Zawinul: Win Some, Lose Some

Austria's Green and Liberal parties may have turned down the bid to erect a monument to Vienna homeboy Josef Zawinul (a simple plaque will have to suffice) but the late keyboardist's son Tony has announced plans to reopen Joe Zawinul's Birdland – which went bankrupt last summer – and incorporate a museum to highlight his father's career.

The Shrinkage Continues

Coming on the heels of the announcement regarding the suspension of the 2009 Victo festival, the City of Chicago has announced that the Chicago Jazz Festival will be reduced both in length and scope. In 2009, the festival will be reduced to three days from four, and the number of stages will also be cut.

"To be frank, we simply cannot continue moving forward with programs, events and festivals that cost the City of Chicago more to operate than we bring in in revenue," said Megan McDonald, executive director of the mayor’s Office of Special Events. McDonald warned that further "operational" cuts might be forthcoming as the administration struggles to adjust its budget. A number of other city-funded cultural events and programs – including the popular annual blues festival – are also being affected by budgetary restrictions.

More On Mary Halvorson

Yesterday marked the official release of guitarist Mary Halvorson's terrific new recording, Dragon's Head, on the Firehouse 12 label. She can also be heard on a new Anthony Braxton Quartet recording, recorded this summer in Moscow and now out on Leo.

Accompanied by bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith, Halvorson immediately reveals herself as an enticing new voice on Dragon's Head. As she writes in brief liner notes, she's interested in exploring both the harmonic and rhythmic possibilities of the guitar, and in composing music that provides both structure and improvisational freedom to specific bandmates. In an interesting turn, she has numbered the 10 compositions on her CD to reflect the order in which they were written. "Old Nine Two Six Four Two Dies" – the final piece composed but the first on the recording – has a stealthy bassline as its centrepiece, an ideal accompaniment for Halvorson's lead, which also follows a deliberate course, with occasional stutters or shifts in direction. Her relatively unadorned tone is contrasted with phrase-ending tonal bends – a device she employs at several junctures on Dragon's Head. Overall, her writing often hands the lead role to the bass, leaving the guitar to ornament and expand on the theme, and she has an obvious love for interacting with her drummer.

Performing Braxton's music, Halvorson's textural characteristics and off-kilter phrasing really come to the fore. Quartet (Moscow) 2008 could hardly be more textured, in fact, combining Braxton's multiple horns with Taylor Ho Bynum's rich array of brass instruments and bassoonist Katherine Young in addition to Halvorson. Consisting of one 70-minute piece (Braxton's "Composition 367B") and a brief encore, the recording provides Halvorson with a wide range of sonic possibilities – from a dull, almost-toneless chunk rhythm that sounds like an axe hitting punky wood to an ear-catching spectral burst at about the 28-minute point that provides an effective bridge from a sax/trumpet duet to a brief bassoon interlude, which in turn gives way to a superb blending of elements. This may be my favourite Braxton disc from recent years.

I want to keep hearing Halvorson in more settings because her phrasing and harmonic conception are so distinctive that I'm not sure I've heard her entire range yet. If you haven't had the pleasure of catching her, here's a taste from a recent performance.

Just 28, Halvorson seems totally unbound from traditional approaches to guitar at times – although she admits that her first song was the ubiquitous "Stairway To Heaven" – yet not in a deliberately genre-smashing way. Rather, she seems more like someone who has found her own way to self-expression without consciously breaking barriers. There's a guitar-geek video interview on her web site where she talks casually about loving the sound a shorted-out volume knob on her Epiphone hollow-body made until some well-intentioned guitar tech fixed it for her. The same interview also includes a few examples of the fractured-sounding chords she sometimes employs.

I also love Halvorson's playing because she is not afraid to confound your conceptions of her work. Just when you think you have her pegged for her flat, dry amplifier tone – reminiscent of her former teacher Joe Morris – she throws something at you like the amplifier histrionics on "Momentary Lapse".

"I think of myself as a guitar player," she told jazz journalist Steve Dollar in an interview that's posted on her site. "I'm not really concerned whether something is rock or jazz. I just want to play something that's interesting to me."

Judging by even the relatively narrow range of projects I've heard so far, her interests are exceptionally broad.

