Jazz Journalists
Association Jazz Awards Gala
155 Varick Street
June 14, 2010
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Emerging new jazz talents and acclaimed stars,
recording debuts and albums of historical
importance, events producers, liner note writers,
photographers, broadcasters and lifetime achievers
in jazz journalism -- all are nominees up for
consideration in the 2010 Jazz Awards, an initiative
of the Jazz Journalists Association.
The JJA, a non-profit international professional
organization of more than 300 writers,
photographers, broadcasters and new media producers,
today posted finalists in 41 categories of
excellence in music-making, presentation and
documentation for 14th annual Jazz Awards at its
website JJAJazzAwards.com.
Winners of the Awards, determined by a poll of JJA
professional members in good standing, will be
announced and celebrated at a gala afternoon event
on June 14, 2010 at City Winery, New York.
Darcy James Argue, a 35-year-old Canadian-born
composer and bandleader living in Brooklyn, is a
first-time competitor named in five categories (Up &
Coming Artist of the Year, Composer, Arranger, Big
Band for his Secret Society and Record of the Year
released between March 1 2009 and February 28 2010,
for Infernal Machines). Other nominees for multiple
awards include pianist Vijay Iyer (Musician of the
Year, Composer, Record for his trio's Historicity,
Small Ensemble and Pianist), reeds specialist Henry
Threadgill (Musician, Composer, Record for This
Brings Us To, Vol. 1 and Small Ensemble for his band
Zooid), alto saxophonist Steve Lehman (Composer,
Record for Travail, Transformation and Flow, Alto
Saxophonist) and Maria Schneider (Composer,
Arranger, and Large Ensemble for her Maria Schneider
Orchestra).
Five out of six finalists for Lifetime Achievement
in Jazz (Muhal Richard Abrams, Jimmy Heath, James
Moody, Wayne Shorter and Randy Weston) are already
National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters, and one
(drummer Paul Motian) has been a fixture on the New
York scene since recording in pianist Bill Evans's
trio at the Village Vanguard in 1961. Trumpeter
Freddie Hubbard's posthumously released Without A
Song: Live in Europe 1969 is competing against The
Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935 -
1946) and Ella Fitzgerald's Twelve Nights in
Hollywood and three other contenders.
"The finalists for 2010 Jazz Awards reflect the
depth of talent and breadth of styles that jazz
encompasses today," said Howard Mandel, president of
the Jazz Journalists Association, about the ballot.
"Highly creative octagenarians such as Roy Haynes,
Tony Bennett, Ornette Coleman, Lee Konitz, Bill
Holman, Frank Wess, Bucky Pizzarelli and producer
George Wein -- are celebrated alongside new
generation musicians like Argue, Iyer, Lehman,
composer John Hollenbeck, saxophonist Miguel Zenón,
bassists Esperanza Spalding and Linda Oh, singer
Gretchen Parlato, banjoist Bela Fleck, flutists
Jamie Baum and Nicole Mitchell, clarinetist Evan
Christopher, violinist Jenny Scheinman and producer
Brice Rosenbloom. This suggests undiminished
strength in an art form that's still less than 100
years old."
The JJA Jazz Awards are the only honors bestowed by
any organization in the United States of excellence
in jazz journalism. This year for the first time JJA
voters will select a Blog of the Year along with
Website, Periodical, Book, Best Liner Notes, Feature
and Review Writer, Photographer, Broadcaster and a
recipient of Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism
(won in 2009 by Mike Zwerin of Bloomberg News and
formerly the International Herald Tribune, who died
on April 2, 2010). Nominees this year for this
prestigious Award are writers Stanley Crouch (New
York), Paul deBarros (Seattle), Don Heckman (Los
Angeles), Bill Milkowski (New York), and W. Royal
Stokes (Elkins, W. Virginia, formerly of Silver
Spring, MD).
Nominations for the JJA's Jazz Awards were filed by
60 JJA members over a month-long voting period;
these nominees will be presented to the
Association's entire membership, along with Photo of
the Year entries (to be announced and posted atJJAJazzAwards.comon
May 3) for a second voting round. The Jazz Awards
themselves, engraved statuettes, have become objects
of admiration since the Awards were launched in
1997.
The JJA's Jazz Awards gala, a fundraiser, will
include introduction of a new coterie of "activists,
advocates, aiders and abettors of jazz" who comprise
the JJA's "A Team." The Awards event, to be MC'd by
Terrance McKnight of WQXR-FM, will comprise both the
Awards announcements and a reception featuring
refreshments including Brother Thelonious Belgian
Ale and wine produced on site at City Winery.
Tickets will go on sale on May 3.
For further information go to www.JJAJazzAwards.com or
contact Howard Mandel,President@JazzJournalists.org.
A complete list of JJA Jazz Awards nominees follows.
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www.jjajazzawards.org
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