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Everyone's A Winner, But Pianist Hamasyan Takes Top Monk Prize

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  • Everyone's A Winner, But Pianist Hamasyan Takes Top Monk Prize

    EVERYONE'S A WINNER, BUT PIANIST HAMASYAN TAKES TOP MONK PRIZE
    Matt Schudel, Washington Post Staff Writer

    The Washington Post
    September 19, 2006 Tuesday
    Final Edition

    For a music that usually flies beneath the radar of public notice,
    jazz has had some rare visibility in Washington this past week,
    and even a touch of glamour.

    In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Thelonious Monk Institute
    of Jazz, festivities began Thursday with a White House celebration
    of America's indigenous musical art that included an East Room
    performance taped for PBS. It even had President Bush bobbing his
    head to spirited versions of "Kansas City" and "It Don't Mean a Thing
    (If It Ain't Got That Swing)."

    On Saturday, 12 pianists faced off in the semifinals of the annual
    Monk competition at the National Museum of American History's Baird
    Auditorium. And Sunday night at a sold-out Eisenhower Theater at the
    Kennedy Center, three finalists competed for $35,000 in scholarships
    and the exposure that goes with winning what has become, without
    question, the most prestigious jazz competition in the world.

    The annual contest, which rotates from one instrument to another each
    year, has launched the careers of such young jazz stars as Joshua
    Redman, Jane Monheit, Jacky Terrasson, Lisa Henry and Gretchen Parlato,
    all of whom performed before and after last night's competition.

    There was other star power on hand as well, from presenters Quincy
    Jones, Phylicia Rashad and Billy Dee Williams. But amid the celebratory
    back-patting, there was a larger lesson to be learned than just
    having a jazzy good time. The Monk Institute has a genuinely global
    educational mission, which was embodied in this year's 12 piano
    semifinalists -- who hailed from different countries.

    The annual composition prize went to a Hungarian, Kalman Olah.

    "The philosophy of jazz represents tolerance, teamwork and inclusion,"
    said Thelonious Monk Jr., who helped found the Washington-based
    institute in 1986 and is its board chairman. "That's what America is
    about. The music reflects that."

    For Monk, the institute is a way of "taking care of my father's
    legacy."

    His father, of course, was one of the guiding spirits of modern jazz,
    a fiercely original composer and pianist who didn't have megawatt
    jazz competitions or college jazz programs to advance his career.

    Instead, he came of age when jazz knowledge was passed from hand to
    hand and, sometimes, from father to son.

    "That music was part of my DNA," said Thelonious Jr., 56, in a
    pre-competition interview. After playing drums with his father in
    the 1970s, the younger Monk had a career in R&B and rock music before
    putting down his sticks in the mid-1980s.

    Somewhat to his surprise, after founding the institute, he began to
    reconnect with his jazz past, became absorbed in his father's music
    and formed a sizzling sextet that is one of the premier hard-bop
    groups in jazz today.

    He also settled into a role as the loquacious frontman for the Monk
    Institute.

    "I realized I could talk about this music," he said, "because my
    father had taken me everywhere and because he was like the oracle of
    Delphi. I said, man, that's a little gift. And gift is only a gift
    if you use it."

    In 20 years, the Monk Institute has grown into a $5 million entity
    that, against all odds, has put jazz into elementary and high school
    curricula across the country. It sponsors a two-year fellowship
    program for young musicians at the University of Southern California.

    And, with his powers of persuasion, the younger Monk has helped bring
    such distinguished musicians as Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Wayne
    Shorter -- all of whom performed at the White House and at Sunday
    night's post-competition Kennedy Center jam -- to schools from Miami
    to Alaska, and overseas from Egypt to Vietnam.

    "We've been very instrumental in changing the paradigm in jazz
    education," Monk says. "The Monk Institute is about re-creating that
    interface between the older musician and the younger musician."

    Which brings us back to Sunday night's slickly produced finale,
    underwritten by General Motors and Northrop Grumman. With Hancock,
    Andrew Hill, Danilo Perez, Renee Rosnes, Billy Taylor and Randy Weston
    judging the piano competition, the three young finalists added their
    voices to a century-old jazz tradition.

    The clear audience favorite was a Dutch-born Californian, Gerald
    Clayton, who deftly combined the second movement of Beethoven's
    "Pathetique" Sonata with John Lewis's "Django."

    But the judges were more impressed with Armenian-born Tigran Hamasyan,
    who offered rhythmically dynamic readings of Ray Noble's "Cherokee"
    and Miles Davis's "Solar" to take the top prize of $20,000. Clayton
    won second place, and American Aaron Parks came in third.

    Whether any of these pianists develops into a star remains to be
    seen. But after 20 years of career-making competitions, the Monk
    Institute can rightfully lay claim to being biggest buzzmaker in the
    jazz world.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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