Beyond the excitement her fresh-sounding playing brings, it's heartening to see that she's getting her share of high-profile gigs with musicians who will force her to stretch even further. In addition to the exposure she's getting with Braxton, she recently joined pianist Myra Melford in New York City for a double bill with Henry Threadgill. Reports from both my critical colleague Howard Mandel and Ms. Melford herself make me wish I had heard that outing. Melford's music is some of the most demanding stuff around these days, and Mandel said Halvorson nailed it.

All of which makes Mary Halvorson my early choice for artist of the year and an absolute pick for someone to listen for in the future.

Victo On Hold

First it was the Portland Jazz Festival going under (briefly) and now word reaches me that the annual Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville – known to one and all as simply 'Victo' – has suspended operations for 2009.

Anyone who has booked an airline ticket lately knows how high prices have climbed, and with the global economic crash who knows what lies ahead regarding credit, international exchange rates, etc. Likely the Canadian government's decision to cut funding for many cultural events has had an impact, too.

It seems like a prudent thing for organizer Michel Levasseur to do in the face of uncertain finances, but combined with the situation with IAJE and Portland it doesn't seem to bode well for jazz events.

I hope to see Victo back on the calendar in 2010.

Like Bird... Portland Lives

Great news for jazz fans in the Pacific Northwest, and anyone looking for a bracing couple of weeks of great music in the wintertime: the Portland Jazz Festival is back.

Artistic director and co-founder Bill Royston and his original partner Sarah Bailen Smith announced today in Portland that a new sponsor – Alaska Airlines – has come onboard with a multi-year deal. At the local level, a number of strong supporters and other sponsors kept the faith and refused to let the five-year-old festival die.

As a result, the festival will be back for its sixth year – from February 13 to 22, 2009 – with its originally scheduled 70th anniversary tribute to Blue Note Records.

Bill and Sarah are two of the most creative and dedicated festival organizers I’ve met, and it’s great to have them back.

Now Spinning: Sicilian Jazz Project

I've been spending unusually long periods of time in my car recently and my most frequent musical companion has been the new recording by Toronto guitarist/bandleader Michael Occhipinti.

Occhipinti has had a series of intriguing projects – some shared with keyboardist Paul Neufeld, his co-leader in NOJO – which has found him working alongside musicians like Sam Rivers and Don Byron, and interpreting the music of Bruce Cockburn. This new project takes him – and his brother, the multi-faceted bassist Roberto Occhipinti – back to his Sicilian roots. Featuring players like trumpeter Kevin Turcotte, drummer Barry Romberg and saxophonist Ernie Tollar, the Sicilian Jazz project makes great driving music because it's filled with propulsive, joyous rhythms and passionate solos. It's also filled with terrific vocal performances by Maryem Tollar and Dominic Mancuso – who has a great, raw voice.

I caught a version of this band this summer and they were a hell of a lot of fun, but blasting out of my car speakers on these cool, early-fall nights... hard to keep your foot off the floor.

Chasing Ghosts

A recent liner note assignment from Italian pianist Roberto Magris (requisite plug: his new recording, Kansas City Outbound – the final recording by the great bassist Art Davis – will be out on Soul Note this fall) brought me in contact with the ghost of Hassan Ibn Ali. It's fascinating – and somehow reassuring – that in this age of Wikipedia, Google, etc., to learn that there are still some mysterious figures out there. It takes me back to my teenaged obsession with bluesman Robert Johnson, sparked by the ghost-story liner notes on the original Columbia Records reissue of Johnson's music in the '60s.

Born William Langford, Hassan became a ubiquitous figure on the Philadelphia jazz scene in the '50s and '60s. He gets passing mention in Lewis Porter's biography of John Coltrane and Francis Davis' Outcats. Francis kindly helped me find out a bit more about Hassan, as did another Jazz Journalists Association buddy, David Adler. The search also brought me back in touch with one of the first musical connections I made on the web: pianist Marc Sabatella. Even with their insights, though, Hassan remains more a specter than flesh and blood.

We know, of course, that the pianist was picked by Max Roach to fill out a trio with himself and Art Davis for a recording in 1964, but much else is speculation. Apparently, Hassan was an early influence on Coltrane – pushing him toward further exploration of certain types of chord voicings.

Unfortunately, it also seems that the pianist had some mental issues that may have limited his own career – or did he? Much remains to be discovered. Fascinating.

Portland Jazz Fest RIP

This morning's email brought surprising news about the demise of the Portland Jazz Festival. The festival topped a great five-year run last February with tributes to Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, and was scheduled to mark Blue Note Records' anniversary in 2009.

