ARIA Award

[Me]

Goes to - Paul Grabowsky, Katie Noonan, Scott Tinkler, Simon Barker, Phil Rex

[Someone]

Does anyone care about this award? Or does the fact that the judges are dumb enough to put Culture Tunnels and Grace in the top five show how meaningless it is?

[iron guts]

ow.....

[annoyed]

Don't know about Culture Tunnels, but Grace is a f$%^ing BEAUTIFUL CD.
Hey "Someone"- was your CD on that nomination list? Perhaps that is why you are so bitter. (and rude)

[John K]

Congratulations to all the winners. A fascinating & interesting recording. Some of the best musicians in the country/world on that CD & Katie Noonan is turning into a real jazz diva.

Be interesting to know who does the shortlisting & how a CD gets nominated & who are the judges. Can't find much from the website.

[me again]

Record company representatives are usually on the panel. I imagine they don't really know much about the albums or type of music. I have heard of one record rep choosing familiar stuff and what was on their label for the short list.

Of course it isn't objective (what is), it's just lucky that often good stuff gets through. It's clever not to care about the whole award thing as the process of choosing is rarely fair, just a matter of taste usually. But our culture likes to see shiny award stickers on things and this helps to sell to those who can't make up their own minds about what is good.

[aj]

No-one outside the organisation knows who votes.

I do vote for the jazz ARIAs & the blues/roots category. I believe the ARIA organisation has in the past published the names of those eligible to vote (maybe they still do) ; most are 'industry' types (record labels, media, etc). Their policy was to not identify who is invited to vote (or who does vote) in each specific category. You could have a look through the list & guess who might vote in the jazz category, but it would just be a guess.

[isaacs]

<Confession>

I have had four CDs eligible for the jazz ARIAS (I released another two on my own label but didn't join ARIA so they weren't eligible). "Encounters" was actually released twice by the ABC separated by 5 years, and so eligible on two separate occasions. It was recorded in 1988 with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes (so something of a landmark Australian/international collaboration) and very well received in Europe (where it was also released on a German label) and in Australia. "For Sure" was a 1993 ABC album with my (then) Australian trio with Adam Armstrong and Andrew Gander, also got really good reviews in Australia. Then more recently "Closer" (Naxos) and "Keeping the Standards" (Vorticity) have got rave reviews both in Australia and internationally (including from USA critics like Don Heckman). I don't expect to win on any occasion, the competition is always very stiff. But I have been pretty disappointed that none of those CDS have even been short-listed. I have been tempted to conclude that my work cannot be terribly highly regarded by whoever votes for the jazz ARIAs. (I also couldn't get shortlisted for the Bells two years running). I know people who say "always the bridesmaid never the bride" because they have been shortlisted for awards but never win. I am hoping one day to be a bridesmaid in the Australian jazz award stakes!

</Confession>

PS I generally don't waste more than an hour on this stuff, generally when the award short lists are announced I fume a bit, vent to one or two people and get over it. Better to count blessings, and I have a few of those.

[punter]

and how fucked up is it that tinkler's new album didn't make the list either?
most of the nominated albums are really good but
the tinkler album was without a doubt one of the strongest of the year

[bill]

there is no strongest - it is what you like the most. that's all.

[robburke]

Its all relative really - some of the people who vote don't really know anything about jazz and the scene ect. I had a friend (plays rock/pop now a manager) tell me he voted for my cd - only because he is a friend and knows my name. Another flaw in the system is that only 30 sec grabs from the Cds are requested for voters to checkout. This is impossible for jazz/art music - okay for pop.
There are many voters that know a lot about the scene - they are informed which is great, but they also have their favourites. Awards and competitions are subjective, having said that I think all the Cds nominated are very good an deserve to be there.

[critic]

I dont know anything about art but I know what I like?
Dont be a cop out, learn some stuff then you might get over the like shit.

[doll]

critic - what on earth do you mean?

[punter]

'no strongest only what you like the most' what bollocks! so by that reckoning there's no saying whether bach is 'better' than the spice girls and that if you like spice girls better than that's all there is to it. come on get off the grass...
i could argue, and back up my argument, that scott tinkler's album is strong in comparison to many other releases. and it really wouldn't be that difficult. of course taste does come into it and there is a subjective element but the more music you listen to and think about, the better you get at telling the good stuff from the shit. and of course there's dialogue and discourse and that's where it gets fun... as in: i argue that tinkler's great and someone else argues that it isn't so great and uses some sort of sound basis other than, 'i don't like it', and we're into some really interesting territory. and therein lies the problem with the arias: who are these people and what are their qualifications? what basis is their judgement made on? if it's 30 seconds of listening and total ignorance then it's a pretty superficial piece of shit award.
i agree with 'critic' we have to get over the 'i like it' or 'i don't like it' shit. it's boring and dumb.

[critic]

thats pretty much what I meant. thanks punter. I like you,,,,,,dont know why?