[Dixielandjazz] Scottish Jazz Awards 2011

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Folks, 

For any of you with a knowledge of or interest in the Scottish jazz scene, the awards were held for the first time in 2009 when my band, The Classic Jazz Orchestra (CJO), won the award for Best Band. The Awards weren't held in 2010, but this year, the Scottish Jazz Federation has taken the initiative and revived the Awards.

CJO has been nominated in 2 categories: Best CD and Best Band ( Early). The CD nominated is Celebrating Satchmo on Lake Records LACD 286, which we recorded with ace US trumpeter and good pal Duke Heitger and which has had an amazing number of reviews world-wide, all of which have been very favourable with one exception. That was in Jazzwise magazine, a UK publication which concentrates on so-called "Contemporary Jazz" and, since we didn't include anything by the Brecker Brothers or John Coltrane in our re-interpretation of Louis Armstrong's music, that wasn't much of a surprise!

The Best Band category has now been split into 3 separate categories: Early, Mainstream and Contemporary, although quite how CJO got nominated in Early and not Mainstream is a mystery to me and probably everyone who has heard the band in the last couple of years, since our repertoire covers pretty well everything from Jelly Roll Morton to Charles Mingus, with specialisations in the music of Jelly, Bix, Louis, Duke and Benny Carter. Perhaps we'd be a better fit if there were a category called "Contemporary Early."

I appreciate that few listmates will have an in-depth knowledge of the Scottish jazz scene, but if you feel like casting votes, you can do so at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FVDH799   Likewise, if you have friends who might be interested in voting please pass on the link. As I understand it, the polling software only allows a single submission from any one PC (it must register the sender's IP Address), so results should be less fraudulent than in the UK Elections' Postal voting system! 

Thanks in advance for any support given.

Regards,

Ken