Coming on the heels of the bankruptcy of IAJE – and the cancellation of the planned convention in Seattle – it's quite a double blow to jazz in the U.S. northwest.

Now Spinning: Mary Halvorson

I'm a firm believer that any signature you develop as a writer – and, I think, particularly as a critical writer – should be implicit. Otherwise, it's sort of akin to giving yourself a nickname a la George Costanza. That stated, one thing I've tried to establish as a critic is to avoid comparing one artist to another. I think this came naturally to me, but I've grown to learn how much most musicians hate it when critics link them stylistically to others. It's often just a sign of lazy thinking, or a sign that the critic feels their reader needs a reference point (writing down to readers is a whole other topic). The practice is especially bad when the critic makes incorrect assumptions – like linking Brad Mehldau to Bill Evans, a pianist Mehldau doesn't particularly admire, let alone take influence from.

Still, it's cool to hear an upcoming musician flash their influences as they find their own voice, or extend the voice they've already developed by the time they first record. I've been enjoying what I've heard from 28-year-old guitarist Mary Halvorson – primarily in the context of Anthony Braxton's bands – and I'm excited to be digging into her new CD, Dragon's Head, on Firehouse 12 Records. A native of Brookline, Massachusetts, she admits to being a Hendrix fanatic in eighth grade (I knew there was a reason I liked her, although our eighth grade obsessions were a few decades apart) and she studied with fellow Bostonian Joe Morris, with whom she shares a love for a flat, dry amplified tone. But, in addition to Hendrix and Morris, Dragon's Head subtly references Dolphy and Monk, as well as more obvious nods to Blood Ulmer, Derek Bailey and Sonny Sharrock.

There is no shortage of utterly original phrasing and attack, as well, and Halvorson's trio (bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith) complements her extremely well. Hearing her tear through some Hendrix-inspired noise on "Momentary Lapse (No. 1)" put me in mind of saxophonist's James Carter's mind-warping debut on JC On The Set, where he obliquely referenced Charlie Parker and John Coltrane and immediately laid his bona fides at your feet.

In short, a great recording – one that's sure to upset the neighbours if you play it loud. In the best way possible.

Jumping The Season

The major fall festivals — Chicago, Guelph, San Francisco — are not on my agenda this year, so why not look ahead with anticipation to 2009?

My friends in the Ottawa area will be interested to note that the SFJAZZ Ensemble is listed on Pollstar as playing the cozy Library & Archives Canada Auditorium on March 1. The collective's site doesn't project beyond the current season yet, but sources on the West Coast tell me that the band will undergo some significant changes for 2009. No word yet, either, on which jazz composer the group will be interpreting next year.

Jazz Chronicles regulars may recall that I was less than enthusiastic about the SFJAZZ Ensemble's debut 2008 performance in Portland last February, when they were interpreting the music of Wayne Shorter. I wish I'd had the chance to catch them again after hearing many good reports from the road. (And, hey, I'll be the first to admit that my reflections on that Portland show were likely coloured by the brilliant set I heard immediately after by Myra Melford's Be Bread Quartet — a show that is still near the top of my list of best concerts of '08.)

Herbie At Newport

National Public Radio in the U.S. is now streaming last weekend's performance at the Newport Jazz Festival by Herbie Hancock's River Of Possibilities project.

It's not often that a jazz artist mounts a tour that's as much a set-piece as this band presented. Just about every stop this summer the band opened with Hancock's fusion chestnut "Actual Proof" and ended with an extended, funked-up workout on "Chameleon." In between, guitarist Lionel Loueke got a long solo piece, and singers Sonya Kitchell and Amy Keys had showcase songs. Both times I caught the show, the highlight was a long central section featuring solos by bassist Dave Holland and Hancock on acoustic piano. Unfortunately, that part of the standard set is absent from the Newport performance, but check it out, if for nothing more than the pleasure of hearing Holland playing more Fender bass than he has since leaving Miles Davis in 1970.

Jerry Wexler

Coming less than a week after the sudden death of Isaac Hayes, Jerry Wexler's demise, at age 91, all but draws the curtain on the great rise of soul music in the 1960s. Along with sound engineer Tom Dowd, Wexler was the architect of so much terrific music from the South.

