The Jazz Journalists Association has announced winners of its 29th annual JJA Jazz Awards for excellence in music and music journalism.
Among top tier honors in the more than 40 categories of Awards presented are:
- Drummer-pianist-composer-bandleader Jack DeJohnette wins for his Lifetime Achievement in Jazz,
- Author-broadcaster-Wall Street Journal contributor Will Friedwald wins for his Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism,
- Christian McBride — bassist, bandleader, broadcaster — is hailed as Musician of the Year,
- Joshua Redman wins as Tenor Saxophonist of the Year and his album where are we (Blue Note) is named Best Album of the Year,
- Evenings at the Village Gate, with John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy, is Historical Record of the Year,
- Winning books are Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music by composer-performer Henry Threadgill with Brent Edwards Hayes, and In Search of a Beautiful Freedom: New and Selected Essays by Farah Jasmine Griffin,
- Multi-reeds player Roscoe Mitchell wins Album Cover Art for his painting on the album Roscoe Mitchell Orchestra and Space Trio at the Fault Zone Festival.
Excluding Lifetime and Career Achievement honors, the Awards are conferred on the basis of work done in calendar year 2023. The complete list of winners and nominees, as well as previously announced JJA Jazz Heroes, are posted at www.JJAJazzAwards.org.
The JJA, a non-profit organization advancing the interests of writers, photographers, broadcasters and new media professionals covering jazz, initiated the Jazz Awards in 1996, and until 2020 celebrated them with gala community events held at leading New York City venues. Currently produced as a globally accessible internet activity, the JJA Jazz Awards are known for representing the views of the critics and commentators paying closest attention to developments and documentation of creative music.
The JJA Jazz Awards began in 1996, originally in partnership with the Knitting Factory, independently since 1999. Awards are typically presented to winning musicians in public, before their audiences at summer performances. Besides the JJA Jazz Awards, the Jazz Journalists Association currently produces The Buzz: The JJA Podcast and Seeing Jazz Music Photography Master Classes.
Sponsors of the 2024 JJA Jazz Awards are Berklee College of Music, the Jazz Foundation of America, Blue Note Records, Verve Records and SFJazz. For further information on the JJA Jazz Awards and Jazz Journalists Association contact Howard Mandel, President@JazzJournalists.org
