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Down Beat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to jazz. The publication was established in 1935 in Chicago, Illinois. It is named after the "downbeat" in music also called the "one beat".
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.
A well-known feature of Down Beat is its "Blindfold Test" column, in a which a musician listens to records from other artists and tries to guess who they are. Musicians that get 50% right do better than average.
The Down Beat 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 there are only readers poll winners before then. Although they have many members in common, the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame is separate and distinct from the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
An essential contribution of the critics and readers polls are the selections for "Jazz Album of the Year", listing the dozen or so most popular records. E.g., the three most popular records for the 2006 critics poll were (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).
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