Here is a letter published in the Echo this week:

It is disappointing to read that, at a time when there are encouraging sounds of cultural awareness in Southend, the Jazz Centre in the Beecroft Gallery is threatened with closure (Echo, August 3).

Southend has long been the home of a thriving jazz community and the Beecroft home is well appreciated, much thanks to the efforts of Digby Fairweather.

It is the home of an important collection in memory of the much-loved Humphrey Lyttleton, whose desk, trumpet, and other memorabilia have been lodged there by his family.

The centre is appreciated by the local lovers of jazz who can make use of the sale of records and books given by families of past jazz fans and meet up with other enthusiasts. The centre is an invaluable jazz archive resource.

We must ensure that the council continues to express the cultural importance of music in the city, of which jazz, together with rhythm ‘n’ blues, country and folk, are all a part.

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The pub music that used to heard at the threatened Railway pub and the rhythm ‘n’ blues and jazz that could be heard in hostelries, clubs, and the Kursaal and which can still be heard at the Cliffs Pavilion, and occasionally in clubs, are all part of the heritage of rhythm ‘n’ blues and rock and roll of the 60s and 70s which all grew out of a jazz and blues base.

Losing the Jazz Centre would be cutting off one of the strands of the city’s musical heritage and it is a budget cut that does not sit well alongside the movement for strengthening the cultural life of the city of Southend.

I hope that other jazz-lovers who read this will also make their voices heard.

Peter Richards

Lifstan Way, Southend