Australia’s most prestigious jazz instrumental competition, the National Jazz Awards, will put the spotlight on Australia’s leading young saxophone players this year.
The National Jazz Awards have been an integral part of Australia’s premier jazz festival, the Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz, since it began in 1990. This year will be the first time that saxophone has been featured since 2002, when the first prize was awarded to Roger Manins. Saxophonists will have the chance to show what they can do as a soloist, and as a player within the band.
Renowned jazz pianist Mike Nock will again serve as chairman of judges for the Awards this year. He will be joined by Melbourne saxophonist Julien Wilson (who won the National Jazz Awards in 1994) ; and Perth saxophonist Jamie Oehlers (who was runner-up at the National Jazz Awards in 1995 and 2002, then won first prize in the International Saxophone Competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 2004).
The following prizes are offered for the National Jazz Awards :
- The winner will receive $6000 ; plus a studio recording session for ABC Classic FM's 'Jazztrack with Mal Stanley' ; plus an invitation to perform in the 2010 Stonnington Jazz festival in Melbourne.
- The runner-up will receive $3000.
- There will be a third prize of $1500.
Entrants must be no older than 35, as at 1 November 2009. The closing date for entries is 15 July.
For their recorded entries, and performances at the Festival, the entrants will be asked to play three pieces, including a composition by either John Coltrane, Dale Barlow or Bernie McGann.
The Festival’s artistic director, Adrian Jackson, said, “The idea of having a requirement to play a piece from the jazz repertoire is for the entrants to show their ability to play convincingly within the standard repertoire, to give the judges and the audience a common point of reference for at least some of what they are hearing, and to avoid giving an undue advantage to those entrants who happen to be accomplished composers. “In previous years, we have asked entrants to play pieces by the recognised greats of American jazz, like Ellington, Coltrane, Monk and so on. This year, I thought it would be appropriate to expand the format, to include two Australian musicians, Dale Barlow and Bernie McGann, whose compositions the entrants might already know, or might benefit from learning.”
The judging panel will assess the recordings submitted on a blindfold basis. The ten highest-ranked entrants will then be invited to participate in the finals at the 2009 Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz, on the weekend of 30 October - 2 November. The finals, on Sunday 1 November, will be broadcast live to air on ‘Jazztrack with Mal Stanley’, on ABC Classic FM.