Of course, Wexler was much more, too. His career – often in concert with the Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun – spanned several decades, and saw him bringing out the best in artists that included Clyde McPhatter, Joe Turner, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Duane Allman, Dr. John, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Esther Phillips and Etta James. More recently, his work included sessions with Bob Dylan and Carlos Santana. And, oh yeah, he signed a little British band called Led Zeppelin.

If you haven't read Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in American Music – co-written by Wexler and David Ritz – it's a must. A compelling look at the rise of Atlantic Records and the life of a guy who was a unique visionary in the music business.

Now Spinning

Donny McCaslin Trio: Recommended Tools
The great tenor saxophonist steps up with a tour de force performance in the style of Sonny Rollins' trio recordings. Live to two-track and produced by longtime collaborator Dave Binney, this is a set of 10 songs that demands your full attention.



Joan Jeanrenaud: Strange Toys
For some reason, cellist Joan Jeanrenaud hasn't managed to escape her membership in the Kronos Quartet, even though she's a powerful and unique solo performer. Strange Toys has a nice mix of pieces with her on electronically enhanced cello, as well as collaborations with guests like Paul Dresher and William Winant.



Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet: One Dance Alone
On the topic of terrific cellists, Peggy Lee is onboard – along with bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck and cornetist Ron Miles – for one of two new recordings Wayne Horvitz has out. Horvitz has an uncanny way of slipping into my subconcious, and this disc is no different.

Isaac Hayes

Sure, he'll always be remembered for the shaved head, the chains, the bad attitude that sold his theme song for Shaft, but Isaac Hayes was largely responsible for shaping the sound of the South in the 1960s. Working with his partner David Porter, Hayes turned out some landmark songs for Sam & Dave – as well as some of the others who recorded for Stax and Atlantic Records – and helped pioneer a sound that was a saltier rival to what Motown was turning out.

Along with James Brown, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and a handful of other high-profile African-American stars of the '60s, Hayes also played a huge role in creating a new, proud image for the black U.S. male. No quarter asked, none given.

Soul man, indeed.

Newport By Proxy

National Public Radio in the U.S. is streaming extensive programming from this year's Newport Jazz Festival this weekend.

Today, they've posted part of the set by the kind of all-star band that the Newport festival has featured since its inception in the mid-'50s: Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Eric Harland.

[Update] Now that I've listened to it, I can tell you that the set – despite a few technical issues during the opening song – is intense and compelling, particularly Potter's "Ask Me Why."

Seasonal Listening

In addition to the Anthony Braxton listening referenced in an earlier post, I've found myself drawn back 15 years to a couple of the first Dave Douglas recordings that caught my ear, and I'm recalling the excitement generated by his fresh voice and expansive musical vision.

His Soul Note debut – Parallel Worlds – includes music by Webern, Brecht/Weill and Ellington, as well as several intense and sprightly originals, and I had forgotten his lovely tribute to Tony Williams on Convergence.

Looking back over those 15 years, it makes perfect sense that Douglas became co-curator of a trumpet festival, because these recordings were really the first wave of a series of exciting new trumpet-led projects, which have included Taylor Ho Bynum, Abram Wilson and Peter Evans.

Summer... So Far

Some musical highlights so far...

Sonny Rollins at the Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival – After seeing Rollins perhaps a dozen times over the years, I finally caught him on one of those nights (one of those sets, actually) when he seems like he can scale tall buildings. I haven't figured out the cause-and-effect equation yet, but I was happy to experience this in a place where the audience responded with equal passion.

Kathleen Edwards at the Cisco Systems Bluesfest – When someone becomes a "star" it can become difficult to see the transition when you live in the performer's hometown. Appearing on one of the Bluesfest's main stages, Edwards left no doubt why she's now a major concert draw around the world.

Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra at the Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival – Seven days on tour, playing inside a basketball arena, and this band still plays the hell out of Schneider's gorgeous book of compositions.

And a few highlights within concerts: Including Herbie Hancock's acoustic solo at his performance in Ottawa; Eric Harland's terrific stickwork on his hi-hat during Charles Lloyd's concert in Spain; and the gusto Bettye LaVette brings to the stage.

Remembering Jimmy Giuffre

My obit of Jimmy Giuffre is in the current issue of DownBeat (August), but due to space limitations they didn't have room for the original version. For those interested, here it is:

It’s common wisdom that an artist’s influence is directly proportional to his or her exposure. Jimmy Giuffre – who died April 24 at age 86 from complications of Parkinson’s disease – shattered that truism.

