The Critics Choice for…
Jazz Artist of the Year
Beyond Artist of the Year
& Beyond Album of the Year
By Suzanne Lorge
On the surface of things, it seems counterintuitive that DownBeat critics would name the same musician both Jazz Artist of the Year and Beyond Artist of the Year, until you learn that the musician in question is Jon Batiste, and suddenly the double billing makes sense. Not only does Batiste fully occupy both of these spaces, but he actively promotes the normalization of such musical ambidexterity.
By Allen Morrison
By Bill Meyer
By Philip Lutz
By Phillip Lutz
By Phillip Lutz
By Alexa Peters
As the proprietor of two globally famous Greenwich Village jazz clubs, pianist Michael “Spike” Wilner, 55, has booked most of New York’s finest practitioners of the 88s since he purchased Smalls in 2007 and opened Mezzrow in 2014, while continuing to refine his own, dis- tinctive tonal personality on the instrument, as documented most recently on Aliens And Wizards (Cellar Live), with bassist Tyler Mitchell and drummer Anthony Pinciotti. This is his first Blindfold Test.
