Jazz Journalist Association Awards 2010

[BeBop]

Here.

How's that for safe choices, even among the nominees, for the most part. Small surprise on soprano sax. Otherwise...

Unfortunately, Chuck lost to Blue Note.

[jlhoots]

Here.

How's that for safe choices, even among the nominees, for the most part. Small surprise on soprano sax. Otherwise...

Unfortunately, Chuck lost to Blue Note.

I've seen worse lists.

I don't care for Kurt Elling, so would have preferred Giacomo Gates.

[thedwork]

Here.

How's that for safe choices, even among the nominees, for the most part. Small surprise on soprano sax. Otherwise...

Unfortunately, Chuck lost to Blue Note.

pretty cool that nicole mitchell got some love. saw her with braxton in troy a few years back. and i would've voted signal to noise for periodical. nice piece on grimes in the current issue...

[AllenLowe]

best line of the night, apparently - the MC remarked, without irony or intent of humor, that he grew up listening to "Bird, and Dizzy, and Buddy Bolden."

wish I'd been there. Would've had a few questions for him.

[Guest Bill Barton]

I'm not so sure that I agree regarding "safe choices." I thought that it was great, for instance, that both Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer won. Same with Evan Parker. Secret Society isn't exactly "safe" either, or the Pi label. The list seems to cover a pretty broad stylistic range.

[tranemonk]

I would concur..VIjay Iyer is NOT a big name but interesting pick.. I loved his Newport Set (downloadable at nPR.org)

I'm not so sure that I agree regarding "safe choices." I thought that it was great, for instance, that both Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer won. Same with Evan Parker. Secret Society isn't exactly "safe" either, or the Pi label. The list seems to cover a pretty broad stylistic range.

[BeBop]

Perhaps my initial assessment was a bit harsh. I spend about four hours a day listening to jazz radio. I tend to think of their choices as "safe", in the sense that...well, there is that pledge drive thing. The stations I listen to heavily feature some of the same artists nominated by the JJA: Kurt Elling*, Joe Lovano*, Maria Schneider, Roberta Gambarini*, Terrence Blanchard*, Nicole Mitchell, Anat Cohen, Kenny Barron*, Dave Holland, Regina Carter*, Stefon Harris*, Paul Motian*. (*-ed names also Bob Parlocha favorites.) They're all fine but they seem rather predictible. Another measure might be Clifford Brown Jr.'s American Jazz Countdown KCSM.

Pi Records was, indeed, another surprise, worthy of mention.

[Chuck Nessa]

Yes to all the above.

[Matthew]

Yeah, to bad Chuck didn't win, Saga is one beautiful cd. The one WTH choice for me is Kurt Elling, I mean, what the heck??? Also noticed the ages of most of the male singers, it doesn't bode well for the future.

[paul secor]

How can you list 5 "Pianists of the Year" and exclude Cecil?

[David Ayers]

So according to you guys the main features of this list are (1) 'Chuck lost' (2) Cecil Taylor, who to my knowledge released no new recording in the last year, was unfairly not even short-listed as pianist of the year and (3) otherwise nothing to see here.

Well, maybe we have all spent too much time on this board, but I'm not sure Chuck lost and Cecil was stitched up get to the heart of it. In some ways what makes these awards conservative is not the attention to mainstream styles but the fact that there is no 'new' jazz modernism. So in a list that includes Evan Parker and his wonderful Pi label as winners, as well as mentions for Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Carla Bley, Wadada Leo Smith, Ornette Coleman, Fred Anderson, Billy Bang, and even the marginal Charles Tyler, only Matthew Shipp for the 'avant-garde' has not long qualified for his free bus pass. So this 'avant-garde' is really very staid and safe and in truth has been doing more or less the same things for forty years. What I would be interested to hear from board memebers would be who we think should have been considered for these awards and why. Or to put it another way round, what should the considerations have been in making these awards (this to prevent just listings of names, as if these spoke for themselves). As it stands the list reflects (1) the record collections of old duffers like many of us brought up on a sort of Rollins/Threadgill model (2) new artists working in a promotable 'jazz' idiom. Is another approach possible?

