Carla Bley, composer-arranger-bandleader and pianist, is celebrated for her Lifetime Achievement in Jazz by the Jazz Journalists Association, in the 2020 JJA Jazz Awards, the 25th annual honors for excellence in music and music journalism, announced today by the non-profit organization of writers, photographers, broadcasters and new media professionals covering jazz. Stanley Crouch, author, essayist, novelist, advisor to Jazz at Lincoln Center and president of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, has been named recipient of the JJA's Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award. See winners of all 39 categories of awards at JJAJazzAwards.org.
This year's Awards for instrumentalists continue a multi-year trend by the JJA's voting members to recognize accomplished women among the multiple nominated finalists, with women winning half the categories for the first time. Drummer and educator Terri Lyne Carrington (Musician of the Year), pianist-composer Kris Davis (Composer and Pianist of the Year), saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin (Up & Coming Musician of the Year), drummer-composer Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom (for Mid-Size Ensemble of the Year), baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian and harpist Brandee Younger (Player of Instruments Rare in Jazz), and several other women were voted Best of the Year for their achievements in 2019. Miguel Zenón won Arranger of the Year and Alto Saxophonist of the year, Branford Marsalis' quartet won Record of the Year for The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, Christian Scott aTundé Adjuah was named Trumpeter of the Year and Joel Ross was Mallet Player of the Year, both for the first time. Mark Stryker's Jazz From Detroit (University of Michigan Press) was voted Best Book About Jazz, San Francisco Bay Area radio show host Richard Hadlock and New York-based photographer Richard Conde won, respectively, the Marian McPartland-Willis Conover Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting, and the Lona Foote-Bob Parent Award for Lifetime Achievement in Photography.Videos