[DadaSeeva]

The National Jazz Awards nominations have been announced. Go vote for your favourites (hopefully the local guys!).... if you can find them.

http://www.nationaljazzawards.com/vote/vote.php

[SoorgoBardy]

Wow! There must be an awful lot of jazz violinists in Toronto.


I still think somebody in Vancouver should have a 'Worldwide Jazz Awards" ceremony, not nominate anybody from Toronto, and wait and see how long it takes before accusations of "parochialism" begin to fly.

[saruxanset]

Cory raises some good points in his blog.

Me, I'm staying out of it.

[SoorgoBardy]

Yup, I just read it. I'm glad it's him saying it and not me, since I'm just a meddling outsider who doesn't even live in Canada anymore.

The whole thing would be silly if it weren't for the fact that Toronto is the media center of the country. What this kind of nonsense does is promote the notion that, to paraphrase Allan Fotheringham, there is nothing happening in Canadian jazz that can't be seen from the roof of the Royal York Hotel on a clear day.

National careers can only be built on national press, so this really stunts the scene out there in "the regions."

[Qnnoshxj]

Yeah... maybe it does come across as sour grapes but it really doesn't seem like a balanced list representing a cross-section of our country's finest jazz musicians. Sure you can't have everyone, but there are people who are continually making important contributions to our national jazz music community who seem to not merit recognition from Bill King and his organization.

I would suggest anyone with comments or complaints about this direct them to Mr. King personally. I have no idea who makes the lists but, going from Cory's blog, it seems that Bill has some say. His e-mail address is jazzreport AT sympatico DOT ca

[zithromaxlinks]

I agree that any "awards" draws attention to the art - and that can't be all bad. I realized this thing was a bit of a joke (as are most awards) the year it first came out.

But it solidified how Toronto-centric it was last year (and this year) when they give the address of the awards ceremony, but don't even mention what city it's in. They just ASSUME you know it's Toronto.

But one way or another I don't loose any sleep over this stuff.
(Though I think we were proud of Brad when he won musician of the year last year)

[Garry Richardson]

I just looked at the NJA website. There's a couple of interesting phrases. On the About the NJA page, "The only fair thing to do is be inclusive." strikes me as being a bit ironic.

Most tellingly, on Hugh Fraser's artist information page is that note that these were "formerly, Toronto’s Jazz Report Awards".

And Brian, why are you staying out of it? Why not start an awards event for us neglected West Coasters, just using your surname? Think of it - The Nation Jazz Awards. If these guys are as Toronto-centric as we claim they are, they'll never know...

[zithromaxlinks]

The Nation Jazz Awards...hmmm....I like it.


Personally, I'm still pissed I've never been nominated for the Teen Choice Awards.

[zithromaxlinks]

It reminds me that the person who probably has the best feel for what is happening across Canada is Mark Miller. If I had to nominate a chair to oversee nominees, it might be him.

[DadaSeeva]

There is some opinion that because the NJA's are doing something that they are doing good and should be void of critizism. While any publicity is good publicity and they have provided some loval musicians with accolades (Brad and Olly most noticably) if you are going to take on the respondibility of being the "National" Jazz Awards, you bring on the responsibility to be representational and fair. If all the best players in Canada happened to be living in Toronto then they would by no means have to sacrafice the quality of their nominations to represent the country. There is a lot of discrepency between catagories (11 violinist nominated vs. 5 Trumpet?) as well as no clear requirements for nomination. Album released as leader? Albums released as sideman? Heck, even an album released within the past 5 years? Live Performances? Touring?

[Qnnoshxj]

Quote:

[SoorgoBardy]

Ask him (Korsrud) about the Playland gig back in '86 . You should have heard the screams when he walked onstage. It was like playing with Menudo.

John was our resident hearthrob. "Teen appeal." Sort of a counterbalance to Al Wiertz (who was also on the gig). Al was "moldy old beatnik" appeal.

[Garry Richardson]

And you, John, were "sartorially splendid curmudgeon in training"?

Until we get off our collective bong here on the West Coast and create some really meaningful awards system, I guess it's more fun to bitch about another case of Toronto as the centre of the universe. A more relevant discussion may be whether or not it's worthwhile to have jazz awards at all. Whether they're based here or in Pouce Coupe, someone is bound to get pissed off about being excluded.