[AllenLowe]

my first question, Dave, is - are you asking this as an outside observer or as a member of the JJA?

[Christiern]

Does it really matter who "lost" or "won" the Mandel trophy?

If so, I wish someone would tell me what I am missing.

Two simple questions:

• How has "winning" this thing benefited the recipient?
  
  
• How has not winning affected a career, income, ego? —well, skip the last one.

[paul secor]

So according to you guys the main features of this list are (1) 'Chuck lost' (2) Cecil Taylor, who to my knowledge released no new recording in the last year, was unfairly not even short-listed as pianist of the year and (3) otherwise nothing to see here.

Well, maybe we have all spent too much time on this board, but I'm not sure Chuck lost and Cecil was stitched up get to the heart of it. In some ways what makes these awards conservative is not the attention to mainstream styles but the fact that there is no 'new' jazz modernism. So in a list that includes Evan Parker and his wonderful Pi label as winners, as well as mentions for Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Carla Bley, Wadada Leo Smith, Ornette Coleman, Fred Anderson, Billy Bang, and even the marginal Charles Tyler, only Matthew Shipp for the 'avant-garde' has not long qualified for his free bus pass. So this 'avant-garde' is really very staid and safe and in truth has been doing more or less the same things for forty years. What I would be interested to hear from board memebers would be who we think should have been considered for these awards and why. Or to put it another way round, what should the considerations have been in making these awards (this to prevent just listings of names, as if these spoke for themselves). As it stands the list reflects (1) the record collections of old duffers like many of us brought up on a sort of Rollins/Threadgill model (2) new artists working in a promotable 'jazz' idiom. Is another approach possible?

Cecil Taylor may not have released a new recording in the past year, but he did perform live. The title of the awards reads: "honoring excellence in music-making and music documentation". Music making includes more than doing recordings.

But as Chris has noted, this stuff probably only means something to "jazz journalists" - who are becoming more and more irrelevant.

[Ted O'Reilly]

Since jazz (or any art) isn't a contest, there can't be a "Winner". But on the other hand, it's nice when people who know acknowledge contributions.

You have to dig deeply to find such at the JJA website: http://www.jjajazzawards.org/2010/06/jja-jazz-awards-2010-team-and-jazz.html#more

[David Ayers]

my first question, Dave, is - are you asking this as an outside observer or as a member of the JJA?

No I'm not a member of JJA - but I'd still like to know what we think counts as current and new - if anything. Is this just a permanent list of 'greats' as long as they are still alive and turn up and do the same thing year after year, plus a few novices (people with only 15-20 year careers behind them) who are let in to make it seem that jazz is anything other than a museum music? Oh sorry I forgot, I am supposed to think they are 'improvisng' and therefore it is different and 'new' and 'surprising' every time. Hm. Strange how you can always tell who's playing, then. Noting that one or other 'great' is missing this year doesn't seem like such great sport. Ever seen the Country Music awards? Ouch.

Um, that's not aimed at you Allen, but at the World. Yes! Respond, oh World!

[AllenLowe]

I tend to agree with all of the above - my problem is that, at my age and with a real demanding day gig, it gets harder and harder to keep up with what's new and I always hope that jazz writers can help. Aside from Cliff Thornton on this board, however, I get very little info (not saying there aren't others here who are helpful; Cliff just seems particularly on top of things) - personally I crave constant novelty, and I approach it all quite critically - but few jazz journalists seem to look at life this way. Hence the tendency to look for the tried and true.

[David Ayers]

oops

pi≠psi - kill me now

π≠ψ - ἀπoθaνει̑ν θέλω

[sorry couldn't get the diacritical mark to stay over the i - spoilt it a bit really - don't know why I bovvered...]