Jul 17, 2025 12:44 PM
DownBeat’s 73rd Annual Critics Poll: One for the Record Books
You see before you what we believe is the largest and most comprehensive Critics Poll in the history of jazz. DownBeat…
Maria Schneider, ASCAP Foundation Life in Music Award Winner
(Photo: Scott Wintrow, Gamut Photos)The ASCAP Foundation honored acclaimed choral music composer Morten Lauridsen and groundbreaking jazz composer/ bandleader Maria Schneider with The ASCAP Foundation Life in Music Award on Dec. 14. The accolades were presented at The 2016 ASCAP Foundation Honors at the Appel Room and Ertegun Atrium in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, New York City.
The ASCAP Foundation Life in Music Award is presented by The ASCAP Foundation to an ASCAP writer member for his or her outstanding accomplishments as a composer, songwriter, performer, arranger or vocalist in any genre. The 21st annual event also honored and featured performances from scholarship and award recipients in an array of music genres including classical, jazz, musical theater, pop, country and rhythm & soul, all of whom benefit from programs of The ASCAP Foundation.
Tony and Emmy-nominated songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul received the Harold Adamson Lyric Award. The team opened the show with “Waving Through a Window” from their award-winning Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen (Outer Critics Circle Award, Obie Award, Helen Hayes Award, Drama Desk Award). Pasek & Paul also have original material featured in recent Hollywood hits La La Land and The Trolls.
The Maria Schneider Duo celebrated Schneider’s honor with a performance of her composition “Walking By Flashlight.” Other outstanding performances by this year’s honorees included “Good Go Bad,” from Brad Blackburn, Leon Brettler Award winner; “Heart Like a Phoenix,” from Kate Copeland, Robert Allen Award winner; “Breaking Point,” from Roxy Coss, Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award winner; “New York City Lights,” from Charles Duke, “Reach Out and Touch” Award winner in honor of Nick Ashford; “Bad Night in Heaven” from Kison, Desmond Child Anthem Award winner; and “Point G” from Ali Can Puskulcu, Morton Gould Young Composer Award winner.
To scroll through the photo collage above, simply click on each image. DB
James Brandon Lewis earned honors for Artist of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year. Three of his recordings placed in the Albums of the Year category.
Jul 17, 2025 12:44 PM
You see before you what we believe is the largest and most comprehensive Critics Poll in the history of jazz. DownBeat…
Galper was often regarded as an underrated master of his craft.
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Hal Galper, a pianist, composer and arranger who enjoyed a substantial performing career but made perhaps a deeper…
Chuck Mangione on the cover of the May 8, 1975, edition of DownBeat.
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“Hamiet was one of the most underrated musicians ever,” says Whitaker of baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett.
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At 56, Rodney Whitaker, professor of jazz bass and director of jazz studies at Michigan State University, is equally…
Jul 17, 2025 11:35 AM
The DownBeat Critics Poll provides a wonderful snapshot of the jazz scene today, with much to explore and many great…
