More than 200 musicians, musical achievements, music journalists and media platforms are celebrated in the announcement of finalists for the 2022 JJA Jazz Awards.
Lifetime Achievement in Jazz nominees — composer-orchestra leader Toshiko Akyoshi, vocalist Sheila Jordan, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, saxophonists Marshall Allen, Charles Lloyd and Roscoe Mitchell, and bassist William Parker — have exemplified dedication and creativity for decades. More recently emerged artists such as “Up ‘n’ Coming Musician of the Year” nominated singer Samara Joy and saxophonists Melissa Aldana, James Brandon Lewis and Immanuel Wilkins (and Musican of the Year nominee Jon Batiste, for another) demonstrate the same qualities, with fresh energies and ideas.
See the Finalists for Awards for Performance and Recordings, and for Journalism and Media.
The JJA Awards for Journalists are highly prized as coming from the nominees’ peers – the 200-some international writers, bloggers, photographers, broadcasters, webcasters and new media professionals who are active members of the JJA. Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism nominees are, this year, all noted, accomplished writers: Larry Blumenfeld, Will Friedwald, Dan Ouellette, John McDonough and the late Greg Tate. New attention is being brought to jazz books, with separate Awards now for Best Biography/Autobiography, and Best Book of History, Criticism and Culture, and Awards for Podcasts and Livestreams, introduced last year, continue.
JJA Jazz Awards finalists are determined by open nominations from JJA professional members, conducted in March, in consideration of works done primarily in the previous year (i.e., 2021) — except for Lifetime Achievement Awards, of course. Nominees in the 47 categories number more than 1000 — and (according to the tabulators’ review) few are frivolous, but rather demonstrate the truly high level of accomplishment, worldwide, associated with the spread of and enjoyment of jazz.
