month. Murray describes his difficulties with finding a job, as “employment rates in our age group is one of the worst it’s ever been”. Murray even told me a story how one of his friends has had to put music on a hold, as his part-time managerial role has taken over his life. Many musicians in current day do more function work, as it “pays more” – even some of the best London musicians are doing it.

Murray aspires to continue working on projects and his own band in the future – I look forward to hearing his name more.

Appendix

Interview Transcript:

Interview in 2 tracks: 

• Track 1: 11:33
• Track 2: 21:30
• Interview:

Transcript:

Daniel Harrod (DH) – Interviewer

Murray Robinson (MR) – Interviewee

DH – Who are you?

MR – I am Murray Robinson I’m a graduate of Leeds Conservatoire as of last year [2025]

DH – What made you want to go to Leeds Conservatoire?

MR – I’d heard about it through a few different people. I lived in Scarborough and it’s got quite a good music scene for being such a small town. So a few of the people I know and a few of my mates, who were a few years older than me, and they went to LCON – so that was like the main music college I had heard good things about. And then when I wanted to pursue Jazz, I knew it had a good jazz course so I kind of picked it based off that.

DH – Amazing, and what do you play?

MR – I play saxophone primarily but I do double on flute, which was my first instrument, and the EWI as well. 

DH – What was your first musical experience that made you want to learn an instrument? Was it something that was pushed upon you as a child?

MR – No, I used to live in Australia so we had music lessons back then. And where as all the English people learn recorder, that’s kind of the thing that’s brought in. We had a thing called the fife, which is kind of like the recorder sideways, more like a flute. So I played that first and then I kind of followed it on past the class lessons and instead got private lessons.

And then my teacher said, “do you want to pickup flute”, which was the next step. I kept playing flute, moved back to England and kept playing flute in secondary school.

My music teacher in year 7 asked if I wanted to play saxophone as well, which got me into that world, which I was kind of glad having that – because I feel like I was kind of losing my passion for flute, it wasn’t really doing anything and I wasn’t feeling too creative with it. But then starting saxophone and learning about the concept of improvisation, it was much more like “oh, this is cool. There’s a whole new world of playing in a different way”. That was my introduction to Jazz. 

DH – When I started learning Jazz, my teachers gave me a few of the well-known tunes to listen to. So what was your first listening experience, or anything to do with jazz? Do you remember exactly what that was?

MR – Well I started in my secondary school Jazz Band so it was kind of that, and hearing some big band music too. Some classic, basic charts, like Jaco’ [Pastorius] “The Chicken” and stuff like that. So kind of getting a feel for that.

There was also guy called Carlos Eiene, who’s better known as “Insaneintherain” on Youtube and social media – he did some video game jazz covers and that was a gateway into it [jazz].

Then, one day, I discovered Giant Steps [John Coltrane] and Autumn Leaves [Joseph Kosma], which are like polar opposites of each other, but those are my first examples of actual standards of jazz.

DH – Outside of school/youth bands, what was your first paid gig?

MR – I think it was a support spot at the local jazz club in Scarborough, which I frequent now and I get to headline which is cool. They started a new program called the “Youth Jazz Generations” where they do a weekly gig with headline-act guests from all around the country – so they setup a new kind of support slot where they’d get youth bands or younger players in the area to put on a band. So my quartet was the first one there, which was my first actual “gig” gig.

DH – Were the people in that quartet your friends?

MR – Yes, all people I went to college with.

DH – Have you ever wanted to stop playing?

MR – Yea, I think, I definitely went through that phase with the flute. I didn’t practice loads, and I think I sacked it during the first few months, I thought “is this for me?”. 

But I’m very glad I stuck with it, but other than that, I’ve never once considered stopping. 

DH – A lot of people, me included, think about other career paths other than music before making the decision on whether or not to go to a conservatoire. 

Were there any other different ambitions or goals in any other career possibilities that you were thinking about pursuing? And what made you not want to take them?

