As a musical entrepreneur, Jack organised a series of “Sonic Circuses”, 12-hour simultaneous multi-venue music marathons featuring New Zealand music. In 2002 he curated a five-concert festival of New Zealand music at the Ijsbreker in Amsterdam. For 33 years he was the editor of Waiteata Music Press, which publishes scores of New Zealand music, and he edited over twenty CDs of music by New Zealand composers.
In the promotion of the music and musicians of the Asia-Pacific region Jack Body was artistic director for the Asia-Pacific Festivals and Conferences in 1984,1992 and 2007, ten-day events that juxtaposed traditional and contemporary music of New Zealand and her neighbours. He travelled widely in Asia, particularly Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea, Japan and China, and since 1981 was actively involved in the Asian Composers League, serving on its executive committee. He was the guest of numerous music festivals in Asia and arranged numerous visits to New Zealand by leading Asian composers such as Yuji Takahashi, Tan Dun, Qu Xiao-Song and Chinary Ung.
Jack Body specialised in cross-cultural composition, both in his own music as well as in his teaching. At Victoria University of Wellington he established a residency for traditional musicians to work collaboratively with composition staff and students. These guests included, from Indonesia, Agus Supriawan, Dody Ekagustdiman (both from West Java), Rafiloza bin Rafii (Minangkabau), Wayan Yudane (Bali), and, from Kalinga, north Philippines, Benny Sokkong. These residencies generated new compositions, recorded for broadcast and CD publication. In his own composition he integrated other musical cultures as in Campur Sari for Javanese musician and string quartet, and Polish Dances, for clarinet and Javanese Gamelan.
As the manager of Victoria University's Gamelan Padhang Moncar, he stimulated the creation of new compositions, which were recorded and broadcast. These included works for gamelan and piano, gamelan and orchestra, gamelan and organ, gamelan and choral plainsong etc. In 2000, to celebrate 25 years of gamelan in New Zealand, he co-organised BEAT, an International Gamelan Festival with over 100 overseas participants.
