The 1959 Playboy Jazz Poll

You've been Digging the sounds all year through – at the most popular jazz spots, at the festivals, on radio and television, on your own hi-fi rig. Now it's time to pick your favorites for the 1959 Playboy All-Star Jazz Band. This is a way you have of saying thank you to the jazz musicians who pleased and entertained you most during the past 12 months. This is far and away the biggest popularity poll conducted in jazz – the only one outside the music trade – and winning a place among the Playboy All-Stars is considered a major honor by the musicians themselves. The jazzmen who win will be awarded the prized sterling silver Playboy Jazz Medal. They will also appear in the third Playboy Jazz All-Stars LP album, a product of intra-industry cooperation among the nation's major recording companies.

To help make this third annual poll the biggest and most successful yet, everyone who votes in it will be given a chance to win a copy of the first Playboy Jazz All-Stars album. One hundred readers will be chosen at random from among the jazz ballots and will receive the handsome twin-LP album featuring the winners of the first annual poll. It doesn't matter how you vote – sending in your ballot makes you eligible to win an album. Read the instructions that follow and get your own jazz ballot in the mail today.

1. Your four-page jazz ballot appears below. A Nominating Board composed of winners of last year's poll, jazz editors, promoters and representatives of the major recording companies have nominated the jazz artists they consider to be the most outstanding of the year and this may serve as an aid in your voting. However, you may vote for any living artist in the jazz field.

2. The artists are divided into categories, composing the 1959 Playboy All-Star Jazz Band, and in some categories you are allowed to vote for more than one musician (e.g., trumpet, trombone) because a band normally includes more than one of that instrument. Be careful to cast the proper number of votes, as too many in any one category will disqualify all your votes in that category.

3. If you wish to vote for an artist who has been nominated, simply place an X in the box before his name; if you wish to vote for an artist who has not been nominated, write his name in at the bottom of the category and place an X in the box before it.

4. For leader, choose the man you feel has done the most outstanding job of leading a big jazz band (eight or more pieces) in the past year; in each category, pick the musicians you feel have been the most outstanding in jazz in the past 12 months.

5. Please note that there are four pages to the ballot. Vote for your favorites on all four of them, or use a reasonable facsimile. Print your correct name and address on the last page; you are allowed to cast only one complete ballot in the poll and that must carry your correct name and address or your votes will not be counted. These are also necessary if you are to be included in the drawing for the 100 free Playboy Jazz All-Stars albums.

6. Cut your four-page ballot along the dotted lines and mail to Playboy Jazz Poll, 232 E. Ohio Street, Chicago 11, Illinois. Ballots must be postmarked before midnight, November 1st, 1958, in order to be counted, so get yours in the mail at once. The winners of the third annual Playboy Jazz Poll will be announced in the February issue.

Nominating Board: Chet Baker, Bob Brookmeyer, Dave Brubeck, Four Freshmen, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, J. J. Johnson, Stan Kenton, Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Kai Winding; George Avakian; Joe Glaser, Associated Booking Corp.; Bill Simon,Billboard; Rudi Meyer, Birdland; Frank Holzfiend, The Blue Note; Don Gold,Down Beat; Bob Schwartz, KRMD; Elaine Lorillard, Newport Jazz Festival; John Mehegan,New York Herald Tribune; Leonard Feather, Playboy; Creed Taylor, ABC-Paramount; Dave Usher, Argo; Nesuhi Ertegun, Atlantic; Sidney Frey, Audio Fidelity; Cal Lampley, Irving Townsend, Columbia; David Stuart, Contemporary; Marvin P. Holtzman, Decca; Lester Koenig, Good Time Jazz; Robert Shad, Mercury; Robert S. Weinstock, Prestige; Fred Reynolds, RCA Victor; Bill Grauer, Jr., Riverside; Luigi Creatore, Hugo Peretti, Roulette; George Wein, Story-ville; Norman Granz, Verve; Ben Rosner, Vik; Richard Bock, World Pacific.

Leder

(Please check one.)

Trumpet

(Please check four.)

Trombone

Pleas cheak four

Alto Sax

(Please check two.)

Tenor Sax

(Please check two.)

Baritone Sax

(Please check one.)

Clarinet

(Please check one.)

Piano

(Please check one.)

Guitar

(Please check one.)

Bass

(Please check one.)

Drums

(Please check one.)

Misc. Instrument

(Please check one.)

Male Vocalist

(Please check one.)

Female Vocalist(Please check one.)

Instrumental Combo

(Please check one.)

Vocal Group

(Please check one.)

Correct name and address must be printed here to authenticate ballot.