MR – I think initially, I always loved the idea of astrophysics or astronomy or stuff like that. I love space and that side of science, but that was earlier on in secondary school. But other than that, I honestly had no idea. It’s always really music. I’m really lucky that I’ve found music to help me along. 

But I can only kind of speculate as to what I’d be doing otherwise if I hadn’t found music. I mean, I love cooking now – so maybe I would have gone into culinary or something like that – found that different creative side. I do think that if it wasn’t music it would’ve been something creative, or something like that.

DH – We’re going to talk about Leeds Conservatoire now, a place that we both know very well. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best, how would you rate your entire 3 years there?

MR – 8.5

DH – Why not 10?

MR – It does have it’s shortcomings, and I feel that over the three years I was there, more started to crop up. But as a whole the experience was invaluable. All the lessons and being taught by some of the best musicians in the world shaped me so much. So I do owe a lot to the place and I really enjoyed my time. 

I think I was particularly lucky with the year group I was with because everyone was so tight and close knit with each other – so that was a really nice environment to develop with everyone through. 

I think the opportunities it presented were really, really helpful as well some gigs. I know that’s part of my issue with it now is that they’ve fallen off slightly or reduced the amount of stuff they’re doing. For example, “B-Side” once a month hearing some of the 3rd years playing stuff given a sense of “this is what you can achieve” and how you can get to that level. It was really motivating hearing the tutors play every other week at Sela [Sela Bar] on a Tueday night, it was amazing. It really felt like a integrated part of- you’re not just hearing your peers, you’re hearing your tutors as well, which is really helpful because they are the professionals. They are the ones that are at the top of their field, I really did love it. 

I almost wish that there were more lessons, and more kind of taught parts to it because when lessons end it’s ridiculously early for what the academic year is. So I almost wish that there was a bit more of that. But for me, the experience was invaluable.

DH – You’ve spoken about how the lessons you had were invaluable, did studying at LCON help you progress in your career? Not only as a musician, but as someone who feels like they can hold their own in the music industry.

MR – Yeah, well, kind of. I think the music part they teach really, really well, but I feel ;ike that is almost focussed on too much because there’s so much more to being a musician than just the music, it’s a business really at the end of the day.

So learning about marketing, sales, promoting your stuff and all that, but also learning things like taxes – which the education system just neglects to teach anyone anyway, so we really didn’t get much on that.

I remember one PIC [Performance in Context] lesson where we just devoted it to talking about taxes, which was incredibly helpful. I wish they had talked more about that, more about the music industry as a whole. It would’ve been valuable to a lot of people rather than just the music theory and the performing side of it, because it’s the integral for building a brand. For pushing yourself out there and keeping yourself up just being a professional musician – there’s a lot more to it. 

DH – Now that you’ve graduated, what has it been like to be free [of university] for a year?

MR – It’s been [pause] good and frustrating at the same time. It’s been good musically, I feel like I’ve been in more projects and doing more stuff, more rehearsals. Keeping up with stuff has not been a problem at all – it’s been really enjoyable.

I think my practice has been slightly altered, maybe not as good as it could be because I miss having lessons and miss having some direction that you get at LCON because when you leave, you’re kind of thrown out into it and it’s here’s everything you’ve got the last three years. You have to make a practice routine and learn everything, or relearn, everything you’ve been taught over those years.So it’s difficult to try and get that balance.

Work-wise, it’s been really hard for me personally to get employed, because that’s just because employment rates in our age group is one of the worst it’s ever been. It’s not just me, it’s a lot of people I’ve spoken to as well. So in that instance, it’s been frustrating, but I’m very lucky to still be in Leeds and keep doing these musical projects. Being a part of them, and doing new ones as well at the same time. I’m looking forward to next year, as I’m staying here [Leeds] then as well. 

It’s been good though.

