Jazz FM Award Winners 2013 revealed

One of the biggest nights in the music calendar took place last night at One Marylebone. In 2012 Jazz FM launched their gong show to celebrate the work of jazz musicians, composers and contributors from across the globe.

The 2013 nominations were chosen by an expert judging panel, drawn from the international jazz scene.

The nominations then went to a jury of Jazz FM presenters Mike Vitti and Chris Philips as well as Simon Cooke of Ronnie Scott’s, John Cumming of the London Jazz Festival, Tony Dudley-Evans from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and Jazzwise’s Jon Newey. The panel chaired by former BBC broadcaster Alex Webb.

The winners for the Jazz FM Awards 2013:

UK Jazz Artist Of The Year (Public Vote) Sponsored By Place 2 Be
Neil Cowley Trio

A child protégé, Cowley was performing Shostakovich by the age of 10. By 17 he had turned his back on the world of classical music and entered the world of pop, performing and recording with The Brand New Heavies and Zero 7, until he formed his own band, Fragile State, producing two critically acclaimed albums that set the world of jazzy chill-out music alight. He began to find extracting music from a computer chip unbearable, an experience he refers to as “lonely and depressing”. So, he called on the oldest friend he had – his dear old piano, and set forth to present creativity without technological hindrance. The result was Displaced. Released to huge critical acclaim, the outstanding album of original recordings presents Cowley as a thoroughly modern player with an impeccable touch.

With Richard Sadler on double bass, and Evan Jenkins on drums, Cowley has assembled a masterful jazz trio, whose bursts of energy and emotional infectiousness underpin his tremendous flair for creating beautiful, sometimes forceful melodies.

International Jazz Artist Sponsored By Thai Airways
Kurt Elling

Grammy Award winner Kurt Elling is among the world’s foremost jazz vocalists. He has won every DownBeat Critics Poll for the last thirteen years and has been named “Male Singer of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association eight times in that same span. Every one of Elling’s nine albums has been nominated for a Grammy. Elling’s rich baritone spans four octaves and features both astonishing technical mastery and emotional depth. His repertoire includes original compositions and modern interpretations of standards, all of which are springboards for inspired improvisation, scatting, spoken word, and poetry. The New York Times declared, “Elling is the standout male vocalist of our time,” while the Washington Post added, “Since the mid-1990s, no singer in jazz has been as daring, dynamic or interesting as Kurt Elling.

With his soaring vocal flights, his edgy lyrics and sense of being on a musical mission, he ! has come to embody the creative spirit in jazz.” Elling was the Artist-in-Residence for the Singapore and Monterey Jazz Festivals. He has also written multi-disciplinary works for The Steppenwolf Theatre and the City of Chicago. The Obama Administration’s first state dinner featured Elling in a command performance. Kurt Elling has toured vigorously throughout his career, thrilling audiences throughout the world and collaborating with the world’s finest orchestras.

Cutting Edge Award For Jazz Innovation Sponsored By BMW
Robert Glasper

Grammy nominated Robert Glasper has long kept one foot planted firmly in jazz and the other in hip-hop and R&B. He’s worked extensively with Q-Tip, playing keyboards on the rapper’s 2008 album The Renaissance and co-writing the album single “Life Is Better” which featured his label mate Norah Jones. Glasper also serves as the music director in Yasiin Bey’s touring band, and has toured with the multi-platinum R&B singer Maxwell. The Los Angeles Times once wrote that “it’s a short list of jazz pianists who have the wherewithal to drop a J Dilla reference into a Thelonious Monk cover, but not many jazz pianists are Robert Glasper,” adding that “he’s equally comfortable in the worlds of hip-hop and jazz,” and praising the organic way in which he “builds a bridge between his two musical touchstones.”

Glasper drove that point home with his last album, 2009’s Double! -Booked, which was split neatly in half. The first part featured his acoustic Trio, which had gathered a great deal of acclaim in the jazz world and beyond over the course of two previous Blue Note albums. The second part featured his electric Experiment band and hinted at things to come, even earning the keyboardist his first GRAMMY nomination for “All Matter,” a collaboration with the singer Bilal that was among the contenders in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance category in 2010. Reflecting back, Glasper is rightly proud of Black Radio, but also humbled and grateful for the outpouring of support and talent that it took to bring the album into being. “Everyone just said yes, period, we’ll do it. It was smoother than I ever thought it would be to get all these great, amazing artists to come together and do this project.”

