The 10 finalists in the National Jazz Awards have been announced.
The Awards, which take the form of a music competition featuring a different instrument each year, take place at the Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz in November. In 2008 the focus is on the bass.
Entry was open to musicians 35 years and younger and, as usual, Melbourne and Sydney players took the majority of the places in the line-up. Perth, which has produced a large number of high calibre musicians in recent years, boasts two finalists.
The finalists were selected on the basis of recorded submissions and the players were assessed blindfolded. The judges this year are pianist Mike Nock, and prominent bass players, Craig Scott, head of jazz studies at the Sydney Conservatorium, and Jonathan Zwartz.
The finalists will perform at Wangaratta with pianist Sam Keevers and drummer Simon Barker.
The finalists are :
Sam Anning, 26, from Melbourne
Dane Alderson, 25, from Perth
Alex Boneham, 21, from Sydney
Karl Dunnicliff, 24, from Sydney
Peter Jeavons, 32, from Perth
John Kingma, 21, from Melbourne
Phil Stack, 31, from Sydney
Ben Waples, 27, from Sydney
Des White, 30, from Melbourne
Sam Zerna, 24, from Melbourne
The performances of the three bass players selected to play in the final round of the competition will be broadcast live on ABC Classic FM’s Jazztrack with Mal Stanley, from 5pm-7pm on Sunday 2 November.
The winner will receive $6000 plus a studio recording session for Jazztrack and an invitation to perform in the Stonnington Jazz concert series in May 2009.
The runner-up will receive $3000, and the third finalist will receive a prize of $1500.
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Find out more
Go to the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz website.
