Down Beat

For other uses, see Downbeat (disambiguation).

Down Beat

Down Beat logo
Categories	Music magazine
Frequency	Monthly
Year founded	1934
Company	Maher Publications
Country	United States
Based in	Chicago
Language	English
Website	www.downbeat.com
ISSN	0012-5768

Down Beat (or DownBeat in their logo) is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois. It is named after the "downbeat" in music also called "beat one" or the first beat of a musical measure.

Down Beat publishes results of annual surveys of both its readers and critics in a variety of categories. The Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame includes winners from both the readers' and critics' poll. The results of the readers' poll are published in the December issue, those of the critics' poll in the August issue.

Well-known features of Down Beat magazine include its "Reviews" section where jazz critics, using a '1-Star to 5-Star' maximum rating system, rate the latest musical recordings, vintage recordings, and books; articles on individual musicians and music forms; and its famous "Blindfold Test" column, in a which a musician listens to records by other artists, tries to guess who they are, and rates them using the 5-star maximum rating system.

In April 1979, Down Beat went to a monthly schedule for the first time since 1939.

Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award

• 1981 John H. Hammond
• 1982 George Wein
• 1983 Leonard Feather
• 1984 Billy Taylor
• 1985 Lawrence Berk
• 1986 Orrin Keepnews
• 1987 David Baker
• 1988 John Conyers Jr.
• 1989 Norman Granz
• 1990 Rudy Van Gelder
• 1991 Bill Cosby
• 1992 Rich Matteson
• 1993 Gunther Schuller
• 1994 Marian McPartland
• 1995 Willis Conover
• 1996 Chuck Suber
• 1997 William P. Gottlieb
• 1998 Bruce Lundvall
• 1999 Sheldon Meyer
• 2000 George Avakian
• 2001 Milt Gabler
• 2002
• 2003
• 2004
• 2005 Jim Warrick
• 2006 Claude Nobs
• 2007 Dan Morgenstern
• 2008
• 2009
• 2010 Manfred Eicher

Hall of Fame

The DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame is maintained at Universal Studios' City Jazz club in Orlando, Florida. Current membership, by year, is listed in the following table. The critics' poll was not initiated until 1961, so winners before then were all chosen by readers' polls. In 2010, the Veterans Committee Hall of Fame began electing deserving, deceased musicians of bygone eras.

Year	Readers Poll	Critics Poll
1952	Louis Armstrong
1953	Glenn Miller
1954	Stan Kenton
1955	Charlie Parker
1956	Duke Ellington
1957	Benny Goodman
1958	Count Basie
1959	Lester Young
1960	Dizzy Gillespie
1961	Billie Holiday	Coleman Hawkins
1962	Miles Davis	Bix Beiderbecke
1963	Thelonious Monk	Jelly Roll Morton
1964	Eric Dolphy	Art Tatum
1965	John Coltrane	Earl Hines
1966	Bud Powell	Charlie Christian
1967	Billy Strayhorn	Bessie Smith
1968	Wes Montgomery	Sidney Bechet & Fats Waller
1969	Ornette Coleman	Pee Wee Russell & Jack Teagarden
1970	Jimi Hendrix	Johnny Hodges
1971	Charles Mingus	Roy Eldridge & Django Reinhardt
1972	Gene Krupa	Clifford Brown
1973	Sonny Rollins	Fletcher Henderson
1974	Buddy Rich	Ben Webster
1975	Cannonball Adderley	Cecil Taylor
1976	Woody Herman	King Oliver
1977	Paul Desmond	Benny Carter
1978	Joe Venuti	Rahsaan Roland Kirk
1979	Ella Fitzgerald	Lennie Tristano
1980	Dexter Gordon	Max Roach
1981	Art Blakey	Bill Evans
1982	Art Pepper	Fats Navarro
1983	Stéphane Grappelli	Albert Ayler
1984	Oscar Peterson	Sun Ra
1985	Sarah Vaughan	Zoot Sims
1986	Stan Getz	Gil Evans
1987	Lionel Hampton	Johnny Dodds, Thad Jones, Teddy Wilson
1988	Jaco Pastorius	Kenny Clarke
1989	Woody Shaw	Chet Baker
1990	Red Rodney	Mary Lou Williams
1991	Lee Morgan	John Carter
1992	Maynard Ferguson	James P. Johnson
1993	Gerry Mulligan	Edward Blackwell
1994	Dave Brubeck	Frank Zappa
1995	J. J. Johnson	Julius Hemphill
1996	Horace Silver	Artie Shaw
1997	Nat King Cole	Tony Williams
1998	Frank Sinatra	Elvin Jones
1999	Milt Jackson	Betty Carter
2000	Clark Terry	Lester Bowie
2001	Joe Henderson	Milt Hinton
2002	Antonio Carlos Jobim	John Lewis
2003	Ray Brown	Wayne Shorter
2004	McCoy Tyner	Roy Haynes
2005	Herbie Hancock	Steve Lacy
2006	Jimmy Smith	Jackie McLean
2007	Michael Brecker	Andrew Hill
2008	Keith Jarrett	Joe Zawinul
2009	Freddie Hubbard	Hank Jones
2010	Muhal Richard Abrams	Chick Corea
2011	Ahmad Jamal	Abbey Lincoln
2012	Ron Carter	Paul Motian

Veterans Committee Hall of Fame

• 2008: Jo Jones, Jimmie Lunceford, Erroll Garner, Harry Carney, Jimmy Blanton
• 2009: Oscar Pettiford, Tadd Dameron
• 2010: Baby Dodds, Chick Webb, Philly Joe Jones, Billy Eckstine
• 2011: Paul Chambers
• 2012: Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt
• 2013: Robert Johnson
• 2014: Bing Crosby, Dinah Washington

Album of the Year

An essential contribution of the critics' and readers' polls published in the August resp. December issues are the selections for "Jazz Album of the Year", listing the dozen or so most popular albums. Listed here are the top 3 albums of the selections:

2006 critics' poll:
(1) Andrew Hill: Time Lines (Blue Note)
(2) Wayne Shorter Quartet: Beyond the Sound Barrier (Verve)
(3) Sonny Rollins: Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert (Milestone)

2007 critics' poll:
(1) Ornette Coleman: Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar)
(2) Trio Beyond: Saudades (ECM)
(3) Sonny Rollins: Sonny, Please (Doxy)

2008 critics' poll:
(1) Maria Schneider: Sky Blue (ArtistShare)
(2) Michael Brecker: Pilgrimage (Heads Up)
(3) Joe Lovano and Hank Jones: Kids: Duets Live At Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (Blue Note)

2009 critics' poll:
(1) Sonny Rollins: Road Shows, Vol. 1 (Doxy/Emarcy)
(2) Joe Lovano: Symphonica (Blue Note)
(3) Charles Lloyd Quartet: Rabo De Nube (ECM)

2010 critics' poll:
(1) Vijay Iyer Trio: Historicity (ACT)
(2) Joe Lovano Us Five: Folk Art (Blue Note)
(3) Miguel Zenón: Esta Plena (Marsalis)

See also

• The Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award
• International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE)
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (not jazz, exclusively, but many recipients are jazz musicians)
• BBC Jazz Awards
• NEA Jazz Masters

External links

• Down Beat website
• "About Down Beat: A History As Rich As Jazz"
• The Jazz Journalists Association Lifetime Achievement Award
• Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame
• Arts For Art Lifetime Achievement Award