Saxophonists/composers Ornette Coleman and the late John Coltrane were recently awarded Pulitzer Prizes. Coleman won the Pulitzer for music for his live recording “Sound Grammar,” while Coltrane received a special citation for his overall achievements, an award also bestowed on pianist-composer Thelonious Monk in 2006.

This marks the second major award of the year for 77-year-old Coleman, following his NEA Jazzmaster Award in January, and it recognizes the work of a musician who has steadfastly followed his own path in jazz, despite the indifference of the music industry. Coleman is one of the few jazz musicians whose approach remains unique and refreshing as he continues to explore new avenues. “Sound Grammar” was one of the top jazz recordings of 2006. It featured Coleman with his current group of two bassists and a drummer exploring a variety of sonic textures and grooves that are challenging without being inaccessible or incomprehensible. It’s music for today without being heavily anchored to the past.Coleman is the second jazz musician to receive this coveted award. Wynton Marsalis won the award for his 1997 work “Blood on the Fields,” which was viewed at the time as a vindication of sorts for jazz after the Pulitzer committee rejected a 1965 award to Duke Ellington. Though Ellington was privately disappointed with the rejection, he, true to his nature, accepted the decision with his usual grace and humor, saying “Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be famous too young.”

In 2004, the Pulitzer committee amended and broadened the prize guidelines beyond notated scores to include musicals, film scores and recordings of improvised jazz. Since the Pulitzer in music had been previously awarded primarily to classical composers, there has been some consternation in that world that the coveted award will be diluted by the broadening of the prize criteria or by the committee ignoring innovative works of the past century in favor of currently fashionable composers. According to a recent Boston Globe article on Coleman’s award by Jeremy Eichler, the Pulitzer committee has been wrestling for years over these issues.

I’ve always believed that the heart of jazz lies in the spontaneous creation of music from given melodic, rhythmic, harmonic and/or tonal sources. In recognizing Coleman and Coltrane, the Pulitzer committee has set a standard for other jazz musicians to aspire to, especially those who refuse to compromise their integrity by adhering to a strict mainstream approach to the music. Jazz is partly about tradition; but it’s also about growth through exploration and risk, of which Coleman and Coltrane are two stellar examples. The committee is considering separating the prize into sub-categories, but there is concern about it becoming a popularity contest. It’s true, there are enough superficial popularity polls and awards in jazz without adding another. However, I would like to see the committee officially recognize the work of past jazz masters who are no longer with us, such as Ellington, Charles Mingus, Mary Lou Williams—artists who through their creativity, originality and personality helped to shape the development of jazz into the artistic form of music that it is today. The recognition of the works of Coleman and Marsalis are more steps on the path to jazz gaining the prominent stature it deserves.


The recent Jazzmouth Poetry & Jazz Festival in Portsmouth was a resounding success. All of the events had excellent and enthusiastic crowd attendance, with headliners Andrei Codrescu, Eric Mingus and David Amram ubiquitous in their presence and performances at all of the events. Congratulations and thanks go to festival artistic director Larry Simon, executive director Barbara Zulkiewicz, Bruce Pingree and the Jazzmouth Committee and all of the sponsors for a job well done. Stay tuned for more info on the 2008 Jazzmouth Festival.

Andrew Hill, a pianist and composer of uncompromising integrity whose music creatively blended the jazz styles of hard bop and avant-garde into a distinctively original sound, passed away last week at the age of 75, after more than three years battling cancer. Like Ornette Coleman, Hill’s approach was developed early in his career in his native Chicago, where he fused blues, the bebop language of Charlie Parker and elements of his Caribbean heritage into an original and individualistic voice. Hill was signed to Blue Note in 1963 by owner/producer Alfred Lion. Lion considered Hill his last important find, as well as the heir apparent to Thelonious Monk. Hill’s association with the label lasted off and on for 44 years. Several of his 1960s recordings for Blue Note are still considered some of the finest and most provocative of the era. “Point of Departure,” with Eric Dolphy, Joe Henderson, Kenny Dorham, Richard Davis and Tony Williams, is considered the masterpiece and justifiably so. But in my opinion, some others are equal to that fine recording, including “Black Fire,” “Judgment!,” “Grass Roots” and “Pax.” In 2003, Blue Note discovered the nine-piece ensemble recording “Passing Ships,” releasing it to rave reviews and leading to Hill’s re-emergence onto the national scene.

But Hill wasn’t inactive at the time. In 1999 Enja Records released “Dusk,” a stunning sextet recording of new music. This was followed by 2001’s “Brand New Day,” a remarkable live session featuring Hill’s music in a full big band setting. Hill returned to Blue Note, releasing “Time Lines” in early 2006, another top recording of the year.

Hill was truly an original whose remarkable piano work often took a back seat to his compositions. His piano work was energetic and incisive, at times complex while at others melodically simplistic and full of lyrical warmth. Rather than compromise his art, Hill spent many years teaching in colleges and conservatories as a way of supporting his playing and composing. Hill was a one of a kind and should be added to the above-mentioned names for consideration of a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.


Finally, sales of compact discs continue to erode substantially across all musical genres. The freefall of the format is ongoing as music fans turn to downloading, filesharing and other means of rapid reproduction to obtain the music they want. According to the April 14 edition of Billboard, sales figures were down 16.6 percent from Jan. 1 to April 1. As a result, record labels are continuing to trim artist rosters as a way of trying to stop the bleeding of revenues. And with many labels, that means cutting or eliminating niche genres, such as jazz, blues, etc. In the May issue of Jazz Times magazine, noted columnist Gary Giddins reports that in the recently completed merger between SONY and Bertelsman Group (BMG), there is no interest in redeveloping a jazz roster. Another casualty of the merger was the reissue unit, known as Legacy, which was completely eliminated. The tragedy is that there is a wealth of material sitting in the old Columbia Records vault that may never see the light of day. A glimmer of hope is offered by Mosaic Records of Stamford, Conn. Mosaic has made its reputation by obtaining licensing rights to produce and distribute limited edition reissues of recordings from various labels in large and small box sets as well as individual recordings, with the number of issues for each running from 5,000 to 10,000 units depending on anticipated popularity. Some recent Mosaic singles that have come from the Columbia vaults include Charles Lloyd’s “Of Course, Of Course,” Duke Ellington’s “Spacemen” and Woody Herman’s “Woody’s Winners Live from Basin Street West.”

But the decision to eliminate Legacy leaves a hole in the reissue arena for other genres, notably in the blues and pop/rock genres. I’m hoping that someone of note in the industry, a producer or leading A&R person, will step up and attempt to change the minds of the corporate suits and bean-counters at BMG, maybe by way of developing their own line of limited edition reissues, much like Blue Note does with its current Connoisseur Series. Let’s hope so.