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Last week, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz announced the 12 semi-finalists for its annual competition for young musicians, often seen as the most prestigious in jazz today. That sparked a rally of Internet responses, notably from pianist Ethan Iverson, who expressed reservations about the "dark side to getting judged for your art." Indeed, Iverson suggested that Monk wouldn't have played "correctly" enough to even qualify for his own competition.
The very nature of artistic competitions makes this claim plausible. Because judges of such competitions must seek some criteria for decision-making, and because standard-practice technical skill is an obvious choice for a criterion, "chops" are likely to be emphasized strongly — perhaps at the expense of overall artistic merit. This potentially works against musicians like Thelonious Monk; even though we now consider the a pianist a jazz legend, his remarkably distinct style was not well-received early in his career.
But how does this claim hold up to what actually transpires at competitions? Several winners of competitions were quick to declare that they did not betray their artistic visions.
Dan Tepfer, who won the American Pianists Association Cole Porter Fellowship in a 2007 competition, relayed his experience that jazz competition judges could be remarkably holistic, over the course of several Twitter updates:
Monk wouldn't have won, true, but do you really think judges who are great musicians (Blade?) want to hear "correct"? // it's something I realized early in my competition phase: judges, like most people, just wanna hear good music. // I've seen very talented musicians try to calculate their way into winning (showing prowess in different styles, eg) & fail. // yes, there's a premium on craft in a comp, but the person who's going to win has craft & a strong sense of self.#myExperience // At any rate, I definitely never compromised when I was doing comps back in the day, & I did pretty well (won 3, bought piano) // a comp isn't going to reward a true left-field radical, like Monk, true. But Downbeat didn't dig him either at 1st. Think of // ...comps as just another slightly boring gatekeeper. Radicals have always had to find their own way, comps or no comps.
The New York Times' Ben Ratliff described pianist Joshua White as using "provocative, chord-related clutter" and having "a sound worth returning to." White took second place last year at the Monk Competition and had this to say on Twitter:
@ethan_iverson yo man, i digg what you're saying - but for the '11 piano MONK, i did pretty well just being myself and playing what i heard.
And here's 2007 Monk winner Ambrose Akinmusire on Twitter:
@ethan_iverson Nice article - but I Must say that I played ME and won. Perhaps I'm an exception?! Also I entered to get money so I wouldn't@ethan_iverson Have to continue taking horrible gigs where I was forced to play in ways that felt dishonest as opposed to career gains.
Akinmusire, a trumpet player, is certainly no automaton. Hisbrilliant second album was among the critics' consensus best of 2011. Here's the remaining list of winners since 2000:
- 2011: Kris Bowers, a pianist who has toured and recorded with major hip-hop performers
- 2010: Cecile McLorin Salvant, a singer who largely developed her craft in French bands specializing in Swing Era repertoire
- 2009: Ben Williams, a popular bass sideman whose own compositions often feature R&B and go-go ideas from his native Washington, D.C.
- 2008: Jon Irabagon, a saxophonist who is as comfortable playing straight-ahead jazz as he is in free improvising contexts
- 2006: Tigran Hamasyan, a pianist strongly influenced by folk music from his native Armenia
- 2005: Lage Lund, a guitarist from Norway who has released several albums and is a first-call sideman in New York
- 2004: Gretchen Parlato, a singer whose soft voice runs counter to the standard model of jazz singing
- 2003: Andre Hayward, a busy trombonist who served for years on the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
- 2002: Seamus Blake, a top-tier freelance saxophonist with several albums to his credit
- 2000: Pedrito Martinez, a conguero who has become the charismatic bandleader of a genre-mashing ensemble
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