The ten finalists for Australia's most prestigious jazz performance competition, the 2010 National Jazz Awards, have been announced. The Awards feature brass this year, and entries were received from trumpeters and trombonists around Australia, and from the USA, Japan and France.
The National Jazz Awards have been staged annually at the Wangaratta Jazz festival since 1990. The roll call of past winners (including such names as Barney McAll, James Muller, Steve Magnusson, Julien Wilson, Phil Slater, Scott Tinkler and Michelle Nicolle) shows how successful the National Jazz Awards have been in encouraging and promoting outstanding talent.
This year's Awards were assessed on a blindfold basis by the judges : Sydney pianist Mike Nock, trombonist James Greening and trumpeter Phil Slater. Mike Nock commented, "There were a lot of really impressive entries, it was incredibly difficult to cut the field back to just ten finalists. I'm sure the ones who made it through will put in some really impressive performances at Wangaratta."
At the Wangaratta Jazz festival, the finalists will perform with highly-regarded pianist Sam Keevers, bassist Rodrigo Aravena and drummer Ben Vanderwal.
The ten finalists are :
- Simon Ferenci, 27, from Sydney
- Nick Garbett, 27, from Sydney
- Matthew Jodrell, 30, from Perth, currently based in New York
- James Kennedy, 30, from Sydney
- Eamon McNelis, 27, from Melbourne
- Damien Maughan, 34, from Melbourne
- Nadje Noordhuis, 33, from Melbourne/Sydney, currently based in New York
- Nicholas Pietsch, 22, from Adelaide
- Don Stewart, 30, from Melbourne
- Pat Thiele, 27, from Melbourne
The ten finalists will perform in the first round, with three then selected to play in the final round, which will be broadcast live-to-air on 'Jazztrack with Mal Stanley', on ABC Classic FM, from 5.00-7.00pm on Sunday 31 October.
- The winner will receive $8000 ; plus a studio recording session for 'Jazztrack with Mal Stanley' on ABC Classic FM ; and an invitation to perform in the Stonnington Jazz festival in May 2011
- The runner-up will receive $5000.
- The third finalist will receive a prize of $2000.