Laurence Seeff: Jews in Jazz

Jazz music took hold at the turn of the 20th century and especially from the 1920s. It emerged from the development of blues and ragtime and, for more than a half a century, it reigned supreme. Jews played a major part in the development of jazz as musicians, composers, lyricists, managers, businessmen and entrepreneurs. Although only a small percentage of the population in general, Jews had a massively disproportionate influence on jazz.  In this lecture, no less than 127 people are identified who have contributed to the genre in some way and, together with narrative and video clips, the lecture should provide an enlightening history of Jews in jazz.

Laurence Seeff was born in 1951 in London. He studied statistics at Cardiff  University and the first phase of his career was as a statistician at the International Energy Agency (OECD) in Paris. He went on a contract for two years but, in fact, stayed for ten! Et oui! He then joined the fledgling Bloomberg Financial Markets, in London, as the first European employee when there was a total of just 35 staff (now 23,000). After two decades, in a variety of positions, he became a lecturer in finance at BPP Professional Education in London.

In addition to his remunerated work, Laurence served as a magistrate (voluntary lay judge in the criminal courts) for 20 years and has many stories with which to entertain at dinner parties.

Laurence, and his wife Sara, made Alyah, in November 2020, to join their four children, and now, ten grandchildren.  In Israel, Laurence has involved himself in amateur dramatics and tennis, is an author, and has published two books of poetry in 2017 and 2024.  Laurence’s interest in jazz dates back more than 50 years from when he first saw  Terry Lightfoot and his Jazzmen in a pub in Bournemouth. He was smitten.