Charles Lloyd, Alice Zawadzki and SEED Ensemble among Jazz FM Award Nominees
Mike Flynn
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
The nominees for the eighth edition of the Jazz FM Awards have been announced and include a wealth of jazz talent from both sides of the Atlantic, recognising the past year’s musical achievements from newcomers to living legends alike
The big name nominees include heavyweight US tenor sax titans Charles Lloyd and Branford Marsalis – both in the International Jazz Act Of The Year category – which also includes acclaimed pianist Kris Davis, who’s worked with numerous left-field jazz luminaries such as John Zorn, Terri Lyne Carrington, Craig Taborn and Tyshawn Sorey.
The UK’s thriving home-grown scene is represented across the nominations, notably in the Album Of The Year category, which includes pianist Ashley Henry’s Beautiful Vinyl Hunter, saxophonist Binker Golding’s Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers, SEED Ensemble’s Driftglass, trumpeter Yazz Ahmed’s Polyhymnia, plus US names including another nomination for Branford Marsalis and his Quartet’s The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul and top vocalist Jazzmeia Horn’s Love and Liberation.
The UK Jazz Act Of The Year includes the hard touring keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones alongside further nominations for SEED Ensemble and Yazz Ahmed, while the Digital and Innovation categories reflect the imaginative ways musicians and promoters are presenting jazz across the live and online spaces, with nominations for the hybrid electro-acoustic drummer Chiminyo (aka Tim Doyle), the cross-platform Jazz Re:freshed, the four-time Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier, and drummer/percussionists Sarathy Korwar and Moses Boyd.
The Breakthrough category also includes three rising stars in the form of trombonist Rosie Turton, saxophonist Xhosa Cole and trumpeter Yelfris Valdés, while the Vocalist Of The Year nominees include Alice Zawadzki, Georgia Cécile and Judi Jackson. And more exciting newcomers are nominated for the Instrumentalist Of The Year Award and include Nérija guitarist Shirley Tetteh, trumpeter Mark Kavuma and another nomination for saxophonist Binker Golding.
A new category, Venue Of The Year, recognises the invaluable role played by live music spaces across the UK with nominations for Band on the Wall, Manchester; Church of Sound, London; Love Supreme Jazz Festival, Glynde; Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, London; The Verdict, Brighton and The Vortex, Dalston. The breadth of the Awards also features nominations for Soul Act Of The Year who are Anderson .Paak, Celeste and Philip Bailey, and the nominees for Blues Act Of The Year are Keb’ Mo’, Gary Clark Jr and Jon Cleary.
The UK Jazz Act of the Year, Album Of The Year and Venue Of The Year winners will be decided by a public vote which opens today, 18 March, and closes at 11.59pm on 15 April.
The PPL Lifetime Achievement Award, Gold Award and Impact Award recipients will be announced ahead of the ceremony.
For more info visit www.jazzfmawards.com and tune in to Jazz FM to hear more on the nominations at www.jazzfm.com