DownBeat February 1987 [antikvár]

on the beatIN WYNIDN'S WAKEby Jejf LevensonLike skin, jazz is a wonderfully regenerative organ. No sooner do the older players wear down or out, past their creative prime, than a new crop of enthusiasticreplacements take over.These young lions are in some ways an extension of the prior generation; they share a commitment to jazz that virtually guarantees the growth of the form. Yet in other ways they are totally different perhaps better educated, less distracted by claims of artistic illegitimacy, and functioning in a world presumably more accepting of their professional choices.The fact that so many young players have emerged as distinguishedEnterNow!down beat's 1987 Student Music AwardsApplications are now being accepted for the T^nth Annual down beat Student Music Awards Competition.I EUGIBfUTY: Any 10- to 20-minute performance by U. S. or Canadian Jr High School, High School or College Students recorded after February 28, 1986 and before February 1,1987.I AWARDS & PRIZES: Berklee College of fi/lusic Scholarships (other cash scholarships may be added), plus down beat plaques, pins and certificates. Winners to be announced in fi/lay '67 down beat.IDBADLME: All entries must be in down beat's Elmhurst office by Feb. 1, '87.I HOW TO ENTER: Pick up down beat Student Music Awards brochure and Official Application at your local music and sound retailer or use coupon below.The 1987 down beat Student Music Awards are offered in tu)o divisions: high school and college, in each of 17 categories:BEST JAZZ IMSrnUMENTAUSTS1. Soloists 2. Groups (2-9 pieces) 3. Big Bands (10 + ) 4. Studio OrchestrasBEST JAZZ VOCALISTS5. Soloists 6. Groups (2-9 members) 7. Choirs (10 + )BEST CLASSICAL INSTRUMENTALISTS8. Soloists 9. Chamberl\/1usic Groups 10. Symphonic Bands 11. OrchestrasBEST BLUES/POP/ROCK INSTRUMENTALISTS 12. Soloists 13. Groups14. BEST ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 15. BEST JAZZ ARRANGEMENT16. BEST ENGINEERED LIVE RECORDING 17. BEST ENGINEERED STUDIO RECORDINGdown beat STUDENT MUSIC AWARDS ISO IV. Park Ave., Elmhurst, IL 60126Send me_copies of the 1987 down beat Student Music Awardsbrochure and Official Application.Name_Address. City_Your School. City_State/Zip.2/87Your Music Dealer. Address_contributors to jazz, inte^ating their efforts and innovations with those of older established musicians is reason enough to celebrate. Clearly, this music has a future, as evidenced by the popularization of young jazz artists (read: Wynton Marsalis) the preponderance of academic programs emphasizing jazz, and the willingness of corporations and grants foundations to fund bright new talents.Additionally, many of the new guard take seriously the power of jazz history. By accepting the prior generation's torch they are fulfilling not just a personal mandate, but one implying social and artistic responsibility. "Let's face it," conceded drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith, who at 25 is already a charter member of the elite fraternity of youngbloods. "It's definitely time for a new breed of artist to enter the picture. For this music to keep going, we always have to replenish and replace it. The older generation is going to die, but then we'll be there. And when we grow and die, there will be another generation of musicians who will take our place."The new generation of players revivalists, postmodernists, neo-classicists, avant-gardeists-in-training (A.G.LT.)is not represented by particular individuals, in the way Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle represented the offensive power of the '61 New York Yankees. The field is too great, the phenomenon hardly limited to the country's major music centers. Heavy hitters, it seems, arrive by the truckloadplayers like Don Byron, who doubles easily between Henry Threadgili's Sextet and the Klezmer Conservatory Band, a shift in attitude not at all problematic, not even for a young, black clarinetist recently out of school; or Bill Frisell, a member of New York's funky, downtown scene, whose spacey guitar textures and swells emphasize the music of sound; or altoist Christopher Hollyday, who discovered Bird at roughly the same time he learned to walk, and has flown with him ever since; or bassist Charnett Moffett, drummer Tern Lyne Carrington. or vocalist Cassandra WUson, new faces all, but hardly an exhaustive listing.in Wynton's wake it is oddly fitting that the wunderkinds most likely to step into the limelight (with a nudge from their record company) are two home boys from New Orleans, Donald Harrison and Terence Blanchard, both students of Ellis Marsalis and both graduates of Art Blakey's band. "Jazz is a tradition," declared Harrison, bolstering his point with illustrious names from the jazz-ordy continuum, "and Terence and I are direct descendants of this line of tradition."Yet this line of tradition, as definitive as it may be to Harrison's development, is notCONTINUED ON PAGE H6 DOWN BEAT FEBflUARY 1987