06 November 2007

Jazz writing (Wang 1)

The winners of this year’s National Jazz Writing Competition (NJWC) were announced at Wangaratta. First place went to Michael Webb. He’s certainly well qualified. Michael studied ethnomusicology and currently lectures in Music Education at the Sydney Conservatorium. Second place went to Keith Penhallow of Canberra. Perhaps I can con Keith into writing for CJ. Winning reviews will be published on the Jazz Australia site, and presumably also on the NJWC site. The judges for this year’s competition were Allan Browne, Matt McMahon and Andrew Ford. The competition required two CD reviews of varied lengths and one gig review. I hear that next year’s comp will be for creative writing (short stories, poetry, etc) on the theme of jazz.

The awards ceremony was pretty low key. It was held in the main venue at the start of Saturday’s proceedings, just before judge Allan Browne and his band performed their major recent work dedicated to Arthur Rimbaud, Drunken Boat. I’m glad I didn’t blink.

I entered and was shortlisted but obviously didn’t win. I’ll be publishing my delayed reviews soon on CJ. Interestingly, Keith reviewed the same gig I did: Sylvia Mitchell, Jess Green and Zoe Hauptman at the Gods. I’ll look forward to reading his words.

Click on the NJWC label to read CJ's entries. Ed. 10 Nov 2007

Congratulations and thanks to Miriam Zolin, who inaugurated and continues to run the competition with commitment, friendliness and professionalism. Thanks also to the sponsors.
  • National Jazz Writing Competition
  • Announcement on Jazz Australia
  • Wang 2
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