Jazz breaking news: Lauren Kinsella wins Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Acclaimed vocalist and composer Lauren Kinsella (pictured left) has won the 2013 Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize.
The Dublin-born, London-based artist was chosen for the award – conferred jointly by the Royal Academy of Music and Edition Records – by a panel including the Academy’s head of jazz, Nick Smart, saxophonist and Wheeler-collaborator Evan Parker, and founder of Edition Records, Dave Stapleton.
Evan Parker said: “In a year of many strong contenders her approach stood out for its committed approach to both the freely improvised and notation based material, for its clear group empathy and the ingenious exploitation of the group’s instrumental and creative resources.”
The prize includes the recording of an album with Edition Records, to be released next year. Kinsella released her second album, My Guess, to widespread praise earlier this year. She has performed with bands Thought-Fox and Blue-Eyed Hawk, and in a duo with percussionist Alex Huber, and already has multiple Europe-wide festival and broadcasting credits. Forthcoming appearances include The BBC Proms, the London Jazz Festival, and an Irish tour supported by Music Network.
Kinsella’s distinctive vocal style was described by Jack Massarick in the July issue of Jazzwise as an “abstract lexicon of … gasps, hums, hisses, sighs and semi-melted vowels and consonants [that] forms a strong and surprisingly flexible vocal improvisation system all of her own.” The Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize is awarded for excellence in both performance and composition to a young jazz artist graduating from the Academy. Founded in 2011, the inaugural prize was given to saxophonist Josh Arcoleo, with trumpeter Reuben Fowler winning in 2012.
– Matthew Wright