Outstanding Music Coverage Honored

The 39th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards Presented in New York City



ASCAP presented its 39th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for outstanding print, broadcast and new media coverage of music on December 7th in Manhattan. The winners were honored at a special reception at The Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in The Allen Room. Over the years, tens of thousands of dollars have been distributed in cash prizes to winning authors, journalists and broadcast producers and personalities.

The ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award honored two programs this year: "The Bob Edwards Show" (Bob Edwards, host; Ed McNulty, producer; and Tish Valva, executive producer), which is produced at XM Satellite Radio; and "World Cafe" (David Dye, host and producer; Kimberly Junod, producer and Bruce Warren, executive producer), which originates from WXPN in Philadelphia and is nationally syndicated. Honored in the Television Broadcast category was the cable channel, Ovation: The Arts Network.

The ASCAP Deems Taylor Internet Award honored the concert music blog, Night After Night (nightafternight.blogs.com), written by Steve Smith.

The Timothy White Award for Outstanding Musical Biography in the pop music field honored The Mayor of MacDougal Street: A Memoir, by Dave Van Ronk with Elijah Wald, published by Da Capo Press. This award was established to honor the memory of Billboard Magazine editor Timothy White, who passed away in early 2002. Mr. White was himself a former Deems Taylor recipient, and was the writer of acclaimed biographies of Bob Marley, Brian Wilson and James Taylor.

The Nicolas Slonimsky Award for Outstanding Musical Biography in the concert music field honored Phillip Ramey for Irving Fine: An American Composer in His Time, published by Pendragon Press. This award was established to honor the memory of Slonimsky (1894–1995), the Russian-American composer, conductor, musicologist and critic. Slonimsky was the writer of Baker's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, The Lexicon of Musical Invective and Perfect Pitch, an autobiography.

The Béla Bartók Award for Outstanding Ethnomusicological Book honored Nancy Guy for Peking Opera and Politics in Taiwan, published by University of Illinois Press. This award honors the memory of Bartók (1881-1945), the great Hungarian-American composer and ethnomusicologist.

The event featured performances by Jaleel Shaw Trio, Jan Vogler, David Massengill and award-winner Elijah Wald and pianist Trudy Chan. All the music was related to the winning books and articles.

The members of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards Panel for 2006 were Charles Dodge, Paul Moravec, Frank Oteri, Richard Miller, Julie flanders, David Massengill, Matthew Shipp, Larry John McNally and Wesley Stace.

The authors and publishers of the books honored at the ceremony were:

• Julia Blackburn for With Billie, published by Pantheon Books
  
  
• Anna Marie Busse Berger for Medieval Music and the Art of Memory, published by University of California Press
  
  
• Jeff Chang for Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hip Generation, published by St. Martin's Press/Picador
  
  
• Boris Gasparov for Five Operas and a Symphony, published by Yale University Press
  
  
• Kenneth Morgan for Fritz Reiner: Maestro and Martinet, published by University of Illinois Press
  
  
• Tom Piazza for Understanding Jazz: Ways to Listen, published by Random House
  
  
• Michael V. Pisani for Imagining Native America in Music, published by Yale University Press
  
  
• Doug Ramsey for Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond, published by Parkside Publications
  
  
• George Rochberg for The Aesthetics of Survival, A Composer's View of Twentieth-Century Music, published by University of Michigan Press

The writers and editors of journal, magazine and newspaper articles, and liner notes, and their respective publishers honored were:

• Michael Beckerman and Jan Vogler for their liner notes, The Secrets of Dvorák's Cello Concerto, released by Sony Classical, Sony/BMG Entertainment.
  
  
• Sally Bick for her article, "Of Mice and Men: Copland, Hollywood, and American Musical Modernism," published by American Music
  
  
• Jeff Gordinier for his articles, "The Virtuoso" and "The Strange Art of the Male Soprano," published by Details
  
  
• Ernest Hardy for his liner notes, Chet Baker: Career, 1952-1988, released by Shout! Factory
  
  
• Marya Hornbacher for her article, "Return of a Virtuoso," published by Smithsonian
  
  
• Joshua Kosman for his article, "Thoroughly Modern Music," published by Symphony
  
  
• John McDonough for his article, "Elegant Vintage," published by Downbeat
  
  
• Elizabeth Mendez Berry for her article, "Love Hurts," published by Vibe
  
  
• David Ritz for his liner notes, Johnny "Guitar" Watson: The Funk Anthology, released by Shout! Factory
  
  
• W. Anthony Sheppard for his article, "Cinematic Realism, Reflexivity and the American 'Madame Butterfly' Narratives," published by Cambridge Opera Journal

In addition, ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Awards were presented to:

• The Bard Music Festival Princeton Paperbacks
  
  
• David Jenness and Don Velsey for their book, Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950-2000, published by Routledge
  
  
• Vivian Perlis and Libby Van Cleve for their ongoing series, An Oral History of American Music series, published by Yale University Press
  
  
• Bob Spitz for The Beatles, published by Little, Brown and Company
  
  
• Katy St. Clair for her article, "A Very Special Concert," published by SF Weekly

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