Complaining About the MacArthur Fellows Program

The MacArthur Fellows program has continued in its hallowed tradition of haphazardly awarding $500,000 to random jazzers with a lot of press (God knows they need the money now); occasionally this award helps people who have no money make music (Ken Vandermark, for example) or even helps genius underground tycoons keep clubs and record labels in existence (John Zorn's "The Stone" and Tzadik). There are other times when they encourage people who desperately don't need encouragement; the best example I can think of of this particular phenomenon is Stanley Crouch. Did he need a MacArthur Fellowship? He didn't need the money, what with his lucrative position as Wynton's Rove-esque right hand man at Lincoln Center, nor the encouragement as he's made a habit of trash-talking Bill Evans in public.

Occasionally their choice is simply perplexing. They could give it to anyone. Anyone. Possible (jazz) candidates for a MacArthur Fellowship include Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman, Marc Ribot, Anat Cohen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Brad Mehldau, Nels Cline, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Avishai Cohen (bass), Jason Lindner, Jason Moran, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, DAVE DOUGLAS, Uri Caine, Chris Potter, Mathias Eick, Jenny Scheinman, Christian Howes, Esperanza Spalding, Tyshawn Sorey, Ron Miles, BILL FRISELL, Matana Roberts, Steven Bernstein, Larry Goldings, Matt Wilson, Aaron Parks, Walter Smith III, Lionel Loueke, Eric Harland, Ambrose Akinmusire, Jaleel Shaw, Eric Friedlander, Lage Lund, Mike Moreno... you get the point. And that's only musicians. When you add writers you wind up with everyone from me (I'm all about potential, baby) to Howard Mandel.

You can see for yourselves which contrived composition writing, look-at-what-I-can-do improvisation-creating jazz musician got $500,000 to keep on keeping on instead of Dave Douglas or Bill Frisell, or any of those other people. I know, I know, the MacArthur fellowship is all about potential, and I suppose the guy who won has the potential to, you know, write and play completely different music and find a way to incorporate his folk songs and polyrhythms into a jazz idiom in a way that grooves or makes a statement or both (Like, you know, Vijay, Rudresh, Steve, Lionel... okay okay enough).

Notes on the New Downbeat: Miguel Zenon's "Beautiful Combination" Adds Up to Less Than the Sum of its Parts, In My Opinion

First off, why does everyone love Miguel Zenon so much? Seriously, if you love Miguel Zenon comment and explain it to me, because after having heard "Jibaro" (I couldn't find "Awake" anywhere) and having seen him live twice (once with his quartet, once with SFJazz Collective; both very recently) all I got was that he could shed scale patterns really fast (like, really fast). Anyway though, here's Stefon Harris, possibly beating Stanley Crouch at the ridiculous praise game, talking about Miguel Zenon:

"Miguel has a beautiful combination of all the elements it takes to move a human being"

Uh... what?
On a totally different note, though, I was really glad to see Esperanza Spalding get an article to herself, her "Junjo" was great, and while I haven't heard her new album "Esperanza" yet, the tracks on her myspace are setting it up to be a real doozy. Also, props to Downbeat for featuring Mostly Other People Do The Killing in the "Players" section. They're awesome.

Also, Jamey Aebersold and David Baker (both of whom were involved in this year's IAJE conference) can't tell the difference between Sonny Rollins and David Murray? Is this some sort of bad dream? No wonder IAJE had to declare bankruptcy...

Tomorrow I'll either have a review of James Carter's "Present Tense" or a double bill review of John Ellis' "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" and Third World Love's "New Blues," all three of which are absolutely killin'. I've said it a billion times, but this spring season is one to remember.