El Intruso 12th Annual International Critics Poll

The results for the Argentine "dedicated to other music" magazine El Intruso's 12th Annual International Critics Poll were posted this Monday. Link to the results and personal ballots here. I'll point you to the "musician of the year" category in particular, and happily note that 5 of the top 6 are female artists.

Posting my ballot below, although you can also find it via the results page linked to above.

Musician of the year: Gard Nilssen, Jaimie Branch, Eric Revis
Newcomer Musician: Georgia Wartel Collins, Nick Dunston, Claire Rousay
Group of the year: Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity, Emmeluth’s Amoeba, jaimie branch’s Fly or Die II
Newcomer group: Nature Work, Aki Takase Japanic, Aila Trio
Album of the year: James Brandon Lewis – An UnRuly Manifesto (Relative Pitch Records), Per “Texas” Johansson / Torbjörn Zetterberg / Konrad Agnas – Orakel (Moserobie Music Production), Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity – To Whom Who Buys a Record (ODIN)
Composer: James Brandon Lewis, Anna Webber, Taylor Ho Bynum
Drums: Gard Nilssen, Damion Reid, Christian Lillinger
Acoustic bass: Eric Revis, Luke Stewart, Petter Eldh
Electric bass: Luke Stewart, Brian Gibson, Ellen Brekken
Guitar: Anthony Pirog, Hedvig Mollestad, Mary Halvorson
Piano: Matt Mitchell, Craig Taborn, Kris Davis
Keyboards/Synthesizer/Organ: Craig Taborn, Jamie Saft, Anja Lauvdal
Tenor Saxophone: James Brandon Lewis, Andre Roligheten, Per “Texas” Johansson
Alto Saxophone: Signe Emmeluth, Steve Lehman, Mette Rasmussen
Baritone Saxophone: Eirik Hegdal, Julian Argüelles, Mats Gustafsson
Soprano Saxophone: Sam Newsome, Roscoe Mitchell, André Kassen
Trumpet / Cornet: Magnus Broo, Jaimie Branch, Steph Richards
Clarinet / Bass Clarinet: Ken Vandermark, Jason Stein, Patrick Holmes
Trombone: Mats Äleklint, Steve Swell, Jeb Bishop
Flute: Nicole Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Anna Webber
Violin / Viola: Matt Manieri, Ola Kvernberg, Jean Cook
Cello: Tomeka Reid, Christopher Hoffman, Fredrick Lonberg-Holm
Vibrafone: Mattias Ståhl, Christopher Dell, Matt Moran
Electronics: Ikue Mori, Noel Meek, Tommi Keränen
Other Instruments: Theon Cross (tuba), Bill Lowe (tuba), Hild Sofie Tafjord (French horn)
Female Vocals: Sofia Jernberg, Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa), Fay Victor
Best Live Band: Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity, Moskus, Henry Threadgill Zooid
Record Label: Hubro, Records Astral Spirits, Pi Recordings

Gary Bartz, Jazz Education & Improvisation

An interesting interview with Gary Bartz on All About Jazz which I was alerted to via @freeformjazzy on Twitter. He makes some interesting observations regarding the jazz study programs and young students – Bartz is a professor at the Jazz Studies Program at Oberlin Conservatory of Music – as well as the notion of improvisation.

On jazz students:

• "My students come in and they can't listen because their first (music) education was reading," he shares. "That's backwards! Your ear is the most important thing in music and you have to start by really listening."

• [H]is wish to get music out of the classroom and back into the streets more where young people will learn it the same way they learned to talk. Music, he points out, is a language, one he thinks we should learn from a young age.

• [S]tudents are learning someone else's version of a composition rather than listening and figuring it out for themselves. 

• "I didn't just listen. I studied. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was studying the music and that developed my ear."

• "[Students] go to school to learn jazz which means they miss out on a whole lot of stuff. If all they are studying is jazz, they are not studying music. They need to study music and then they can play whatever they want."

On improvisation:

•  "Listen to the dictionary definition for improvise: 'unstudied, off-hand, unprepared, unplanned,'" he reads from the dictionary app on his iPhone. "I resent all of that. I've studied too hard over all these years to have what I do described that way." The term Bartz uses instead is "spontaneous composition." Practicing some days for 12 hours at a stretch, he says he knows what he is going to play, even if it is only the second before he plays it. He only improvises if he makes a mistake.

I don't know which dictionary Bartz consulted, but Merriam-Webster is a bit kinder: "to compose, recite, play, or sing extemporaneously" or "to make, invent, or arrange offhand". However, I see where he's coming from. It's not like jazz musicians, when they do not consult or stick to written charts, pull things out of the thin air. No, their knowledge is tied to Bartz' first points, by having listened, then played, made up their own thoughts about what was going on and developing that further. It's what I understand when I hear "improvisation", but using "spontaneous composition" (reminds me of the late Butch Morris' conductions, described as a spontaneous arranging method) might rectify some misconceptions that could still be out there concerning playing jazz-related music.