Awards

[isaacs]

Big day for Awards today.

Nominees for ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album just announced. See www.ariaawards.com.au/nominees/2011/fine-arts-awards/best-jazz-album/

Winner of Jägermeister Independent Music Award for Best Independent Jazz Album will be announced in Melbourne tonight. For the nominees see ausindies.com/id-2011-awards.html

[timothystevens]

ARIA winner announced too. Elixir.

[isaacs]

Oct 12, 2011 11:06:34 GMT 10 timothystevens said:

ARIA winner announced too. Elixir.

So the event this morning was the "Nominees Event" where the nominees in the mainstream awards are announced. Does one presume that by announcing the nominees and also the winners in the Fine Arts Awards categories at the very same event that there is no longer any awards "event" for these categories? Certainly none is mentioned on the ARIA website.

[timothystevens]

Surely there's no point?

[isaacs]

Oct 12, 2011 11:31:48 GMT 10 timothystevens said:

Surely there's no point?

Fair enough. But personally I like events. I generally like attending them when I get to do so, and regardless I'm still glad they're there for others if I'm not invited. ARIA just cancelled the party it seems. I like parties. I like finger food.

[aj]

I think they announce the winners in the Fine Arts awards early to get them out of the way so they don't interfere with the real awards

[isaacs]

I just sent the following email to Mark Pope of Mark Pope Music, who produce the ARIA Awards:

Dear Mr Pope

Congratulations on all the ongoing work producing the 2011 ARIA Awards, I’m sure it’s a massive undertaking.

I’ve been nominated twice (2007 & 2009) for the ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album. Though I had a well-acclaimed jazz album in the running this year I missed out on a nomination; oh well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. For your information I am also very active in classical music.

I want to comment on the sense I and others working in non-mainstream music forms have that our work is being increasingly marginalised in the way the ARIAs are being presented and promoted. The decision some years ago to hive off a separate awards night for “fine arts” had pros and cons, but at least there was an event. When I was nominated in 2007 there was a Fine Arts Awards night at the Sydney Conservatorium, a big seated event produced by Lyle Chan with high profile musical performances (including the Australian Chamber Orchestra). When I was nominated in 2009 this had been already downgraded: it was no longer in the evening but a lunchtime thing in a city office block, everyone standing, no musical items. And now in 2011 I note that the nominees and the winners in the Fine Arts categories were announced simultaneously at the mainstream nominations event. So now there is no separate event at all for the Fine Arts Awards, and no longer is there the customary gap between nominations being announced and the final awards being made. Scouring the internet I also must comment that ARIA made absolutely no mention of the fact that the Fine Arts Awards were to be announced at the Nomination Event yesterday, not even at the ARIA Awards Facebook page. Sally Whitwell – who as you would know won this year’s ARIA Award for Best Classical Album for her recording of piano music by Philip Glass – said on her blog the day before the Nominations Event: “I’m starting to feel more than marginalised. Even the official ARIA Facebook page neglects to mention that there are any awards being presented tomorrow”. She has a point, it’s beyond marginalisation and more like utter invisibility.

Perhaps some might say that sales in these genres are de facto “invisible” compared to popular mainstream forms. While in many or most cases that might be true in raw dollar and “units sold” terms, in my view it is a mark of a degenerate society to use these indicators as the only yardstick of cultural value. It’s also curious that it is music - of all the art forms - that is subject to this. ARIA represents records labels. While I’m sure Australian publishers of books are delighted with and want to celebrate mainstream authors who sell bucket-loads of popular novels, I don’t see the same evidence in that sector of those publishers marginalising internationally-acclaimed Australian authors who sell relatively small numbers of books in Australia. And make no mistake: there are many internationally-acclaimed artists in Australian classical, jazz and other non-mainstream music forms. They – and the rest - deserve better from the Australian record industry’s peak body.

Yours sincerely
Mark Isaacs
www.markisaacs.com

[aj]

Good letter Mark ; will be interesting to see the reply.

[isaacs]

Oct 13, 2011 11:30:24 GMT 10 aj said:

Good letter Mark ; will be interesting to see the reply.

Thanks Adrian. These days I generally avoid activism as it is not good for my mental health. It's hard to know whether to just accept things as "situation normal" (perhaps with a sense of bitter cynicism, which some find they can use as fuel) or be more upbeat in trying to be an active player for the possibility of change. Anyway, doubtless I'll fire off a letter like that from time to time. If there is a reply I'll post it.

[isaacs]

And congratulations to Sandy Evans for winning Best Independent Jazz Album last night at the Jägermeister Independent Music Awards. And to Elixir for their ARIA win yesterday for Best Jazz Album.

[isaacs]

Oct 13, 2011 11:30:24 GMT 10 aj said:

will be interesting to see the reply.

One week and no reply. Not looking promising.

[jec]

As Tim says 'this means nothing' anyway.

[timothystevens]

So my learned friend agrees, at last?

[isaacs]

Oct 20, 2011 14:53:42 GMT 10 isaacs said:

Oct 13, 2011 11:30:24 GMT 10 aj said:

will be interesting to see the reply.

One week and no reply. Not looking promising.

Me of little faith.

Email from Mark Pope. He says he will be responding, has started a reply but has not had time to finish it. He says my email is "bang on and requires a response" and offers "in the meantime this short note to acknowledge it so you don’t think nobody cares. 'Cause I do!!"