April 16 2015 — The Jazz Journalists Association has launched voting for winners in 39 categories of excellence in music and music media in its 19th annual JJA Jazz Awards. Finalist nominees are being voted on by the professional journalist members of the JJA, with musician-winners to be announced May 15 and winners for media accomplishments to be announced at the JJA’s annual New York City Jazz Awards party, June 16 at the Blue Note Jazz Club, 3:30 – 5:30 pm.
Finalists in most categories result from the accrual of first-round nominations made by professional journalist voting members of the JJA. Voting ends at midnight, Sunday April 26.
The JJA Jazz Awards, first held in 1996, is an independent project of the JJA, with sponsors including the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Brothe,r Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale, Mack Avenue Records, ECM Records, Resonance Records, Berklee College of Music, BMI, New School Jazz and the Jazz Institute of Chicago. More sponsorship is being solicited.
Contenders for the most prestigious Jazz Awards are: Chick Corea, Charles Lloyd and Randy Weston for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz, and writers Marc Myers, Ted Panken and Neil Tesser for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism. Ambrose Akinmusire, Chick Corea and Jason Moran are nominated for Jazz Musician of the Year (2014) honors, and Best Record of the Year nominees are The Art of Conversation (Impulse!) by Kenny Barron and Dave Holland; The Rite of Spring (Sony Music) by The Bad Plus, and All Rise (Blue Note) by Jason Moran. Awards for media are to be determined for best book, periodical, blog, website and “short form jazz news video,” besides the Robert Palmer-Helen Oakley Dance Award for Excellence in Writing and the Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.
Winners of Jazz Awards in musical categories will receive their engraved statuettes onstage at their performances across the U.S. All musician-winners of 2015 Jazz Awards will be welcomed for free (reservation required) to the NYC Jazz Awards party; nominees will be offered tickets at the special JJA member discounted price. Tickets for the NYC Jazz Awards party are not yet on sale.
For further information about the 2015 JJA Jazz Awards, contact president@jazzjournalists.org.
