Jazz News: Five Points festival deadline; Downbeat Readers Poll, Artists vs. AI

This is Jazz News, a look at what’s news in jazz, music and the arts.

A reminder that the deadline for applications to play at the 2024 Five Points Jazz Festival is this Thursday, November 30th at midnight. The 2024 festival is on Saturday, June 8, right on Welton Street, historically known as the “Harlem of the West.” Music fans, call your favorite players and make sure they’re getting their application into ArtsandVenuesDenver.com.

(SOURCE: Arts & Venues Denver)

Another accolade for Samara Joy, who was named Downbeat Magazine’s Female Vocalist of the Year, and whose album “Linger Awhile” was named Album of the Year in the latest Reader’s Poll in the December issue now online.

The all-female supergroup Artemis was voted Group of the Year. Posthumously, Pharoah Sanders was named to the Downbeat Hall of Fame, and Wayne Shorter was named Artist of the Year.

Maria Schneider was named Composer of the Year, Arranger of the Year, and leader of the Large Ensemble of the Year. Buddy Guy landed Blues Artist of the Year and Blues Album of the Year for “Blues Don’t Lie.”

Jon Batiste was named “Beyond Artist” of the Year. The Beyond Album of the Year nod went to the Tedeschi Trucks Band for “I Am the Moon.” (SOURCES: DownBeat/88th Annual Readers Poll)

On this Cyber Monday, we note the latest salvo in the war between human creators – we call them “artists” – and artificial intelligence companies. DigitalMusicNews.com reports on last week’s class-action lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, filed by non-fiction author Julian Sancton (Madhouse at the End of the Earth) in New York federal court. Like other suits against OpenAI, this suit alleges “taking the combined works of humanity without permission.”

The accusation describes the process of training or “calibrating” the AI software by using the author’s content, to mimic their style without compensation. OpenAI has said that its products do not constitute derivative work and is, therefore, not copyright infringement. (SOURCES: Digital Music News; Forbes)

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