Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Two avant-garde jazz legends—saxophonist-composer Ornette Coleman and pianist-composer Andrew Hill—garnered highest honors at the 2007 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards, which took place at the Jazz Standard on Thursday.
Voting members of the JJA cited Coleman as Musician of the Year and Alto Saxophonist of the Year. They also named Sound Grammar, his quartet release on his own Sound Grammar label, Record of the Year, and the quartet itself Small Group of the Year. The awards follow his selection earlier this year as a Pulitzer Prize winner for the live recording.
Hill, who died of lung cancer April 20, was voted the Jazz Award for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz, Jazz Composer of the Year and Pianist of the Year.
Other top honoreees in 41 categories included: Anat Cohen, Up and Coming Artist and Clarinetist of the Year; Sonny Rollins, Tenor Saxophonist of the Year; Charles Tolliver Big Band, Large Ensemble of the Year; and Roy Haynes, Drummer of the Year. Francis Davis, columnist for the Village Voice, contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and author of several books on music and culture, picked up recognition for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism.
For a full list of winners, see jazzhouse.org.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
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As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
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If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