End of track 1, start of 2

DH – On the topic of projects, what projects have you been involved with in the last 12 months? And then, secondary question, what’s your all time favourite project that you’ve done since moving to Leeds?

MR – I’ll answer the second one first. It’s my band, called the NPC’s [Murray Robinson’s NPC’s] which is a video game “Big Band” jazz/fusion/”whatever you want to call it” band. That one is just a pure passion project and it’s just all my arrangements and stuff. So that’s the one I enjoy most and the one I’m most proud of.

Other bands; “Fight the Giant” has been one of the most prominent ones that we’ve been doing stuff with. We played at “We Out Here’ festival last year and we played in London recently – which was our London debut gig. We’ve got another one [gig] in June so it’s nice for reaching out to down south a little bit. Doing lots of stuff with those guys – recording and releasing some tunes as well. So it feels like a lot of stuff has been happening with that.

Afrodesia’s another band which is an Afro-beat jazz band. I did a lot of gigs with them, we played in Manchester at “Band in the Wall” about once a month. We go to different festivals and play that sort of music, get people dancing. 

So that’s a different vibe where its, not less professional, but it’s less arranged and it’s a different kind of music as well that people should want to dance to its kind of fun to have that contrast in projects that I am in. 

DH – Let’s talk about your “NPCs”, making a comeback at any point?

MR – Yeah, no, it is actually. I’ve just been so on my arse, I stopped doing anything at the end of last year. End of last year I was just so not motivated to do anything like that, but now I’m more back into it – I’ve been arranging again. We’ve got a couple gigs lined up end of next month and then start of July as well, but I want to get more and put on some gigs myself – like a night of video game music [VGM] because there’s a couple other bands that do a similar thing. 

So yeah, it is definitely making a comeback.

DH – You mentioned earlier how your yeargroup was quite “close-knit”, which isn’t necessary the case for other years, do you still often talk to the people in your year? Do you still have connections or try and keep contact with some of them?

MR – Yeah definitely, I mean, both my housemates; we were in the same year. One of which I’ve known since primary school technically, that’s kind of cheating. But all of “Fight the Giant” we were all in the same year group – we were all friends first, which is sort of a big selling point – we were friends before we were musicians.

But with everyone else, I mean a lot of people are still in Leeds as well, which is nice and all kind of in a similar area as well – Headingly, Hyde Park. We meet up and we still do projects with each other. We meet up occasionally for a lot of socials and do projects so it’s nice that we have kept that connection outside of uni – in the real world as well.

DH – We’re going to talk about the Leeds jazz scene, do you believe that jazz is making a more mainstream comeback in the last 10 years?

MR – Yeah, definitely. I think it’s come in different forms. I think a good example is a band like the “Ezra Collective”. Are they strictly jazz or are they traditionally jazz? No. But they are definitely influenced and come from part of that scene so I think they put it in a more accessible way for the average listener.

I think that the notion that jazz is dead or dying is completely wrong as well. I think that’s something the media likes to paint, that jazz needs a “saviour” and I know there’s been a couple of headlines and a couple different people that’ve been presented as this “saviour of jazz” in media, and it’s completely false.

DH – Who are these people?

MR – Yeah “Laufey”. She is a great signer and her compositions are really cool, but she’s not a jazz musician. She doesn’t try to push the tradition which I think is really important if you’re going to call yourself a “jazz musician”- it’s pushing the culture and teaching people about the influences and the history – because jaz is so rooted in it’s history and tradition. To ignore that is you know, you’re taking away so ,much of its heritage. Because, first of all, it’s not “white persons” music either – so kind of ignoring that fundamental part. I think Apple Music made a news article calling her the saviour of jazz that was being pushed.

But then she won a pop Grammy, which I was pleased about.

There was this other guy who made this improvised, hiphop beat where you can play sax on it – and I watched this channel 4 piece calling him the “savour of jazz” and bringing it to younger audiences. That is not jazz, don’t call it this if you don’t know what you’re talking about sort of thing. 

