Artistic Director, Tony Dudley-Evans' thoughts on the

Downbeat Critics Poll 2008

I always find the Critics’ Poll in the American jazz magazine Downbeat fascinating for who they include and who they exclude.  This year’s poll, the 56th which is in August’s issue, is particularly interesting.    The winners in the big categories are perhaps unsurprising, however merited they are: Herbie Hancock for Jazz Artist of the Year, Joe Zawinul for the Hall of Fame, Cassandra Wilson for Female Artist of the Year, Sonny Rollins as winner of the Tenor Saxophone category just ahead of Joe Lovano.  But there is nonetheless much of interest, especially in the Rising Star categories.  I was particularly delighted to see that John Hollenbeck won three categories: Rising Star Jazz Group for his Claudia Quintet, Rising Star Composer and a separate category of Rising Star Arranger.  I have worked with John Hollenbeck three times, once he was drummer with Cuong Vu, then at Cheltenham with his Claudia Quintet – generally considered one of the highlights of the 2007 festival  - and then this summer when he came with Theo Bleckmann and Gary Versace to work with the Birmingham Conservatoire Jazz Orchestra in the Conservatoire’s New Generation Arts Festival.  That was a great project hugely enjoyed by the students and conductor/rehearsal director Percy Pursglove and by the audience at the concert in June in the Adrian Boult Hall.  John Hollenbeck has a very original approach to jazz composition and to the relationship between composition and improvisation.  He avoids the trap of just writing to set off improvisation and, indeed, most of the pieces the Jazz Orchestra played had no solos at all.  So I was delighted to see John Hollenbeck recognised in these three categories.

Bassist and composer Ben Allison impressed at Cheltenham 07, particularly for his compositions, so I was very pleased to see in the list for both Composer of the Year (9th) and Rising Star Composer (2nd to John Hollenbeck).  Donny McCaslin really impressed with the Dave Douglas Quintet in Birmingham in April and it was good to see that he won the Rising Star category for Tenor Saxophone. It was great to see that Robert Glasper, who blew us all away at the Jam House in March, won the      

Rising Star Piano category, and nice to see Rob Brown, a player who works with William Parker and his own group and who I would love to bring to UK, in the Rising Star Alto Saxophone category.

But it is the omissions that always puzzle.  It is an American poll with most of the critics from magazines in the US; Stuart Nicholson and Chris Sheridan are there from the UK, but there are few others from outside the US.  So there are very few European players represented in the polls.  I have noticed that Evan Parker always gets quite high up in the Soprano Saxophone category as do John Surman and Joe Temperley in the Baritone Saxophone category.  EST are 5th in the Rising Star Jazz Group category, but, surprisingly, not represented at all in the main Jazz Group category which only has bands from the US (it was won by the Keith Jarrett Trio).  But the younger UK players just aren’t there, with the interesting exception of Gareth Lockrane who just scrapes into the Rising Star Flute category.

But it is the omissions of certain of my favourite US players that really puzzles me: Bobby Previte, Tim Berne, Tom Rainey and Dan Weiss aren’t there at all, Uri Caine is there, but not high, in both the main Arranger and Rising Star Arranger categories – Uri Caine Rising Star, very odd!  Drew Gress is there – just about – in the Rising Star Acoustic Bass category and not in the Composition categories at all.  The one US player with leftfield leanings who seems to have made it, certainly in terms of the polls, is Dave Douglas, whose quintet is well represented in the best Jazz Group category, and who comes way ahead of the others, including Wynton Marsalis, in the Trumpet category.  He is also second to Maria Schneider in the Composer category and ninth in the Jazz Artist of The Year category.      

23rd July 2008

Artistic Director Tony Dudley-Evans' reflections on the

2008 BBC Jazz Awards

It was a good Jazz Awards this year and on the whole the right people won. The event took place at the Mermaid Theatre in London on Monday 21st July and was recorded for broadcast on both Radio 2 and Radio 3. Amusingly, we were treated to host Paul Gambacinni making announcements appropriate to the particular station, more enthusiastic and populist for Radio 2 and more measured and calm for Radio 3!

The involvement of the two BBC stations claims to show that the jazz community is indeed a community, but in previous years the different choices have tended to show the opposite with a big gulf between people like Acker Bilk chosen by Radio 2 listeners and contemporary bands like Acoustic Ladyland coming from from the Radio 3 categories. But this year with Tommy Smith winning the Radio 2 Heart of Jazz award for contributions to maintaining the jazz tradition and the Dankworths winning a new category, The Gold Award, it was a more inclusive set of winners and contemporary bands like Fraud and The Blessing seemed to fit in well. Fraud won the Jazz on 3 Innovation award and The Blessing won the Best Album. The latter was one of the surprises of the night with quite a few feeling that Arnie Somogyi's Accident and Insurgency deserved to win. But the decision was in fact made by radio listeners in an online poll.

Other winners were Return to Forever in the Lifetime Achievement Award, Charlie Haden for the International Award. The latter played an exquisite duet with John Taylor on piano to mark the award and this was for me the highlight of the evening. Christine Tobin won the Best Vocalist, Tony Kofi the Best Instrumentalist, Tom Cawley's Curios the Best Band, Humphrey Lyttelton won the Radio 2 Jazz Artist of the Year in an posthumous tribute to the huge contribution Humph has made to raising the profile of the music in UK. Alan Bates, founder of Candid Records in UK, won the Services to Jazz in UK Award. As mentioned above, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth won a special award to mark their 80th Birthdays and the two of them rounded off the night accompanied by the special big band put together by Guy Barker. This was another highlight with Cleo showing that her vocal abilities are as strong as ever.

One feature of the Awards is the invitation to various music 'celebrities' to make the actual presentations: record producer George Martin was very impressive in presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to Return to Forever, Jeff Beck was less impressive in presenting Tony Kofi with his Best Instrumentalist Award. Others participating included Goldie, Jazzie B, Mica Paris, Colin Salmon ( a great jazz fan and no mean cornettist), Nigel Kennedy and Jamie Cullum. Comedian Barry Cryer paid Humph a very warm and well presented tribute in presenting the Radio 2 Jazz Artist Award to Adrian MacIntosh, Humph's drummer, who accepted it on behalf of the Family and the band.