Mind Your Own Music Ltd
History and Philosophy

The origins of Mind Your Own Music Ltd
MYOM was established in 1999 by Janinka Diverio from the small back room of her busy Italian restaurant in the small English coastal resort of Minehead in Somerset. From hosting monthly modern jazz evenings for local and national touring modern jazz bands, she went on to help organise the first and only two jazz festivals in Minehead.

While on holiday in Barcelona she chanced upon the group Free Gheto Brasil, a group of Brazilian jazz musicians living in Spain. She was so impressed she organised a twelve-date UK tour for them, and since then she's been hooked on bringing live music she loves to towns and cities who don't always care!

Out of the blue, Canadian drummer Stich Wynston contacted Janinka to help organise a European tour for his contemporary jazz trio Modern Surfaces. Initially reluctant to the idea she was persuaded on hearing the group's CD.

While suffering the traumas of organising Stich's tour in 1999, Janinka contacted Venue magazine in Bristol to review a copy of the band's CD. This was passed to Chris Albury who had been writing occasional live modern jazz and CD reviews for the magazine for two years. Janinka sensed a helpful local ally in the brutal and unforgiving world of live contemporary music and contacted Chris to meet up for words of advice and encouragement.

This turned out to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship - not only was Chris a keen contemprary jazz and new music fan, he was a longstanding fan of pianist Keith Tippett, and was awestuck when Janinka told him that she was about to start managing him and his wife Julie. The rest, as they say, is history … in the making!

MYOM's philosophy
We aim to offer first-class professional management and agency work for all the musicians we work with. Both of us have a leaning towards the brilliant creativity explored in the world of European free improvisation but remain open to new musical avenues and ideas as we continue to cautiously expand our artists roster.

We take our inspiration from musicians who, while possessing virtuosic skills, remain indifferent to the vagaries of musical fashions, and singlemindedly follow their own genius, however little fame and money that may bring. We honestly believe that these musicians are among the finest contemporary music-makers in the world today, and we want you to hear them soon!

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