Jun 17, 2025 11:12 AM
Kandace Springs Sings Billie Holiday
When it came time to pose for the cover of her new album, Lady In Satin — a tribute to Billie Holiday’s 1958…
Vocalist Sheila Jordan was honored for Lifetime Achievement in the Jazz Journalists Association’s 27th annual JJA Jazz Awards.
(Photo: Lauren Deutsch)Singer Sheila Jordan, who at age 93 calls herself a “jazz child,” was hailed for her Lifetime Achievement in Jazz in the Jazz Journalists Association’s 27th annual JJA Jazz Awards, the results of which were announced May 3.
The 2022 Jazz Awards also honored Grammy-winner and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste as Musician of the Year. Tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana was named Up ’n’ Coming Musician of the Year, and Kenny Garrett’s Sounds From The Ancestors won Record of the Year. John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle was voted Best Historical Record.
The JJA Jazz Awards also celebrated the late Greg Tate — author, columnist, critic, lecturer, founder of the Black Rock Coalition and leader of Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber — for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism, posthumously; Tate died at age 63 last December. Writer-blogger Ted Gioia, Washington, D.C. radio program host Rusty Hassan and photographer Carol Friedman have also won JJA Jazz Awards.
Two awards were given to books: Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul, by Deanna Witkowski, won the Biography and Autobiography category, and She Raised Her Voice! 50 Black Women who Sang Their Way into Musical History, by Jordannah Elizabeth with illustrations by Briana Dengoue, won as Book of the Year about Jazz: History, Criticism and Culture.
Almost 300 jazz musicians, journalists and media makers, recordings, books, documentaries, podcasts, photographs, were nominated for the 2022 Jazz Awards. This year’s winners are being asked to participate in an innovative online event, tentatively scheduled for mid-July. Awards will also be presented to winners before their audiences at outdoor performances throughout the summer.
For the complete list of winners in 47 categories, visit jjajazzawards.org. DB
“There’s nothing quite like it,” Springs says of working with an orchestra. “It’s 60 people working in harmony in the moment. Singing with them is kind of empowering but also humbling at the same time.”
Jun 17, 2025 11:12 AM
When it came time to pose for the cover of her new album, Lady In Satin — a tribute to Billie Holiday’s 1958…
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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You see before you what we believe is the largest and most comprehensive Critics Poll in the history of jazz. DownBeat…
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Chuck Mangione on the cover of the May 8, 1975, edition of DownBeat.
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Jul 8, 2025 7:30 AM
At 56, Rodney Whitaker, professor of jazz bass and director of jazz studies at Michigan State University, is equally…