[Nubtoubrem]

I haven't felt the need to enter this forum for a long time although I do sometimes read some interesting postings. Today I really do feel the need to voice my opinion on the National Jazz Awards debate. It may be true that few West Coasters have been nominated once again and that is unfortunate but is not because of Mr. Bill King. I know for a fact that nominations are not made by Bill himself. Approximately 150 nominations ballots are sent out by Bill and his team to people across the country including West Coast people. Those people are people who are considered knowledgeable in the world of Canadian Jazz. I do not know personally who each of them are but I know that the list is made up of people from across the country. I kind of feel embarrassed about the "Bill bashing" and bashing the National Jazz Awards in general.

I had the great honor of being invited to sing at last year's National Jazz Awards and over the year's have gotten to know Bill and his lovely wife Kris too. Some readers have mentioned that there is a conflict of interest when Bill who is the producer of the Awards Show also wins awards. People vote for Bill and that is why he wins. It is not because he rigs the contest so that he himself will win. Bill is simply trying to create some excitement for jazz in Canada and his hard work has created a wonderful show and public contest in my opinion. Everyone is eligible to vote. Maybe one of these years there will be more of our well deserving BC musicians on that list too.

The good news is that there are some new names that have been nominated this year from Vancouver. Jill Townsend's wonderful big band for one is on there. Yeah Jill!! Our own Dee Daniels is co-hosting the show this year so that is another BC connection. Of course I am delighted (as I am sure Kate and Denzal are too), to be nominated in the vocalist category. Even if I weren't on the list (I wasn't last year) I wouldn't accuse or blame the producer of the event. I'm not saying that there do appear to be some names that seem to be sorely missing from the nomination list in the past couple of years (Bill Coon, Oliver Gannon and others too) but it is not because of Bill King. It just seems so nasty somehow to accuse, blame and bad mouth him. He is not even a politician. That I might understand...
So that's my two cents worth on this particular topic.
Karin

[SoorgoBardy]

I can't speak for anyone else on the thread, but I have zero interest in knocking Bill King. I know almost nothing about him. I did meet him on two occasions when I lived in Toronto in the late 80s and he seemed like a nice guy. Beyond that I couldn't say.

Bottom line, I think what puts people's noses out of joint is the continuing pretence that this is a 'national' show. If they just called it the Toronto Jazz Awards that'd be fine. But to insist that some sort of profile of 'jazz in Canada' is being offered, and then to overlook so many excellent players who happen to live somewhere other than "Central Canada" suggests that there's nothing much happening anywhere else. If the folks in charge of the nomination process really were knowlegable about jazz in Canada they would know that this is absurd.

If there's a flaw in the process, that's it. How on god's green earth can you be 'knowlegable about jazz in Canada' and not be familiar with these players?

[maxtp]

One question, and a quick anecdote. First off, how long does one have to be living(again) on the West Coast to be considered local again. The only reason that I ask is that Cory mentioned that there was no-one from the West Coast in either the composer or album of the year categories, and I am nominated in both. Not that I derive any great satisfaction from that, but still I did uproot my family and career so that I could move here and complain about Toronto with the rest of you guys..........and to any Toronto guys reading this, I didn't really mean it. But still, it's been over a year and a half, and I would like to know what the probation period is.

Second with regard to the internet voting, to quote my good buddy Roberto Occhipinti "may the best database win".

I could go on at length about various aspects of this topic, but my lawyer strongly advises against it.

Phil Dwyer
Qualicum Beach
BC

[clitlyphype]

Two years, Phil. Hang in there. You're almost one of us again.

[maxtp]

phew!

[Qnnoshxj]

Sorry if I came across as participating in this "Bill bashing" that is referred to. I don't see anything in what I wrote as being insulting or derogatory. My point is merely that, rather than discuss among ourselves how we appear to have been short changed - yes there are some great people who have been nominated, but there is a definite geographical slant to the whole thing - perhaps it would be better to voice those concerns directly to the National Jazz Awards.

Having said all that, vote for VEJI!! I'm sure it'll be just the boost the band needs to keep going...

[sposteTipsKage]

I'm want to be clear that I am not trying to attack Bill personally at all about these awards but simply to indicate that there are some gross misrepresentations and things about these awards that make them a lot less credible. I think the reason why its a drag is because I think the concept of them is amazing. As I said in my first post, I think that anything that celebrates jazz in a grand fashion is awesome and can only help this music get to more people but I'm sick and tired of the way these things get picked. Its absolutely ludicrous.

For the record I have had many chats with Bill King and find him to be a very good guy.