Active on the recording scene for a total of just 38 years and unable to play since 1996, the native of Dallas casts a long shadow as a composer, multi-reed player, educator and free thinker. His sphere of influence encompasses big band music, chamber jazz and the avant-garde.

A graduate of North Texas State Teachers College who served as a bandsman in World War II, Giuffre moved to Los Angeles in 1946 to pursue graduate work at UCLA. Instead, he made some important breakthroughs by studying privately for five years with Wesley LaViolette, a specialist in counterpoint and tonal music, and arranging for Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey and Woody Herman. For the latter, in 1947, he created his first significant work when he wrote and arranged “Four Brothers,” a hit that helped revolutionize harmonic writing for reeds. While clarinet had been his principal horn since the age of nine, he earned his keep in California by playing tenor and baritone saxophone in small groups led by Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne and Howard Rumsey. His first manifesto – the 1955 album Tangents In Jazz – eschewed chordal instruments and signaled his desire to write intricately laced chamber jazz that challenged the prevailing tenets of bop.

“Jimmy’s most radical contribution was his use of linear counterpoint and his determination to destroy the dominance of chords,” said pianist Paul Bley.

A series of albums on Atlantic from 1956-58 cemented his reputation as an imaginative composer, and his dominant use of the clarinet’s lower chalumeau register was as distinctive and resonant as Miles Davis’ raspy Harmon mute. His most-successful trio – featuring guitarist Jim Hall and trombonist Bob Brookmeyer – is immortalized in Bert Stern’s film Jazz On A Summer’s Day, playing the folk-influenced “The Train and the River.”

Outwardly mild-mannered, Giuffre sought to break even further away from conventions, and the spark was ignited when he encountered Ornette Coleman in 1959 at the School of Jazz in Lenox, Massachusetts. Giuffre was in his third summer on the faculty and Coleman was in attendance as a special student. Many who saw it – including Gunther Schuller, Dave Brubeck, Perry Robinson and Giuffre’s future wife, Juanita – recall a particular jam session where Giuffre had a breakthrough.

“He got creative,” recalled Coleman, speaking to drummer George Schuller, the producer of the documentary film Music Inn. “He got very creative, and he realized something.”

Energized, within a year Giuffre took the dramatic step of replacing Hall with Bley – like Coleman, a radical thinker newly arrived from California – who subsequently introduced Giuffre to bassist Steve Swallow.

“He was an imposing figure,” recalled Swallow. “It was remarkable at his age to make such a drastic change in his music, to so thoroughly turn his back on what he had been doing and embrace a really challenging and harshly dissonant vocabulary. I think he had occasionally let his true spirit out of the cage before, but with our trio he never looked back.”

While Bley and Swallow agree that the trio’s music – documented on the albums 1961 and Free Fall – found some followers in Europe, audiences and club owners were generally unwilling to accept Giuffre’s conversion to free jazz. After the trio’s final gig in 1961, the three men divided their $1.05 take for the evening at a late-night restaurant called The Hip Bagel and called it quits.

“Jimmy was a very kind, polite man, but inwardly he was a little stubborn,” said pianist Ran Blake, a colleague at Lenox and the New England Conservatory, where Giuffre taught from 1978-96.

“We were all saddened by our failure,” said Swallow. “We were convinced of the historical imperative of what we were doing.”

Disillusioned, Giuffre didn’t record again until 1972, and avoided returning to free music until the trio reunited in 1989. By then, Giuffre’s music had influenced a new generation of fans, including Vancouver-based clarinetist François Houle. “I was looking for mentors and trying to find my voice when I discovered his music,” he said. “It was mind-blowing for 30-year-old music, particularly the way it integrated solos with the overall form. It was a model of democracy at work.”

“We took up where we left off,” said Swallow of the trio’s reunion. “Jimmy’s music continued to evolve. His sense of himself was unshakeable.”

Tragically, while the trio continued to be a popular draw at European jazz festivals in the early ‘90s and recorded several times, Giuffre’s Parkinson’s was advancing.

“The symptoms were clear during our last tour,” recalled Swallow. “Sometimes, miraculously, Jimmy would be able to function well once he got onstage, but the writing was on the wall. It was heartbreaking because he was still growing.”

“He was a rare creature in this business,” said Bley, “a gentleman.”

Asked for a final thought on his friend, Bley turned uncharacteristically sentimental: “Bring him back.”

