Nominees for

THE

JAZZPAR

PRIZE

2002

D’Rivera studied under the tutelage of his father, a classical musician and tenor player who also conducted in Cuba. Performing in his father’s band at the age of six and at the National Theater in his teens the child prodigy received much acclaim from the start. From 1960 he studied clarinet, composition and harmony at the Havana Conservatory and in 1965 he was an accomplished virtuoso on both alto saxophone and clarinet, performing as featured soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Simultaneously D’Rivera, with pianist Chu Chu Valdez, founded the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna – forerunner of the legendary orchestra Irakere whose powerful mixture of jazz, rock and Cuban music had a great impact on Latin jazz.

He recorded his first true jazz record – "Paquito D’Rivera" – in 1976 with among others Danish bass-player Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. In 1981 D’Rivera got asylum in USA where among others Dizzy Gillespie helped him. After the release of his first two solo albums D’Rivera earned respect among jazz musicians all over. His extraordinary abilities in bebop, classical and Latin/Caribbean music are now documented on 24 solo albums. Several of his numerous recordings have received enthusiastic reviews and hit the top of the charts.

D’Rivera has toured worldwide with his Caribbean Jazz Project and his big band and has performed with Carmen McRae, McCoy Tyner, Toots Thielemans, Benny Carter, Gillespie and many others. The alto player has also, in later years, performed chamber music in "classical" settings, i.e. symphony orchestras and string quartets, thereby going the full circle in terms of his childhood and musical background – from Mozart to Latin to bebop to Mozart… In 1991 D’Rivera received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Latin music. In 1997 his "Portraits of Cuba" made him recipient of his third Grammy Award (the others being "Irakere" 1978 and "Live at the Royal Festival Hall" 1990); and in 1999 he received a special Spanish honorary award by Universidad de Alcalá de Henares.

Paquito D’Rivera, the instrumentalist, is easily recognizable. He demonstrates great instrumental skill making sparkly rapid firecracker excursions into the altissimo range.

Well-rehearsed and exhilarating Latin jazz, vigorously incorporating varied textures from South America, characterizes D’Rivera the bandleader.

The Afro-Cuban heritage, the dance halls and the classical repertoire influence the composer D’Rivera. He is able to weave a musical web from seemingly disparate stylistic materials. A number of chamber ensembles throughout the world are taking advantage of his abilities as an arranger and composer.

The young Adolphus Johannes Brand was fortunate: his mother led the choir while his grandmother was the pianist for the local church, and the family owned a piano. Brand began learning the instrument at the age of seven.

The youngster gained the nickname "Dollar" because he always seemed to be carrying dollars to buy the latest jazz albums. He was exposed to Meade Lux Lewis, Fats Waller, Louis Jordan and other American musicians who played on the 78rpm records sold by seamen in the international port.

Cape Town was a melting pot of traditional tribal music, hymns, carnival and street music, British pop, music of local Chinese, Indian and Muslim communities, and American R&B and jazz.

While in high school Brand lead various dance combos. He began his local career as a vocalist with the Streamline Brothers before joining the Tuxedo Slickers and Willie Max Big Band as a pianist. In 1959 he teamed with alto saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi and trumpeter Hugh Masakela and fused dance music with jazz in Jazz Epistles – the first black jazz group in South Africa. It was Moketsi who exposed Brand to Parker, Gillespie and Monk.

Uniquely in South Africa, jazz was a mixed race music with black and white players coming together to jam. But the apartheid system branded multicultural tendencies as revolutionary thereby making the life of professional musicians difficult. Any buildup of an audience was severely and effectively prevented. The only options for Brand were to play ‘white’ nightclubs or play under the sponsorship of gangster bosses who kept the illegal nightlife going in the townships.

