Congratulations to all the 2018 winners in Jazz Journalism of the 24th annual JJA Jazz Awards. Professional journalist members of the JJA made open nominations in a first-selection round; those who received the most nominations advanced to the finalists’ ballot, and JJA’s professional members voted on them to arrive at these honorees.
Our congratulations, as well, to all the 2019 Nominees for Performance Performance & Recording in all categories. And please click the photos to expand them — some wonderful images here reward much larger presentation.
Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism
JOHN SZWED
Jazz journalism, anthropologist, scholar
Nominees: Nate Chinen, Eugene Holley, Jr., Dan Ouellette, Ben Ratliff
John Szwed has written the biographies Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra, So What: The Life of Miles Davis, Billie Holiday: The Musician and The Myth, and Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World, and authored Jazz 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Jazz; Crossovers: Essays on Race, Music and Culture; Lovers, and Jazz: An American Story for Jazz at Lincoln Center. He was Louis Armstrong Professor of Jazz, Director of the Center for Jazz Studies, and editor of JazzStudiesOnline.org at Columbia University. He’s written for Epistrophy, The Wire, Jazziz, Pulse, and The Village Voice (1979-2009), and was the music critic for Terry Gross’s, Fresh Air (1980-1982). Szwed is editor of the Jazz Perspectives Book Series, University of Michigan Press, has produced records for Evidence and Mixtery, and was awarded a Grammy in 2005.
Publication of the Year
Downbeat Magazine
Nominees: AllAboutJazz.com, Jazziz, JazzTimes, The New York City Jazz Record
Blog of the Year
DO THE M@TH
Ethan Iverson
Nominees: Jazz Profiles, by Steven Cerra; Jazz Wax, by Marc Myers; Rifftides, by Doug Ramsey Jazz Lives, by Michael Steinman
Robert Palmer-Helen Oakley Dance Award for Excellence in Writing
NATE CHINEN
(For works in 2019)
Photo by Michael Lionstar
Nominees: Ted Gioia, Marc Myers, Ted Panken, Giovanni Russonello
Marian McPartland-Willis Conover Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting
TOM RENEY
Nominees: Arturo Gomez, Susan Kennedy, Awilda Rivera
Book of the Year About Jazz
SOPHISTICATED GIANT: THE LIFE & LEGACY OF DEXTER GORDON
Maxine Gordon (University of California Press)
Nominees: Playing The Changes: Jazz for the New Century , by Nate Chinen (Pantheon); Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946, by Gary Giddons (Little, Brown); Jazz in China: From Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression, by Eugene Marlow (University Press of Mississippi); The History of European Jazz, Francesco Martinelli (Equinox)
Lona Foote-Bob Parent Awards for Lifetime Achievement in Photography
VAL WILMER
Nominees: Patrick Hinely, Robert Sutherland-Cohen
Photo of the Year
Roy Hargrove by ANDRIANA MATEO
Umbria Jazz Festival Teatro Morlacchi, Perugia, July 2018
Nominees: Victor Lewis, Half Note Jazz Club in Athens, Greece, by Thrassos Irinis; Francesco Diodati Yellow Squeeds, Umbria Jazz Winter 2019/Palazzo del Popolo, by Andrea Rotili; Kiyoshi Kitagawa, Leopolis Jazz Fest Lviv Ukraine, by Serhiy Horobets; Marco Piccirillo, Milk Jazz Way, Torino, Italy, by Carlo Mogavero
Album Art of the Year
CHARLES HENRY ALSTON for Echoes of Harlem
(by Mat Jodrell, Nicholas Records)
Nominees: Maizainne for Radiant Imprints (James Brandon Lewis/Chad Taylor, Off Record: Damon Locks for Universal Beings (Makaya McDraven, International Anthem); Steven Erdman for Solo A Genova (Jamie Saft, Rarenoise); Magdalena Zaslona for Climbing Trees (Rafal Sarnecki, Outside in Music); MusicWitness/Jeff Schlanger for The Balance (David S. Ware Trio (AUM Fidelity)
Visit Jazz Journalists Association to participate as a future voting member or as a sponsor.
2019 Winners forJournalism & Media
2025 Winners in Jazz Journalism
Congratulations to the 2025 Winners in Jazz Journalism of the 30th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards for Jazz Journalism.
Read morePast Award Winner forJournalism & Media
2019 AWARDSSPONSORS
