As 2009 slowly draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on the year in Latin Jazz and leap into the LJC Best of 2009 Awards. Voting will open this Wednesday, December 2nd and run through Wednesday December 23rd. That gives you three solid weeks to support your favorite Latin Jazz artist and encourage your friends to do the same. After a short break here at LJC to enjoy the holidays, I’ll be back with the results. Every day from Sunday December 26th to Thursday December 31st, I’ll announce the winners in three to four categories. Once the LJC community has spoken and we have a list of winners, they’ll find a permanent home on LJC, recognizing their achievement. This event has become a yearly tradition at LJC, and one that always builds a lot of excitement around fantastic Latin Jazz.

I spend a good deal of time throughout the year thinking about how to make the Best of the Year awards a better event.  I was initially inspired to create the awards as a result of reaction to the Grammy Awards – I wanted to create an event that authentically recognized excellence in the Latin Jazz world. After two years of awards, I think that the event has both succeeded in stumbled in different ways. As we move into year three, I’m finding the need to play with the formula a bit, in an attempt to get better results. My top priority is serving the needs of the Latin Jazz community, so your feedback is essential. I’m always open to suggestion and discussion around this event, so put your thoughts out there. My ideas are below – check them out and let me know what you think; together we’ll find the best way to recognize the top Latin Jazz from 2009!

New Categories
With each passing year, I’m finding a need to recognize more areas of Latin Jazz with the awards.  As I dig deeper into all the great music emerging around the world, I’m finding a widening diversity in the style.  When I think about the awards, I’m trying to come to terms with ways to address and compare recordings from a realistic perspective.  I find it difficult to place an Afro-Cuban Jazz Album and an Afro-Peruvian Jazz Album in the same category – it’s like apples and oranges.  I’ve come to believe that the best way to recognize the significance of these stylistic differences is through the creation of new categories.  Last Year I added Brazilian Jazz Album, Large Ensemble Album, Guitarist, and Hall Of Fame.  While I do have concerns about spreading the awards too thin, I felt like last year the new categories actually made the awards more potent.  With this in mind, I’ve added a few more categories to the awards.

This year I’m adding four new categories to the awards:  Afro-Peruvian Jazz Album, Composition, Arrangement, and Album Cover Art.  The addition of an Afro-Peruvian Jazz album is a bit of a no-brainer; this segment of the Latin Jazz world has grow tremendously over the past few years.  Last year I had some concerns about the sustainability of the category, but at this point, I have no doubt.  In the past, I thought that categories for composition and arrangement might be too specific, but now I see them as absolute necessities.  The creative manipulation of the genre through original compositions and arrangements have pushed Latin Jazz into new realms recently and that needs to be recognized.  The award for album cover art seems a bit removed from the original intent of the awards – I originally wanted these awards to be all about the music.  I feel like this is a topic that could use some stimulation though – artwork is an essential chance to spread the word about an album and Latin Jazz artists generally don’t utilize it effectively (more about this in an upcoming article).  With these thoughts in mind, we’ll be expanding again this year.

Thoughts or ideas about these additional categories?  Let me know in a comment please!

New Process For Adding Nominees To Categories
I’ve always felt that the opportunity for LJC reader to add nominees to categories was an absolute necessity that kept the awards honest. I spend a lot of time listening to Latin Jazz during the course of the year, and I cover most of the major releases. Still, I’m only one person, and I’m bound to miss something. I also might hold a different perspective on excellence, which would inspire me to choose a different group of nominees. I believe that the awards should reflect the majority voice of the community and that forces me to admit that I might not hold that opinion. So this year I’ll continue to allow readers to add nominees throughout the course of the awards.

While I’m keeping this option open, I am adding a process that will hopefully keep the process honest. Last year, I dealt with a number of spammers, nominees that didn’t fit the qualifications, and questionable selections; this year’s changes will hopefully eliminate or at least slow down those issues. Instead of an automatic entry into the awards, readers will be allowed to fill in a short form for additional nominees. Once a new nominee has been requested five times, I’ll add them onto the list of possible selections. Until they have reached five nominations, I’ll put their name at the end of the ballet so that people realize they are in the running. I’ll be making these updates once daily – most likely at the end of the day. While this may involve an extra step for readers, I’m hoping that it will keep the awards more streamlined.

Have an opinion on the new process? Let me know by leaving a comment!

Tighter Qualifications For Each Category
The creation and maintenance of the awards has been a learning process for me, and one place I see room for improvement is the qualifications for each category. In 2007 and 2008, the qualifications were kept fairly open, with a simple requirement that the nominees had to be associated with a Latin Jazz album released during that calendar year. The nominees need to be available to audience around the world, and since everyone doesn’t have the option to see these musicians perform live, recordings seemed to be the perfect vehicle. As the awards progressed over the past couple of years, I’ve seen nominees move into each category that didn’t necessarily feel right. So I’ve come up with a series of qualifications below that should help clarify things.

Album Of The Year & Next Generation Awards:
Album Of The Year is meant for established artists that have been internationally visibly on the Latin Jazz scene for a while; the Next Generation award is meant for artists new to the scene
As nominees get added to either of these categories, they will be placed (moved if necessary) into the correct category
An album cannot be be nominated in both categories
The first release of the album must be in 2009

Brazilian Jazz Album & Afro-Peruvian Jazz Album:
The first release of the album must be in 2009
At least 75% of the album must fall into either genre in this category

Large Ensemble Album:
The first release of the album must be in 2009
75% of the album must involve a group with seven or more members

Instrumentalist Awards:
The nominee needs to be part of a Latin Jazz album first released in 2009
The nominee needs to play on at least 50% of the album

Record Label:
The label needs to have released & supported Latin Jazz in a significant way during 2009

Composition & Arrangement Awards:
The chosen piece must be part of a Latin Jazz album first released in 2009

Ideas for more qualifications? Have an idea about the above qualifications? Let me know by leaving a comment!

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Remember, voting for the awards starts next week. If you’ve got suggestions or ideas that you want to discuss, throw your comment out now! If you’ve got an opinion about the revisions above, let’s discuss it in the comment thread below. I’d love to hear you thoughts!

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Check Out These Related Posts:
Does The Blurry Line Between Salsa And Latin Jazz Matter?
The Latin Jazz E-Group: Celebrating 10 Years Of Latin Jazz Community
An Open Letter To Michelle Obama Regarding Latin Music
Jazz Now: 5 Latin Jazz Albums From The Present Moment

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