In 1962 Brand and his wife-to-be, vocalist Sathima Bea Benjamin, left South Africa for Europe. During a yearlong stay in Zurich, Switzerland Sathima persuaded the touring Duke Ellington to hear her boyfriend at Zürich’s Africana Club. Four days later Brand’s trio (with fellow ex-patriots Johnny Gertze on bass and Makaya Ntshoko on drums) was in the Barclay Studios in Paris recording for Ellington’s label of that time. Under the wings of Ellington, Brand’s career gained momentum: His trio appeared at big festivals and he composed for large ensembles, for instance the Danish Radio Big Band – Copenhagen being one of the first places that recognized the artist.

In South Africa new laws banned all race mixing and made it impossible for Brand to present his music in his homeland by his African Tradition big band. While staying in Denmark in 1964-65, Brand’s trio did a series of live recordings. In 1965, urged by Ellington, Brand played a solo concert at Carnegie Hall, and later that year he filled in for Duke Ellington for five days while the big band toured. After he played at the Newport Festival, Brand stayed in New York for three years and became involved in free-jazz, working with John Coltrane, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman and Sunny Murray. He recorded with Elvin Jones and with Gato Barbieri among others. From 1966 and the next ten years or so he and Bea Benjamin bounced between Africa, Europe and America.

Brand converted to Islam in 1968, receiving the name Abdullah Ibrahim. His renewed spiritual commitment is reflected in the extended free form solo piano pieces recorded during this period. The Ibrahim family went back to South Africa in the mid-70s, but found conditions so oppressive that they exiled themselves in 1976 and returned to the United States. Since then an outburst of recordings has been released with Ibrahim: As solo-pianist; in duets with Archie Shepp, Max Roach, Johnny Dyani or Carlos Ward; with various quartets and quintets; with his "home" band Ekaya, plus with large scale projects including symphonic orchestras. He has also made successful film music.

Abdullah Ibrahim fuses and distills the ancestral streams of African music, American jazz and European classical music. For him music is a healing and transformative tool and instead of bitterness one often finds sunny African joy and happiness, especially in his latest performances. His minimalist style is in a way meditative – "improvisation has to do with fearlessness of the unknown", he has said. Composition and structure are as important elements as improvisation. In general his romantic playing has a special songlike melodic quality. Abdullah Ibrahim is praised as a "sophisticated folklorist", a storyteller, and a predecessor to the elevated playing of pianist Keith Jarrett.

Rava’s mother was a classical pianist but the young trombone player began playing New Orleans jazz. After hearing Miles Davis, however, he soon bought a trumpet. He studied in New York and joined Gato Barbieri’s quintet in 1964. From 65 Rava toured with Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy (Nominated for The JAZZPAR Prize 1998) and toured and recorded with Lee Konitz (JAZZPAR Prize Winner 1992). He returned to New York and from time to time worked with trombonist Roswell Rudd during the period 1969-78. In between he had stints with the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra Association and he played among others with Don Cherry, Abdullah Ibrahim and Charlie Haden (Nominated for The JAZZPAR Prize 1992). In the 70s Rava also composed music for films and by 1975 he had a band with John Abercrombie recording for ECM. In 1980 Rava collaborated with classical composer Morton Feldman. In 1982 he played with Gil Evans and he toured with Cecil Taylor’s Segments II big band in 1984 before working with British drummer Tony Oxley and Brazilian berimbau player Nana Vasconcelos.

The most well known records featuring Rava are those with Abdullah Ibrahim, Carla Bley (Nominated for The JAZZPAR Prize 1993, 94 and 95) and Archie Shepp besides the releases with Rava’s own quartets and quintets. His 1993 CD, with opera melodies arranged for a jazz band and chamber orchestra, has been much acclaimed in Europe. Rava has worked with drummer Daniel Humair (JAZZPAR Artist 1999), Franco d’Andrea, Jean-François Jenny-Clark and Richard Galliano.

