Former Wham! Manager Jazz Summers Dies

Born in March 1944, Summers enrolled in military school aged 12 before joining the army at the age of 15.

Tributes to band manager Jazz Summers have been flooding in from all corners of the music industry, following his death from lung cancer this week.

Jazz Summers, who was 71, also worked with Snow Patrol, the Scissor Sisters, Badly Drawn Boy and Klaxons. “A champion of newest music, a non-conformist & a visionary, Jazz Summers shall be considerably missed”. “His ability to hear a song and recognise its power and potential brought him huge success across several decades”.

According to Music Week, Summers’ artists have so far sold over 60 million albums and 72 million singles worldwide, with more than 100 of those singles making the Top 40. The pair also ran Big Life Records, which released music from such artists as The Orb, Yazz, Coldcut, De La Soul and The Soup Dragons. In 2003, he won the Peter Grant Award, and the Strat Award at the Music Week Awards in 2007. As chairman of the Music Managers Forum, he was also an active campaigner for artists’ rights and prominent in setting up the Featured Artists’ Coalition, and Julie’s Bicycle, a not-for-profit organisation working on sustainability in the creative industries.

Asked a few years ago about their former manager, Gary Lightbody reflected that, “Jazz Summers is a f***ing lion”. He was a formidable force of nature!

Former Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe added: “We’ve lost a good friend”. Thank you Jazz Summers for your guidance and friendship. “Jazz was a one-off – they broke the mould after his creation”.

“His style was unique in a world of mavericks and individuals and was outlined in his recently published autobiography Big Life named after his last management company”. “He had a huge heart and was full of vital energy to always make things happen”.