Pat Metheny to be honoured with PRS for Music Gold Award and Esperanza Spalding to appear at Jazz FM Awards
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Revered US guitarist Pat Metheny (pictured) has been confirmed as the recipient of the PRS for Music Gold Award at this year's Jazz FM Awards, which take place next Monday on 30 April at Shoreditch Town Hall, London.
Widely acclaimed as one of the all-time jazz guitar greats, Metheny's extraordinary recording career began in 1974 on pianist Paul Bley's album Jaco, named after the iconic bassist Jaco Pastorius, who also appeared on the album and on Metheny's 1976 acclaimed debut on ECM, Bright Sized Life, which also featured drummer Bob Moses. The guitarist went on to win 20 Grammy Awards over a vast recording legacy that continues today with a new album scheduled for later this year. Metheny will be at the awards ceremony to present an award and collect the prestigious Gold Award. Previous recipients of this award include pianist Ramsey Lewis and The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.
Also announced will be appearances two fellow Grammy winners – bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding and US vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant – who will join forces with fast rising British stars – saxophonist Nubya Garcia and pianist Ashley Henry – for a unique all-star performance. Spalding is nominated for the Jazz Innovation Award for her pioneering Facebook live streamed album recording session; Garcia is nominated for Breakthrough Act of the Year and Salvant is nominated in both International Artist of the Year and Album of the Year categories. This announcement follows the news that both George Benson and Dame Cleo Laine will be honoured with the PPL Lifetime Achievement Award and Impact Awards respectively.
The full list of nominees is as follows:
Breakthrough Act of the Year: Ezra Collective; Nubya Garcia; Rob Luft.
International Soul Artist of the Year: Jordan Rakei; Leroy Hutson; Moonchild.
UK Jazz Act of the Year (Public Vote): Dinosaur; Ezra Collective; Kansas Smitty's House Band.
Digital Initiative of the Year: Esperanza Spalding: Exposure; Jacob Collier: I Harm U; Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club: Live Streaming.
Instrumentalist of the Year: Evan Parker; Theon Cross; Yazz Ahmed.
International Blues Artist of the Year: Lucky Peterson; Taj Mahal & Keb' Mo; Robert Cray.
Jazz Innovation of the Year: Carleen Anderson: Cage Street Memorial; Joe Armon Jones and Maxwell Owin: Idiom; Shabaka Hutchings: multiple projects.
Vocalist of the Year: Alice Zawadzki; Liane Carroll; Zara McFarlane. International Jazz
Artist of the Year: Cécile McLorin Salvant; Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah; Thundercat.
Album of the Year (Public Vote): Blue Note All-Stars – Our Point of View; Cécile McLorin Salvant – Dreams and Daggers; Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah – Diaspora; Denys Baptiste – The Late Trane; Phronesis – The Behemoth; Thundercat – Drunk.
Live Experience of the Year (Public Vote): An evening with Dave Holland – Ambleside Days Festival at Zephirellis Cinema (featuring Norma Winstone, Gwilym Simcock, Mike Walker, Nikki Iles, Mark Lockheart, Stan Sulzmann, Tim Garland, John Helliwell, Nick Smart, James Maddren and Asif Sirkis); CHICAGOXLONDON – Makaya McCraven at Total Refreshment Centre – 18 October, featuring Theon Cross Trio and Jaimie Branch Fly Or Die Ensemble; Ronnie Scott's presents Ezra Collective – EFG London Jazz Festival at Islington Assembly Hall; Jazz Re:Fest at the Southbank Centre; Pharoah Sanders Quartet + Denys Baptiste + Alina Bzhezhinska: A Concert for Alice and John – EFG London Jazz Festival at The Barbican and Randolph Matthews – Jazz in the Round at Love Supreme Festival.
– Mike Flynn
For more info visit www.jazzfmawards.com