Lately Rava has often been occupied with visual arts and straight cinematic composing when not leading his own bands. Rava has proven himself adept at many styles from bop through avant-garde to third stream. His bittersweet music does not fit neatly into any one genre. He can play fiery and lyrical lines and he can generate cheerful romantic atmospheres. Enrico Rava – a master of romanticism – can shift between abstraction and structure but he mostly plays the trumpet in an accessible style with a warm mellow tone – smooth and intoxicating. His slow, spiraling, bop-like lines glide into free terrain. His phrases often close with a slur and he may employ half valves and other means to obtain a lyrical and adventuresome voice.

Before entering the Conservatory Sclavis played in a local brass band. In his twenties Sclavis looked for diverse creative experiences and teamed with for instance Michel Portal and Henri Texier. In 1982 Sclavis founded Le Tour De France, consisting of musicians from six French regions. He also played with Evan Parker, Peter Brotsman, Tony Oxley and others. In 1984 he recorded "Clarinettes" – a solo album (some of it with percussion) – and the following years he played various festivals with small or medium-sized groups and won several prizes. In 1988 he founded the Trio de Clarinettes, a group which included in its repertoire free improvisation and original pieces for instance written by contemporary composers such as Pierre Boulez.

In the 90s Sclavis worked with combinations of jazz and folk music in different groups he founded. Key figures are violinist Dominique Pifarely, tuba player Michel Godard, pianist François Raulin and bassist Bruno Chevillon. He also played or recorded with for instance Aldo Romano, Joachim Kühn, Trilok Gurtu, Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton.

Sclavis has never been afraid of alternative ways of presenting music: He has often worked with choreographers, dancers and theaters. Another example being a special project with the Danish choir Ars Nova.

Sclavis’ music incorporates folklore and world music and ranges from quiet contemplative bass clarinet pieces to rousing, intense ensemble work. He blurs the line between jazz and classical music and his recordings cover a wide and colorful terrain.

He has no prejudices quoting Ellington themes or propelling into free form, contemporary classical music, a waltz or a tango. He is an exceptionally gifted and virtuous musician with superb improvisational skills. He plays the clarinets – particularly the bass-clarinet – with an authoritative, rhythmic sophistication and inventive variations of timbre, which only a handful of musicians can come on a par with.

Joe Wilder was born into a musical family and raised in Philadelphia. His father was a bassist and bandleader, and an older brother also played bass. Joe Wilder studied at a school of music and soon realized that a career in classical music was not realistic for a black musician at that time. Instead he sat out on a big band odyssey.

Having musically matured during the transitional period from swing to bebop Wilder easily fits a wide range of styles. His first professional job was in 1941 alongside Dizzy Gillespie in the Les Hite band. Wilder joined Lionel Hampton in 1943 – was drafted and co-lead a Marine band during Wold War II. After the war Wilder moved on to orchestras of Jimmie Lunchford, Dizzy Gillespie and others. With the demise of the big bands Wilder played for Broadway musicals, at the same time graduating from the Manhattan School of Music. He played and toured Europe with Count Basie the first half of 1954. As member of the music staff on a major American network TV orchestra for 16 years Wilder was often called for two or more sessions a day, encompassing diverse musical settings. Wilder’s obbligato also enhanced vocalists, such as Billie Holiday, Lena Horne and Johnny Hartman. Wilder managed to take time out to tour Soviet Russia with Benny Goodman and substitute with the New York Philharmonics. From 1973 Wilder became a freelance studio musician and was in great demand for his lead playing as well as his solo ability.

The trumpeter never lost sight of his dream of becoming a classical musician. As some of the barriers fell in the 1960s he played with the New York Philharmonics on several occasions and recorded an album of classical trumpet pieces.

In 1983 he appeared on a record with Benny Carter, one of Wilder’s original inspirations. He has a modest output of records in his own name but as a sideman he has appeared on hundreds of releases. After more than 30 years – he co-lead a record with trumpeter Joe Newman in 1985 – Wilder again became an important bandleader on record. The much-acclaimed "Alone With Just My Dreams" from 1991 shows Wilder’s strong points: A golden, pure and full tone. He is a masterful technician with an unhurried command of swing – a stylist who plays with a strikingly vocal approach. He has the ability to tell a story with his horn. Though the hallmark is the glow of his open horn, Wilder achieves variety with mutes. He usually plays in the trumpet’s low register, fluently and tastefully executing his ideas.