School's Out

It won't be a jazz-free summer by any means—I'm headed to the Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival in a couple of weeks—but probably a blog-free summer, barring something pressing and unexpected time on my hands here in the office.

Mighty Maria

Composer and bandleader Maria Schneider dominated yesterday's Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards presentation at The Jazz Standard in New York City. Riding high on the heels of her stunningly beautiful recording Sky Blue, Schneider took home four awards: Record of the Year; Composer of the Year; Arranger of the Year; and Large Ensemble of the Year.
This is the second time that she has walked away with four Jazz Awards statuettes. She first accomplished the feat in 2005, in the wake of her Grammy-winning ArtistShare debut album, Concert In The Garden.

Here's a complete list of this year's winners:

Lifetime Achievement in Jazz
Marian McPartland
Musician of the Year
Herbie Hancock
Up & Coming Musician of the Year
Lionel Loueke
Record of the Year
Sky Blue
Maria Schneider Orchestra
ArtistShare
Reissue/Historical Release of the Year
Cornell 1964
Charles Mingus Sextet
Blue Note
Reissue/Historical Box Set of the Year
A Life In Time: The Roy Haynes Story
Dreyfus Jazz
Record Label of the Year
Blue Note Records
Composer of the Year
Maria Schneider
Arranger of the Year
Maria Schneider
Male Singer of the Year
Andy Bey
Female Singer of the Year
Abbey Lincoln
Latin Jazz Album of the Year
Big Band Urban Folktales
Bobby Sanabria
Jazzheads
Small Ensemble of the Year
Ornette Coleman Quartet/Quintet
Large Ensemble of the Year
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Trumpeter of the Year
Terence Blanchard
Trombonist of the Year
Wycliffe Gordon
Player of Instruments Rare in Jazz
Scott Robinson, reeds/brass/antiques
Alto Sax Player of the Year
Ornette Coleman
Tenor Sax Player of the Year
Sonny Rollins
Soprano Sax Player of the Year
Jane Ira Bloom
Baritone Sax Player of the Year
James Carter
Clarinetist of the Year
Anat Cohen
Flutist of the Year
Nicole Mitchell
Pianist of the Year
Hank Jones
Organ-Keyboards of the Year
Dr. Lonnie Smith
Guitarist of the Year
Bill Frisell
Bassist of the Year
Christian McBride
Electric Bassist of the Year
Steve Swallow
Strings Player of the Year
Regina Carter
Mallets Player of the Year
Joe Locke
Percussionist of the Year
Candido Camero
Drummer of the Year
Roy Haynes
Events Producer of the Year
Patricia Nicholson-Parker, Arts for Art, RUCMA, Vision Festival
Jazz Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award
Doug Ramsey, author, biographer, blogger
Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Broadcasting Award
Nancy Wilson, for “Jazz Profiles”
National Public Radio
Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Feature & Review Writing Award
Nate Chinen
New York Time, JazzTimes
Best Periodical Covering Jazz
JazzTimes
Best Website on Jazz
AllAboutJazz.com
Best Book about Jazz
Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs, by Milt Hinton, David G. Berger and Holly Maxson (Vanderbilt University Press)
Lona Foote-Bob Parent Photography Award
Milt Hinton (1910-2000)
Jazz Photo of the Year
“Time Stood Still for Andrew Hill,”
by Laurence Donohue-Greene
http://www.jazzhouse.org/vote/pho08/

The Jazz Journalists Association 2008 Award for the ‘A Team’ Activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz

Dr. Valerie Capers, pianist, composer, emeritus chair of City University of New York Department of Music and Art at Bronx Community College;

Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts;

Lauren Deutsch, photographer and executive director of the Jazz Institute of Chicago;

Susan Muscarella, pianist-composer-arranger-educator, founder of JazzSchool (Berkeley);

Phil Nimmons, clarinetist, improviser, father of Canadian jazz education;

George Russell, conceptualist, composer, orchestra leader, educator (New England Conservatory)

Dick Wang, musician, educator (Univ of Illinois-Chicago), mentor, historian, archivist, co-founder, past president and current board member of the Jazz Institute of Chicago;

Dr. Herb Wong, founder of the Palo Alto jazz alliance and Berkeley public school jazz programs, broadcaster, record producer and annotator, past-president of the International Association of Jazz Educators, spirit of the Monterey Jazz Festival

Wendy Oxenhorn, executive director of the Jazz Foundation of America, founder of Street News, blues harmonica player