UK Vocalist Of The Year
Carleen Anderson

Carleen Anderson (pictured above) arrived in the UK in the late 1980s and quickly rose to stardom with her band the ‘Young Disciples’. After the band dissolved, she continued a successful career as a solo artist. Still one of the most powerful vocalists today, Carleen Anderson has been a favourite of audiences and fellow artists alike for over two decades. She has been quoted by as a major influence by many vocalists, like Amy Winehouse: “For live performances, you absolutely have to see Carleen Anderson – at least 3 times in your life!”

Carleen routinely sells out Ronnie Scott’s in London and her all new Carleen Anderson Soul Trio is quickly becoming a hot tip in the Jazz Festival Circuit. Carleen was raised by her paternal grandparents who ran a gospel church in Houston, Texas. She is the daughter of the original James Brown revue’s Vicki Anderson, her stepfather was Bobby Byrd, James Brown’s right hand man, and James Brown was Carleen’s Godfather. Her Aunt Bettye Anderson, who largely contributed to Carleen’s musical education, was a classically trained vocalist and sang at Martin Luther King’s sermons.

Album Of The Year Sponsored By Delta Air Lines
John Surman: Saltash Bells

Born in Tavistock, Devon in 1944, composer/multi-instrumentalist John Surman is one of the key figures in a generation of European musicians who have crucially expanded the international horizons of jazz during the past thirty years or so. Long acknowledged as an improviser of world class, Surman has also composed a body of work, which extends far beyond the normal range of the jazz repertoire. Already, by the late 60s, it was clear that Surman was a phenomenon. He started out as a teenager playing the music of fellow Devonian Mike Westbrook, and then amazed the London establishment with displays of extravagant instrumental proficiency combined with a passionate, rumbustious imagination. John Surman is a perennial poll winner, and in 1989 received the Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival and a Wire Award for services to jazz in Britain. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music by Plymouth University in 1997 and the BBC voted him ‘Instrumentalist ! of the Year’ in 2002.

Jazz Media
Jazzwise (Magazine)

Jazzwise, launched in 1997, is the UK’s biggest selling jazz monthly magazine. Jazzwise has a broad coverage, from the cutting edge of jazz, improv, bebop, spiritual jazz and jazz-rock to world music, soul jazz, jazz funk, M-BASE, acid jazz and prog jazz. It features news coverage, a national gig guide, gossip column, a jazz-on-film page, opinion column, in-depth features and a review section covering new CD releases, reissues, DVDs, books and live reviews. Breaking news stories feature on the Jazzwise magazine website. Jazzwise also mentors new jazz writers through its on-going intern scheme and the Write Stuff workshops held each November during the London Jazz Festival.

In 2006 Jazzwise editor Jon Newey won journalist of the year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. In 2007 Jazzwise won two awards, best jazz publication at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and best jazz publication at the Ronnie Scott’s awards. In 2009,Jazzwise writer Kevin Le Gendre won jou! rnalist of the year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, while in 2010 Jazzwise won best jazz publication at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards for the second time and gig guide editor Mike Flynn won journalist of the year, while CD reissues reviewer Alyn Shipton won broadcaster of the year.

Best UK Newcomer Sponsored By Aberdeen Asset Management
Beats & Pieces Big Band

Recent winners of the Burghausen European Young Artists’ Jazz Award 2011, the BeatsnPieces Big Band are fast becoming one of the country’s most talked about jazz groups. Led by composer and conductor Ben Cottrell, its 14 members are drawn from some of the most exciting and in demand young musicians active in the UK today, all of whom met and began playing together whilst students in Manchester. Their debut album, Big Ideas, is released in March 2012 on Efpi Records. “BeatsnPieces dazzled with a glorious, full-bloodied set demonstrating all that’s good about big band jazz. The big band tradition is alive and well and living in Manchester.” Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise.

The band’s founder and musical director, Ben Cottrell, was chosen as one of 8 young creative musicians from across the UK to participate in the 2010/11 edition of the prestigious Take Five professional development scheme, growing from an initial meeting in early 2008! , the band were invited to open the Manchester Jazz Festival later that year on the strength of a two track demo recorded at that very first rehearsal. Since then, the band has performed across the UK to consistent audience and critical acclaim. The BeatsnPieces Big Band is grateful to the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund for its support for their recent trip to Germany through an Ensembles and Groups Award.