The legendary trumpet player has accomplished about everything possible in music. However, Joe Wilder has spent much of his career playing the almost anonymous role of the studio or staff musician. Joe Wilder has not enjoyed the success in bringing his name to the general public.

The panel of acknowledged jazz authorities headed by its non-voting chairman, Cim Meyer (Denmark), had the following members in 2001: Dan Morgenstern (USA), Brian Priestley (Great Britain), Alex Dutilh (France), Filippo Bianchi (Italy) plus Boris Rabinowitsch and project initiator Arnvid Meyer (Denmark).

Many candidates are discussed every year. To reach its decisions The Committee has only a few predetermined criteria or rather guidelines to follow, the most important being that The Prize can be awarded only to an internationally known and fully active jazz artist who is specially deserving of further acclaim. A great number of jazz musicians fully satisfy such criteria.

It has never been the intention of JAZZPAR that The Winners should represent a special artistic approach, style or line. On the contrary, it has always been essential for The Committee to manifest openness. The aim is not to bestow still another honor on those already firmly established in Easy Street – but as occasion requires to broaden the scope, to stimulate and facilitate the activity of choice artists. The quality of the music and the situation in which it is created are the decisive factors. The long-term vision is that society some day and to the full extent will acknowledge jazz as one of the important art forms of our time.

At the 2001 Copenhagen JAZZPAR Prize Concert in TIVOLI the percussionist, drummer, bandleader, composer, vocalist and dancer, Marilyn Mazur, was the first Dane to be awarded The JAZZPAR Prize. As on previous occasions, Danish prime minister, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, presented The Winner with The Prize. In return Marilyn Mazur and 13 other musicians specially assembled for the JAZZPAR Project 2001, played a sterling concert that gave ample proof of her extraordinary powers as a musician. Also astonishing was her art and craft exemplified by a number of compositions and arrangements written especially for the JAZZPAR Project.

A complete live-recorded version of the Prize Winner’s music, will be released in the spring 2002.

Commencing in 1990 this was the twelfth JAZZPAR Event. Every year The Prize Concerts in the Danish capital is preceded by provincial appearances. Usually a Danish band leader fronting a Danish-Scandinavian-International constellation combined at the leader’s option is billed in addition to The Prize Winner Groups. For instance the 2000 edition of this additional band – leader Carsten Dahl (piano), Tony Coe (saxophones, clarinet), Lars Danielsson (cello, bass) and Aage Tanggaard (drums) – had a rare combination of age, nationality and musical backgrounds.

This Prize – managed by Jazzkontakten – is the world’s largest international jazz award of its kind, presented every year solely by people from the jazz world. Along with the honor and a bronze statuette by the distinguished Danish artist Jørgen Haugen Sørensen, it carries a financial reward of Danish Kroner 200,000 (approx. US$ 27,000).

Muhal Richard Abrams (1990), David Murray (1991), Lee Konitz (1992), Tommy Flanagan (1993), Roy Haynes (1994), Tony Coe (1995), Geri Allen (1996), Django Bates (1997), Jim Hall (1998), Martial Solal (1999), Chris Potter (2000) and Marilyn Mazur (2001).

Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni (Scandinavian Tobacco Company) is the holding company of a number of companies within the manufacturing and/or wholesale of tobacco as well as a number of other consumer goods. ST – chiefly represented by Managing Director Per A. Fossum and Product Manager Janne Laursen – has from the very first planning in 1988 been involved in creating and organizing The JAZZPAR Prize and Activities. Still, the company’s principle – never as a sponsor to exert any influence on the artistic intentions of the sponsored party – has in no case been violated.

"Carsten Dahl JAZZPAR 2000 Quintet" (Storyville). Chris Potter Quartet and JAZZPAR 2000 Septet: "This Will Be" (Storyville).