Jazz isn’t dead, it’s perfectly fine, if you look at some of these top top players, they’re still playing to audiences of thousands. I wouldn’t call that dead – they’re basing this “death” off stats and listenings on Spotify and Apple music or whatever. The average monthly listens for jazz is way, way less compared to other genres, especially modern pop music.

But having such a great community of people still coming up, so younger players, but also top older cats still playimg to massive crowds – that’s not dead to me. I feel like I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent topic.

In Leeds, the jazz scene is great and still thriving, so we kind of hope that it goes in that way and they keep pushing more traditional parts of jazz as well. 

DH – I’m going to give you a statement and I want you to tell me if you agree or disagree – and why. “Jazz has become a competitive genre to play in, rather than people coming together to enjoy the music and play together.”

MR – I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s become more competitive in that aspect. I feel like jazz is such a broad spectrum of music that you get so many different sub genres of it and people doing their own thing with it – that they kind of rise up popularity for being unique and I feel like that is always pushed to do something unique. Not just to play well or improvise well, because that can only really get you so far. There people that are at the top are there for doing something innovative and creative. 

I like to think that the sense of community is definitely still there in the genre, just thinking about in Leeds I know the jam session, they’re few and far between at the minute. But they’re still going and there’s still a nice sense of people can turn up and play.

To me, I’d like to think that it is still kind of progressive and inclusive of everyone and that it pushed everyone to be better rather than being full of “vibiness” and competitiveness.

DH – Speaking of jamming, jazz jams have always been a cornerstone to any and all jazz musicians. You used to run one called “Casa House Jam” at the “Casa” restaurant in the Grand Arcade – which was shut down when the owner sold the restaurant. Do you have any thoughts on starting a new jam in a different venue, or any thoughts on the current jazz jamming situation in Leeds? 

MR – Yeah, I mean, me and Sean [Blake] have definitely talked about it, about wanting to continue it. We kind of got to a point where we didn’t know if we had enough energy for it at the time because it’s a big commitment to put on a regular jam.

You have to put in the time, you’ve got to organise all these people to do sets before the jam, and then run the jam after – it’s a tricky thing.

To keep the balance of making good music, but then being inclusive of everyone because they’re all at different levels – people are gonna come in who have not really played jazz before, and then there are people who are going to be really experienced at it.

Trying to find that balance can sometimes be tough, and it’s something we faced when we did Casa House Jam.

As for the jam scene now, I wish there were more. Because only really book club [Hyde Park Book Club (HPBC)], which is a weekly thing on a Thursday, and then there’s the Sela Bar one once a month. The Northern Market one has started quite recently as well.

I think it’s hard, going back to what I was saying about the new vs seasons players, that it’s such a difficult thing to get right because that’s when the “vibiness” starts and if people don’t like it, they put people off by giving them weird looks or just weird energy.

For me, I don’t think starting a jam is something I want to do in the near future – but, with what you said, it is such an important part of jazz that it always needs to exist – and give people a place to grow because that is how they group. They want to show what they’ve been practising and get a sense of tradition; we play the head, improvised solo and then move on. Sometimes it leads to people being part of other projects as well, so it’s definitely an integral part of the tradition.

If stuff ever starts to die out or maybe, eventually, Ill think “Yeah, it’s something I want to do again”. At the minute, I think it’s in a good place.

DH – Back to Leeds conservatoire, did the assignments in your modules contribute in any way to being a jazz musician, or in your career?

MR – I think having that goal, having that thing to work towards and focus on was really good. Just to hone in on and focus your practice. It’s harder with written material, as for a lot of jazz musicians, we just want to play. We don’t want to talk about what we’re doing. So in that aspect, it’s sometimes more challenging but it can also be interesting and I think having the right mindset of “oh it’s going to be fun learning about something I’ve not experienced in”.

