No National Jazz Awards for 2010.

[Gavin Walker]

Bill King has announced that the National Jazz Awards have been cancelled for 2010. Citing cost, logistics, paperwork, funding (or lack of it) and deadly bureaucratic restrictions as all causes for this curtailment. A sad end to an event that was not always perfect but became truly national as the years went by. For all the flack that he took and responded to in a mostly positive way.....Bill King deserves congratulations for a noble experiment in giving our great Jazz musicians and performers thoughout the country some due recognition. Maybe someone else can light the Jazz torch in the future. Google "National Jazz Awards 2010" and read further about this unhappy development.

[james mcrae]

thanks gavin... here is an article with some letter writers of interest down on the bottom as well...

http://communities.canada.com/OTTAWA...-t-be-any.aspx

[Nou Dadoun]

Originally Posted by james mcrae

thanks gavin... here is an article with some letter writers of interest down on the bottom as well...

http://communities.canada.com/OTTAWA...-t-be-any.aspx

Been meaning to weigh in on this, I was out of town in Toronto when this came out and didn't have a chance to comment earlier. The back-story in the article and associated comments is pretty telling and I definitely want to retract any snide comments I may have made in the past about the (once) Toronto-centric nature of the National Jazz Awards.

I think Bill King definitely deserves kudos for building his organization and doing his best to pull together the jazz community across the country; certainly the awards (with Cory's help) have in recent years been much more inclusive of the west coast scene and they'll certainly be missed this year. Given the obvious headaches and funding hassles, nobody can blame him for taking a hiatus. This is probably a good place to give his eJazzNews site a plug (http://www.ejazznews.com/), Bill King's certainly not idle.

Considering that this is "Juno Week", it's probably worth making some comparisons. Although I think the Juno jazz nominations are incredibly strong this year, the west coast is notably absent. (Maybe they thought that Buble, Krall and Kaeshammer covered all the bases.) In fact, I'm disappointed but not surprised that the excellent homegrown Vancouver jazz labels are completely shutout.

My picks would be Cory Weeds' Everything's Coming Up Weeds for Cellar Live, the October Trio (+ Brad Turner)'s Looks like it's going to snow for Songlines, Peggy Lee's New Code for Drip Audio, Tony Foster's independent release and The Mississippi Sheiks Tribute for Black Hen. Even given the strength of the nominations this year, all of those would have a fighting chance (in terms of quality if not politics).

And given the fact that the Juno jazz awards are usually handed out the day before the official ceremony (in a closet somewhere) doesn't really do much to raise the profile of the award winners unfortunately.

So here's hoping the National Jazz Awards come back for 2011 ... N

(PS. Speaking of pulling the national jazz community together, does anybody else miss Jazz Beat? ... N)

[Gavin Walker]

Well said Nou on both counts......your picks (unfortunately not their's) for the Junos and the sad demise of Jazz Beat.