The Hall of Fame

The Hall of Fame

After reading a post about athletically stimulating music vs. emotionally stimulating music and myself writing a blog about jazz and the NBA, my curiosity lead me to wonder if there was a "Jazz Hall of Fame."  To little surprise, after a few google searches, I was able to find something.  Though, what I found was not exactly what I was expecting.  

According to Wikipedia, when searching for a "Jazz Hall of Fame," you are limited to 5 choices:

- Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (1978-present)

- The Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame (1978-2004)

- Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame (2001-present)

- Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame (1952-present)

- The Nesuhi Eregun Jazz Hall of Fame at J@LC

I decided to take a look at the Down Beat version seeing that it has been around the longest.  And to no surprise, I learned that in 1952, Louis Armstrong was the first person inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame.  However, I was fascinated to learn that (according to the Down Beat webpage) "The Hall" only includes 117 members - Chick Corea being the latest inductee for 2010.

Now, it is a well known fact that in sports, the National Baseball Hall of Fame is the hardest to crack.  I've heard before that less than 2% of the total number of professional baseball players all-time make it to Cooperstown.  There are currently 292 inductees.  Of the 292, 66 are alive today.  According to a site I found, there have been just over 17,250 professional baseball players all-time.

Unfortunately, it is a lot harder to determine how many professional musicians there have been all-time.  I guess you could look at member lists of music unions. Or you could look to discographies, but that could still exclude many musicians from the early days when recording sessions were less common than a paying steady gig.

The idea of a Jazz Hall of Fame is intriguing though.  In sports, you can look to statistics, championships won and lost, clutch performances, and many other factors to determine the mettle of a pro player.  However, in music, there are so many aspects that can't be judged like sports can.  Sure, I'm sure we could all go to our iTunes library and grab our favorite player playing a blazing tempo solo.  But how would that player stack up against your favorite ballad performer?  I'm a trumpet player, so I will go right to range.  Should my Hall of Fame favor Maynard Fergusson over Kenny Dorham?  Could you imagine if the number of 16th notes you played over your career could get you into inducted into the Hall? 

Another difference between sports and music is that, generally (not in all cases), careers are much shorter in sports.  And, in most cases, being inducted into a Hall of Fame comes after your career is over.  However, for most musicians, careers end when life ends.  Should there be a timetable on when you can be inducted?  Should you have passed away already?  But then who are we honoring, the person or the legacy?  Miles was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in 1962.  Sure, he had already recorded The Birth of the Cool and Kind of Blue... but he still had the 2nd great quintet and a whole electric period (to grossly generalize) still left in him.  Was his induction pre-mature? 

There seems to be very little published criteria, at least online, about how one gets inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame.  And quite possibly a factor that there are only 117 members?  According to the hard facts from Wikipedia, the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame includes winners from both the readers' and critics' poll.  Hmmm. Ok. Sounds good to me!

- sask4myopinion