IT would be fair to call Daniel Spicer a purist.

Tired of so-called jazz events that merely peddle mainstream pop, with the actual jazz marginalised if not absent altogether, he was motivated to establish a weekend based entirely around his beloved genre.

The Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival was the end result of this vision.

Now in its second year, Spicer claims the event is both a showcase of Brighton’s “vibrant experimental music community” and an alternative to the kind of faux-jazz festivals that have been a source of “frustration” for him in the past.

“I understand we’re living in a capitalistic society and that people have got to make money, but it seems a shame that the actual jazz content is often very low,” he says.

, although he acknowledges that “in this capitalistic society, everyone has to make money.”

He adds: “A lot of the time you have pretty boring, lumpen stuff on the main stages at festivals, but there is good music tucked away.

“The thousands of people watching the main stage are what pays for anything at the festival that is remotely challenging.”

A jazz critic as well as a player – he performs in groups around Brighton though he humbly calls himself an “improvisational non-musician” – Spicer is naturally eloquent on a genre that can be notoriously hard to pin down.

Dismissing the famous quote that ‘writing about music is like dancing about architecture’ as “redundant,’ he says he is always looking for new ways to describe the art form.

“Why not dance about architecture? The great thing about being a critic is that I get to hear loads of great experimental music.

“That’s really what fuelled my desire to put some of it on at the festival.”

The multi-faceted nature of the genre is to be demonstrated, with music that Spicer promises will be “challenging” but at other times will “really swing.”

He cites Chicago’s Artifacts Trio in particular as a group thatwho “swing like crazy –

it’s going to be a real toe tapper.”

Spicer is keen to make his weekend a true international festival, the kind of event “musicians from around the world will look at and think, I really want to play there.” Local talent will also be given a stage, though, in an all-day showcase at The Verdict jazz club on Sunday 11.

“A lot of these people don’t get coverage very often, as people think it is too much of a risk to give them a platform.”

Specifically, he believes female jazz players are under-represented on the scene, but that this issue “merely reflects the wider society of which we live, and the massive problem with patriarchy.”

He adds: “There are a huge number of talented female musicians who don’t get the exposure they deserve.

“I’ve heard stories from veritable sources about people saying things like ‘oh, we’ve got enough women on the bill this year.’

So I thought I’d go in the opposite direction and ensure that there are as many, if not more, female musicians than male on the bill.”

Spicer’s quest for gender parity isn’t the only mission statement he makes in our conversation; speaking of the festival as a whole, he states his desire to showcase jazz that is “deep, sincere, prepared to risks, but never losing that connection with the swing.”

>>> Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival, The Old Market, September 9 and 10, Friday 7.30pm, Saturday 5pm, full weekend £50, 01273 201801