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2025 Nominees for Performance & Recordings

April 18, 2025
in Award Nominees
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Poly Tropos/Of Many Turns
Cubop Lives
Run the Gauntlet
The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
Walk a Mile in My Shoe

2025 Jazz Album of the Year nominees

These are the finalist nominees for Performance and Recordings for the 2025 JJA Jazz Awards.

Finalists are those who get the most nominations from professional journalist members of the Jazz Journalists Association in a process that highlights excellence of hundreds of musicians, worldwide.

The nominations are based on work done in calendar year 2024, with the exception of Lifetime Achievement Awards categories, in which nominations are in recognition of a lifetime of music. These Jazz Awards represent a numerical consensus of personal evaluations of voting members of the JJA.

Nominees

Lifetime Achievement in Jazz

WADADA LEO SMITH, b. 1941, Leland, MS. Trumpeter, composer, educator and visual artist who emerged from blue, Chess sessions into affiliation with earliest members of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). He was a longtime professor at California Institute for the Arts and has recorded and toured prodigiously with range of collaborators, pushing genres, on ECM, TUM, his own Kabell label, including works on American racial, political and philosophical themes for symphonies and chamber ensembles.

GEORGE COLEMAN, b. 1935, Memphis, TN. Tenor saxophonist, international touring and recording artist, he exemplifies blues, swing and bebop’s lineage extending to hard-bop and modernist traditions and directions with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Harold Mabern and many others.

JOE LOVANO, b. 1952, Cleveland, OH. Tenor saxophonist, multi-winds-and-reeds player, drummer and percussionist. Son of saxophonist Tony “Big T” Lovano, Joe gigged locally from an early age, attended Berklee, toured with Woody Herman and stepped out as soloist, bandleader, composer, producer and Grammy winner, who released 25 Blue Note Records in as many years, with his five latest on ECM.

Jazz Musician of the Year

Marshall Allen

Lakecia Benjamin

Charles Lloyd

Tyshawn Sorey

Up & Coming Musician of the Year

Patricia Brennan

Isaiah Collier

Zaccai Curtis

Sarah Hanahan

Composer of the Year

Darcy James Argue

Vijay Iyer

Myra Melford

Maria Schneider

Arranger of the Year

Darcy James Argue

John Beasley

Maria Schneider

Record of the Year

Poly Tropos/Of Many Turns (Pi Recordings) — Steve Coleman

Cubop Lives (Truth Records) — Zaccai Curtis

Run the Gauntlet  (Pyroclastic Records) — Kris Davis

Walk a Mile in My Shoe (Imani Records) — Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band

The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note Records)— Charles Lloyd

Historical Record of the Year

The Carnegie Hall Concert , Alice Coltrane (Impulse! Records)

Grande-Terre Roy Hargrove’s Crisol (Verve)

Freedom Weaver , Sonny Rollins  (Resonance)

Forces of Nature – Live at Slugs’ , McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson (Blue Note Records)

Record Label of the Year

Blue Note Records

Pi Recordings

Pyroclastic Records

Resonance Records

Sunnyside Records

Male Vocalist of the Year

Theo Bleckmann

Kurt Elling

José James

Michael Mayo

Gregory Porter

Female Vocalist of the Year

Jazzmeia Horn

Samara Joy

Catherine Russell

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Vocal Group

New York Voices

säje

Take 6

Large Ensemble of the Year

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society

Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra

Sun Ra Arkestra

Midsize Ensemble of the Year (Trio to Octet)

Artemis

Vijay Iyer Trio

Charles Lloyd Quartet

Branford Marsalis Quartet

Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble

Duo of the Year

Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer

Cécile McLorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner

Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Hamilton de Holanda

Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers

Trumpeter of the Year

Ambrose Akinmusire

Dave Douglas

Brian Lynch

Wadada Leo Smith

Trombonist of the Year

Steve Davis

Michael Dease

Ryan Keberle

Steve Turre

Brass Specialist of the Year

Jose Davila (tuba and trombone)

Marcus Rojas (tuba)

William Roper (tuba)

Bob Stewart (tuba)

Alto Saxophonist of the Year

Lakecia Benjamin

Steve Coleman

Charles McPherson

Immanuel WIlkins

Miguel Zenón

Tenor Saxophonist of the Year

Isaiah Collier

James Brandon Lewis

Charles Lloyd

Joe Lovano

Chris Potter

Baritone Saxophonist of the Year

James Carter

Alex Harding

Brian Landrus

Scott Robinson

Gary Smulyan

Soprano Saxophonist of the Year

Jane Ira Bloom

Jane Bunnett

Jon Irabagon

Branford Marsalis

Sam Newsome

Clarinetist of the Year

Anat Cohen

Ben Goldberg

Mike McGinnis

Ken Peplowski

Jason Stein

Flutist of the Year

Jamie Baum

Charles Lloyd

Nicole Mitchell

Elena Pinderhughes

Multi-reeds Player of the Year

Roscoe Mitchell

Chris Potter

Scott Robinson

Guitarist of the Year

Peter Bernstein

Bill Frisell

Mary Halvorson

Julian Lage

Pat Metheny

Bassist of the Year

Ron Carter

Christian McBride

Linda May Han Oh

William Parker

John Patitucci

Electric Bassist of the Year

Stanley Clarke

Christian McBride

Marcus Miller

Meshell Ndegeocello

John Patitucci

Strings: Violin, Viola, Cello or Harp Player of the Year

Regina Carter

Mark Feldman

Tomeka Reid

Jenny Scheinman

Brandee Younger

Pianist of the Year

Kenny Barron

Kris Davis

Brad Mehldau

Jason Moran

Renee Rosnes

Matthew Shipp

Keyboardist of the Year

Brian Charette

James Francies

Robert Glasper

Herbie Hancock

Craig Taborn

Percussionist of the Year

Cyro Baptista

Hamid Drake

Kahil El’Zabar

Pedrito Martinez

Mallet Instrumentalist of the Year

Sasha Berliner

Patricia Brennan

Joe Locke

Joel Ross

Warren Wolf

Drummer of the Year

Brian Blade

Johnathan Blake

Terri Lyne Carrington

Eric Harland

Billy Hart

Allison Miller

Tyshawn Sorey

Nasheet Waits

Matt Wilson

Player of the Year of Instruments Rare in Jazz

Susan Alcorn, pedal steel guitar

Bela Fleck, banjo

Richard Galliano, accordion

Grégoire Maret, harmonica

Gary Versace, accordion

Electronics

Val Jeanty

Rob Mazurek

Craig Taborn

If you are a 2025 Nominee, or a 2025 Voter, and would like a “badge” to display on your website, email Admin@jazzjournalists.org.

Note: We ask that you  DO NOT cut-and-paste or copy the nominee list into your own blog or site, please link to this page instead. We welcome coverage and commentary on the list, of course, that includes some nominee names. If you blog about or report on the nominees we will be happy to link back to you; please send the URL of your blog post or report to admin@jazzjournalists.org

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