Benjamin Franklin once said that “if you want something done, ask a busy person.” There’s truth to that statement. After all, the busier we are, the better we manage our time. Busy people are able to get more done in a day because they don’t waste time.
To be fair this statement has been attributed to a few people over the years. If we are to believe QI on this matter then the earliest known match appeared in a report delivered in 1856 by Reverend W. J. Kennedy who was the Inspector of Schools for Lancashire and the Isle of Man in Britain.
Just as it is almost proverbial that, if you want any business done for you, you should ask a busy man to do it, and not a man of leisure, so it is the laborious scholar, who is working hard at languages, who picks up, nay, actually reads and studies more of other subjects than the rest of his fellows at school or college.
Revd WJ Kennedy
JAM Duo are a cello and piano duo based in the UK who play for weddings. The brainchild of Jules Addison and Anne-Marie Humphries, JAM Duo was formed as part of a lockdown ’chat’ about music. It was in May 2020, Jules and Anne-Marie realised that as two professional musicians they could be even better together as JAM Duo (JAM is of course just a blend of our names).
Up to that point Jules and Anne-Marie had both had busy careers. Jules was working as a sound engineer and musician recordings albums for schools, choirs and instrumentalists, whilst Anne-Marie was Head of Music in a thriving Gloucestershire Secondary School.
The Beginnings of JAM Duo
Jules and Anne-Marie met when Jules was looking for an accompanist for his Male Voice Choir in Cirencester. Several applicants came (and failed). And then appeared Anne-Marie. It is somewhat ironic that the pair met with Anne-Marie being engaged as a pianist! Of course AM would argue (quite correctly!) that it makes her the more versatile musician as she can play both instruments in the Duo whereas Jules is limited to just the piano (apparently a ’viola da gamba’ stop on the organ doesn’t count).
Having decided to form a duo in May 2020, the first obstacle was the UK being in full lockdown. But Jules and Anne-Marie decided to use this to their advantage. With Jules’ recording studio the pair set about recording numerous tracks in order to promote their new duo to the world. They created a website, and with a little bit of marketing were soon getting found as professional wedding musicians.
Roll forward just under 2 years (March 2022 at the time of writing) and JAM Duo have played for nearly 90 weddings and events with a further 140 bookings already in the diary for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
This is of course great testament to the success of JAM Duo. The only downside from our perspective is that whilst we are now getting in the region of 4 new enquiries every day we sadly have to turn away 3 out of 4 usually because we are already booked.
JAM Duo means JAM Duo
A lot of musicians get around this by bringing in deputies. Bizarrely most string quartets, for example, are made up of about 8 core members who switch around depending on who is available and then bring in other people they haven‘t necessarily ever worked with in order to take on multiple bookings on a single day.
Jules and Anne-Marie made the decision not to do this. JAM Duo is very definitely only ever J and AM! All our recordings are made in house in our own recording studio and it’s only ever Jules playing the Piano and Anne-Marie playing the Cello. We believe this is a great part of our success.
Our clients are not just buying into the quality of our music, but they are buying into us as people. Our ’product’ offering is not just the music it is the whole ethos and image which is JAM Duo.
If you would like to find out more about JAM Duo and see if we are available to play at your wedding then please do get in touch via our contact form.
