Don Byron appears in...
Catching Up with Dafnis Prieto, Winner of MacArthur Foundation Fellowship

When jazz drummer-composer Dafnis Prieto answered his telephone’s ring one day in October 2011 to find the director of the MacArthur Foundation on the line — informing him he’d been awarded one of the creativity fostering organization’s prestigious fellowships — he was “shocked, elated, humbled and proud all at the same time.” Prieto was also justly rewarded. The tireless work of the 37-year-old native of Santa Clara,…
Dave Douglas

"You have to develop your language somewhere. For me, that happens when I’m composing. Putting something on paper means ‘I wouldn’t mind hearing this again.’ That takes guts and develops the inner ear,” explains Dave Douglas. The 44-year trumpeter is a musician of many parts with almost two-dozen albums available from his Greenleaf Music website. He is director of the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative…
BMI Jazz Giants Score in Down Beat 2007 Critics Poll

BMI composers dominated the 2007 Down Beat Critics Poll, winning 69% of the awards. Celebrated bassist and bandleader Dave Holland was a multiple winner, taking home honors both for Bassist of the Year and Band of the Year for his quintet. The late pianist Andrew Hill was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame, and Miles Davis’s Legendary Prestige Sessions won…
BMI Awards $10K Monk Prize to Jazz Pianist Kálmán Oláh
Congratulations to jazz pianist Kálmán Oláh, grand prize winner of the 2006 BMI-sponsored Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composer's Competition. The $10,000 award was presented during the Thelonious Monk Institute's 20th Anniversary Gala held Sept. 20 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Oláh's winning work, performed by a group of jazz all-stars during the celebration, was entitled "Always." Listen to the the winning song, "Always"…
BMI Jazz Greats Sweep ‘Downbeat’ Critics Poll
Once again, BMI members swept the jazz world's annual "best of" list presented by Downbeat magazine, the voice of jazz since 1934. BMI's dedication to the advancement of original forms of American music exists as a cornerstone of the organization's very conception, and remains a priority today. …
