The nominations are in for this year’s Jazz FM Awards ceremony, which is scheduled for 25th April, coinciding with the centenary of Ella Fitzgerald’s birth.
Two winners have been announced already (the rest will have to wait until the ceremony itself on 25th April). The first of them is UK R&B legend, GEORGIE FAME (pictured above), is set to be honoured by a PPL Lifetime Achievement Award and will perform an exclusive show on the evening in tandem with a quartet fronted by noted arranger, Guy Barker. The second winner announced ahead of the awards show is man of the moment, DAMIEN CHAZELLE, the director of the critically-acclaimed movie, La La Land (he also directed the jazz movie, Whiplash). Chazelle is set to scoop the Impact Award for his work in taking jazz to a broader audience.
Said, the film director, talking to Jazz Fm: “What’s interesting about jazz now is that it’s an art form that is kind of at a crossroads and maybe has been for some time. An art form where there’s a lot of debate about what it’s supposed to be… It was important to me to have that said out loud in the movie….[The views of the characters] are the two sides of my brain …purity and tradition versus the need to keep an art form alive and modern.”
The nominees whose fate has yet t be determined include R&B/pop siren Laura Mvula, Stax Records talisman William Bell, and neo-soul auteur Jordan Rakei who are aiming to scoop Soul Artist of the Year. US jazz heavyweights Brad Mehldau, David Bowie collaborator Donny McCaslin, and genre-bending pianist Robert Glasper are all nominated for International Jazz Artist of the Year, while groove duo Yussef Kamaal, pianist Ashley Henry, and Nubya Garcia who represent the outstanding British talent that has emerged in 2016 and are up for Breakthrough Act of the Year.
Veteran rockers The Rolling Stones have been nominated for two awards under the categories of Album of the Year and Blues Artist of the Year for Blues & Lonesome, with US singer-songwriters Bonnie Raitt and Eric Bibb also in contention for the latter award. Another dual nominee is drummer and social activist Jaimeo Brown for Jazz Innovation and Digital Initiative of the Year, where he will be up against DJ Gilles Peterson and US trumpeter Dave Douglas.
The public still has an opportunity to cast their votes in the categories of Album of the Year, UK Jazz Act of the Year and Live Experience of the Year. Nominees featuring in these categories include Shabaka Hutchings, Gregory Porter, Wayne Shorter, Madeleine Peyroux, Soweto Kinch, Anderson .Paak, Kurt Elling, Roberto Fonseca and Julian Arguelles.
Public voting is open now at www.jazzfmawards.com and will close on 31 March 2017.
Click ‘Read More’ link to see full list of nominees.
Full list of 2017 Nominees:
BREAKTHROUGH ACT OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by Yamaha
Ashley Henry
Nubya Garcia
Yussef Kamaal
INTERNATIONAL JAZZ ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by Oris Watches
Brad Mehldau
Donny McCaslin
Robert Glasper
VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by PRS for Music
Carleen Anderson
Norma Winstone
Polly Gibbons
INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by Rathbones
Nikki Yeoh
Gwilym Simcock
Tim Garland
BLUES ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by The Piano Bar Soho
Bonnie Raitt
Eric Bibb
The Rolling Stones
SOUL ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by RCS
Jordan Rakei
Laura Mvula
William Bell
JAZZ INNOVATION OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by Mishcon de Reya
Darcy James Argue
Jaimeo Brown
Moon Hooch
DIGITAL INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by Pollitt & Partners
Dave Douglas – Greenleaf Music
Gilles Peterson – Worldwide FM
Jaimeo Brown – Transcendence: Work Songs
ALBUM OF THE YEAR (PUBLIC VOTE)
Sponsored by Arqiva
Anderson .Paak – Malibu
Donny McCaslin – Beyond Now
Gregory Porter – Take Me To The Alley
Kurt Elling – The Beautiful Day
Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns
The Rolling Stones – Blue & Lonesome
UK JAZZ ACT OF THE YEAR (PUBLIC VOTE)
Sponsored by Grange Hotels
Dinosaur
Shabaka Hutchings
Soweto Kinch
LIVE EXPERIENCE OF THE YEAR (PUBLIC VOTE)
Ashley Henry Trio at Jazz Re:Fest, Royal Festival Hall
Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles at Glee Club Birmingham
Roberto Fonseca Trio at Gateshead International Jazz Festival, Sage Gateshead
Julian Arguelles with Frankfurt Radio Big Band, Django Bates & Steve Argüelles at Cheltenham Jazz Festival
Orphy Robinson All Stars – The Bobby Hutcherson Songbook at St James The Great, London
Wayne Shorter Quartet at EFG London Jazz Festival, Barbican
PPL LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Recipient: Georgie Fame
IMPACT AWARD
Recipient: Damien Chazelle
