Ernie Odoom, 45: musician and jazz club creator

Ask any musician in Geneva who Ernie Odoom is and they will tell you that he is the king of the jazz-oriented jam sessions that take place once a month in the Chat Noir. he is also known for setting up Jaydo's, the jazz club that closed over the summer but is due to reopen in Paquis in January. Originally from Glasgow, Odoom has been in Switzerland for two decades and until recently his day job was designing microchips. Watching Ernie Odoom on stage in Geneva is an unforgettable experience. As well as playing the saxophone, he sings and is a master of improvisation. When he picks up the microphone, his unique chant which accompanies mostly jazz musicians, combines humming, singing and a variety of other sounds.  
“You’re standing on stage, and whatever happens around you becomes the inspiration for what happens next. Anything you see or hear becomes the food for the next thought. Sometimes I’m amazed at what comes out!” said Odoom.
 
Odoom, who is from Glasgow in Scotland and also has Ghanaian nationality, moved to Switzerland twenty years ago. After some ten years he set up the jazz jam sessions at the Chat Noir venue in Carouge at a time when they were few and far between. “I wanted to do a jam that was a bit more accessible for people, without it going into anarchy," he told Swisster. 
During the sessions there is a core of two or three musicians who hold the pieces together, but anyone can get up on stage and jam along according to Odoon: “It’s a show for the audience and a platform for musicians to show what they can do and progress with their music”.
 
Despite intitially thinking that the sessions, which take place once a month, might be repetitive, Odoom is amazed at how often new musicians show their faces, many in their early twenties and even teens. “Every six months or so, new people come and it starts all over again,” he said.  
Early last year, Odoon also set up a jazz club (close to the Geneva railway station) called “Jaydo’s” which closed during the summer period and will reopen at a bigger location in Paquis in January 2009. Every day – not just at weekends – the club staged free live concerts (some of which Odoon contributed to) from early evening until 10pm. “It’s a thing that didn’t exist in Geneva before. The idea was to have early sessions, which catered for people working the next day.”
 
Professional musicians handled the programming, often inviting contemporaries from all over Switzerland and neighbouring France. The club offers food and drink, and makes it clear that it is not a piano bar. “We have a no compromise philosophy. You can expect to perhaps be shocked because the musicians do what they want and are not going to play The Girl from Ipanema or Autumn Leaves, but it’s always top quality stuff,"said Odoom.
Odoom says that economically a jazz club in Geneva is totally unviable: musicians are paid, there is no entrance fee and city rents are high. He relies on audience attendance to prevent him from remaining out of pocket. “No one is ever going to make money from it but maybe we can get by and have a good place.”
 
Like many musicians, Odoom finds it hard to earn his living from music alone. When he first arrived in Switzerland he had his career sights set on bicycle racing, but got a job designing microchips. He's now able to work three days-a-week for a patents company, but says he can afford to do this only because he does not have a family to support. Being part time also enables him to have more time for music; hence he continues touring and giving concerts.
You can also listen to the podcast of Ernie Odoom interviewed on Swisster on Saturday on November 8 2008