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 Jenty
Rob Mazurek
Craig Taborn
If you are a 2024 Nominee, or a 2024 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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2025 NOMINEES FOR JOURNALISM & MEDIA
2025 Nominees for Journalism & Media
These are the finalist nominees for Performance and Recordings for the 2025 JJA Jazz Awards. Nominees in most categories were chosen...
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