UK Instrumentalist Of The Year Sponsored By Chapel Down
Nathaniel Facey

Alto saxophonist Nathaniel Facey (pictured above) is best known for his work with the award-winning band Empirical, a group of brilliant young jazz musicians who combine a thoroughly contemporary approach with a deep seated love of the jazz tradition. Born in London in 1983 of Jamaican parents Facey is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and has played with an impressive array of musicians including Courtney Pine, Billy Jenkins and The Jazz Jamaica All Stars. A couple of nights before his appearance at Abergavenny he was seen on TV as a member of ex Specials leader Jerry Dammers’ Spatial AKA Orchestra on BBC 2’s “Later With Jools Holland” programme. Facey is an assured and confident performer who speaks well between tunes and plays with an effortless grace that makes complex musical ideas sound easy.

Live UK Shows Of The Year
Gregory Porter

Born in Los Angeles, raised in Bakersfield, and now living in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, Gregory Porter has made the world his musical home. A frequent guest performer with the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra, Porter also maintains a residency at Smoke Jazz in New York. He appears on 2 tracks on the new Nicola Conte album, appeared on the Joules Holland BBC show in mid April. This year among the many festivals and events he will be on include the ElbJazz Festival in Hamburg, the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland and the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta. With a voice that can caress or confront, embrace or exhort, Grammy nominee Gregory Porter exhibits such an incredible degree of vocal mastery that no less a jazz luminary than Wynton Marsalis had gone on record to call him a fantastic young singer.

Best UK Jazz Venue
Ronnie Scott’s

Ever since his trips in the late 40s and early 50s to the jazz clubs of New York’s 52nd Street, Ronnie Scott had dreamed of opening his own London club. In 1959, the dream came true. Together with Pete King (a fellow tenor saxophonist and personal friend) Ronnie Scott’s club opened in Gerrard Street, in London’s Soho. Since the opening, the venue has featured most of the legendary and popular names in modern jazz and jazz fusion. Ronnie’s plan was simply to provide a place where British jazz musicians could jam. Pete and Ronnie quickly developed a reputation of bringing the best of British modern jazz musicians to the club. Soon, they would persuade the American federation of musicians to lift the blanket ban on American performers in the U.K., paving the way for many legendary performances.

In 1965, Ronnie Scott’s moved to its current location in Frith Street, only a short walk from the ‘old place’. Ronnie Scott’! s is now one of the oldest jazz clubs in the world. The club officially reopened on Monday 26th June 2006, after 3 months of refurbishment. We look forward to welcoming you to the new Ronnie Scott’s!

Gold Award For Outstanding Contribution To Jazz
Ramsey Lewis

Ramsey has been an iconic leader in the contemporary jazz movement for over 50 years, with an unforgettable sound and outgoing personality that has allowed him to cross over to the pop and R&B charts. The Ramsey Lewis Trio, with bassist Eldee Young and percussionist Redd Holt, became a fixture on the Chicago jazz scene, releasing their debut album, Ramsey Lewis & His Gentlemen of Jazz, back in 1956. Lewis earned his first gold record, as well as a Grammy award for Best Jazz Performance, for their swinging version of Dobie Gray’s hit “The In Crowd.” He returned to the pop charts in 1966 with versions of “Hang On Sloopy” and “Wade In The Water.” Throughout the years, Lewis’ trio has undergone membership changes, all the while staying true to Lewis’ high musical standards.

Lifetime Achievement Sponsored By Klipsch
Ahmad Jamal

Celebrated pianist-composer Ahmad Jamal (pictured above with Cerys Matthews) continues his performance schedule around the world, as he has for well over the last four decades. Noted for his outstanding technical command and identifiable sound as a piano stylist, Mr. Jamal was born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Considering his ensemble “an orchestra”, Mr. Jamal not only achieves a unified sound, but subtly inserts independent roles for the bass and drums. The hallmarks of Mr. Jamal’s style are rhythmic innovations, colourful harmonic perceptions, especially left hand harmonic and melodic figures, plus parallel and contrary motion lines in and out of chordal substitutions and alterations and pedal point ostinato interludes in tasteful dynamics. He also incorporates a unique sense of space in his music, and his musical concepts are exciting without being loud in volume. Augmented by a selection of unusual standards and his own compositions, Mr. Jamal would notably impress and influence, among others, trumpeter Miles Davis.

[Reported by Mike Waktins, information/images courtesy of Jazz FM]