Some assignments definitely weren’t valuable like “WITCI” [Working in the Creative Industry] in first year was a waste of time. The fact that it still goes on baffles me.

 But nearly every other module assignment I did was great, even if I didn’t realise it at the moment. In second year I did free Jazz, I did not like free jazz and I didn’t get it. I didn’t really want to try and get it because I actually didn’t think it was my thing. But even being in the lessons, learning about new techniques or some of the thinking behind it was interesting. Now, I’m more into it and king of appreciate it more. So the fact that I’ve learned those things, even though I didn’t appreciate it at the time, still helps me, or helped me, become a better musician because of it.

One of my favourite assignments, which is kind of weird to say, was the tech tests. Just having something to work to or being told to do a transcription was so valuable, because so many people won’t do it if they’re not required to for part of their degree. It’s good that we’ve got that to work towards because then we are forced to practice and forced to get better. The transcriptions for me were so helpful but also having to learn a set amount of tunes to get graded on. Tech tests were really really useful – and of course I really liked the music journalism assignments.

But most, nearly all, of them [assignments] were beneficial to me.

DH – Do you think that it’s hard having a balance between enough paid gigs and then having to pay rent at the end of each month?

MR – Yeah, I think at first it can be a very difficult juggling act, and I’ve seen it with a few of my friends. Realisticly, when you go out – you’re not going to be able pay rent just off gigs – unless you’re dead focussed. But what a lt of people do is they do get a part time job to then balance it with music.

From what I’ve seen with a couple of my friends with jobs, is that it eats away at so much of your time and becomes a much bigger commitment, even if it’s not something you planned for. My mate works at a restaurant in the White Rose shopping centre, and he’s become one of the managers of it because he’s got a lot of experience working in the company and worked in it before. But what’s happened is they’ve kind of been giving him more hours without him really asking for it. So it’s hard for him to get motivated practice when so much of the week is spent at work in the workplace. When you come home after a long shift or whatever, you don’t really want to practice.

So it’s hard to balance the motivation of living and work with the music side of it. If you can, getting money of gigs is great, even if it’s stuff that you don’t necessarily want to do, like the infamous DJ sax thing.

It’s kind of a necessary evil to keep yourself afloat because that function stuff pays really well. So you’re kind of forcing down your pride just to do stuff that is gonna pay the bills – it’s definitely necessary to being a professional musician.

Even people that I know are doing super well in the London scene – one girl in particular, who I went to secondary school with, is killing it in London. Her band is doing amazing, selling out shows, playing some of the top London venues – supported Kenny Garret at Ronnie Scotts. So she’s killing it, but a lot of her income comes from DJ sax and function gigs. So even the people at the top who get these crazy gigs – there’s a lot more to it than just, trying to get jazz gigs.

You just gotta do whatever if you want to make money just off music.

DH – If you could change anything about Leeds Conservatoire – assignments, modules, rooms – what would it be?

MR – Integrate more life music into the uni itself, and this is something they used to do in the old conservatory when it was at “disco spoons” [Hedley Verity Wetherspoons] about 50 years ago. 

When my old sax teacher was there, he said every lunchtime they’d have a band on, like a jazz quartet or whatever – just playing for people to listen to and vibe to while they have lunch. So I think we’ve lost that. Sure, they do lunchtime concerts in 219, but why not in the Cafe Bar a little? A piano or sax duo, or some folk singers or different genres/different courses. Doing stuff. 

I think they need to champion live music and give people even more opportunities to play and show themselves off. SO that everyone else can support them and lift them up and get more used to playing. Events have just been becoming more and more infrequent – like B-Side, which I mentioned earlier, happens only 4 times a year, which is a crime.

They need to do that rather than focusing on graduates because it seems like that’s all they do is show the graduated bands and tutors. Of course they’re amazing, but you’ve got to give some credit to the students that are already there – give them some confidence to perform more and show off their stuff more and give them that stage. More live music would be my change.

DH – That’s all we have time for, thank you very much.