Jul 17, 2025 12:44 PM
DownBeat’s 73rd Annual Critics Poll: One for the Record Books
You see before you what we believe is the largest and most comprehensive Critics Poll in the history of jazz. DownBeat…
George Coleman (left) and Keith Jarrett are among the 2023 JJA Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Award finalists.
(Photo: Courtesy JJA)The Jazz Journalists Association has announced finalists for the 2023 JJA Jazz Awards, the organization’s 28th annual celebration of excellence in jazz and jazz journalism. Of thousands of nominees proposed for awards in 49 categories by professional voting members of the JJA in first-round submissions, dozens claiming the most mentions are presented to those same JJA members now as finalists for consideration of their works in calendar year 2022. Photos, album art, jazz documentaries, books, podcasts, publications and streaming platforms are among the media categories, while awards for recordings and performance range from vocalists and big bands to players of every kind of instrument, including electronics.
Lifetime Achievement Awards for Jazz Journalism cite Nate Chinen, Ashley Kahn, Will Friedwald and Gene Seymour. Lifetime Achievement in Jazz finalists are tenor sax standard-bearer George Coleman, solo and ensemble piano recitalist Keith Jarrett, wind and reeds playing composer/bandleader Charles Lloyd and composer/trumpeter/educator Wadada Leo Smith.
Records nominated for best of the year are Ghost Song (Nonesuch), by Cécile McLorin Salvant; Música De Las Américas (Miel Music), by Miguel Zenón Quartet; New Standards Vol. 1 (Candid), by Terri Lyne Carrington; and Mesmerism (Yeros7 Music), by Tyshawn Sorey Trio.
Zenón, Carrington and Lloyd have been nominated for the Musician of the Year award, along with guitarist Mary Halvorson.
See all nominees for the journalism and media categories here; nominees for jazz recordings and performance awards here.
Winners of the 2023 JJA Jazz Awards will be announced May 17, with an interactive online experience with awardees to be scheduled, along with in-person presentations. For further information including sponsorship opportunities for the JJA Jazz Awards, contact association president Howard Mandel, president@jazzjournalists.org. DB
James Brandon Lewis earned honors for Artist of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year. Three of his recordings placed in the Albums of the Year category.
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