Congratulations to all the 2026 winners of the 31st annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards for Journalism and Media. 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, of course, to all the 2026 Finalists for Jazz Journalism and Media, and nominees in all categories. And please click the photos to expand them — the wonderful images here reward much larger presentation.
Lifetime Achievement in Journalism
ZAN STEWART
Author, critic, educator, b. 1944, devoted himself to jazz journalism from 1975 to 2010, when he gave up that good life to focus exclusively on making music — he’s been playing saxophone since 1960, and led bands starting in ’67, as well as collaborating with well-known musicians. He released an album, Street Is Making Music, in 2014, and today he gigs and teaches, based in San Francisco’s East Bay. While more specifically involved in his writing career, Zan was published in the Los Angeles Times, Newark Star-Ledger and DownBeat, among other periodicals, and earned the Deems Taylor Award for his biographical essay used as liner notes for Eric Dolphy: The Complete Prestige Recordings.
Finalists:
Robert Palmer-Helen Oakley Dance Award for Excellence in Writing in 2025
BILL MILKOWSKI
Downbeat, Jazziz, Guitar Player, Absolute Sound, Musings on Music by The Milkman
Finalists:
- Michael Jackson
- Syd Schwartz (Jazz and Coffee)
Marian McPartland-Willis Conover Award for Career Excellence in Broadcasting
CHUCK OBUCHOWSKI
Jazz Director at WWUH in West Hartford, Connecticut, where he is the host of Out Here and Beyond
Finalists:
- Monifa Brown (WBGO, Newark)
- Awilda Rivera (WBGO, Newark)
- Lazaro Vega (Blue Lake Public Radio, Western Michigan)
Lona Foote-Bob Parent Award for Career Excellence in Photography
MARK SHELDON
Based in Indianapolis, specializes in music and life-style photography, contributing regularly to DownBeat and Living Blues magazines, featured in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Jazz Times, The Seattle Times, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Time Out Chicago, Time Out New York, Keyboard magazine, Double Bassist/ Strad magazine (London), Guitar Player, Indianapolis Monthly and others. Sheldon is also the staff photographer for the Portland Jazz Festival and Indy Jazz Fest. work samples
Finalists:
Jazz Periodical//Website of the Year
DOWNBEAT Magazine
Jazz Blog of the Year
THE GIG
By Nate Chinen
Finalists:
- Chronicles, by Vinnie Sperrazza
- Musings on Music, by Bill Milkowski
- Playback, by Lewis Porter
- Transitional Technology, by Ethan Iverson
Jazz Book of the Year
Biography/Autobiography of the Year
OCEANS OF TIME: THE MUSICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BILLY HART
By Billy Hart, As Told To Ethan Iverson (Cymbal Press)
Finalists:
- Concerto for Cootie: The Life and Times of Cootie Williams
(University Press of Mississippi), by Steven C. Bowie - Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong
(Oxford University Press), by Ricky Riccardi - The Master of Drums: Gene Krupa and the Music He Gave the World (Citadel Press) by Elizabeth J. Rosenthal
Book of the Year About Jazz: History, Criticism and Culture
BLACK MYSTERY SCHOOL PIANISTS AND OTHER WRITINGS
By Matthew Shipp (Autonomedia)
Finalists:
- The Jazz Barn: Music Inn, The Berkshires, and the Place of Jazz in American Life, by John Gennari (Brandeis University Press)
- Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers, by Sascha Feinstein (State University of New York Press)
Podcast of the Year
THE BUZZ: THE JJA PODCAST
Finalists:
- The Jazz Session with Jason Crane
- All That’s Jazz with Allen Scott
- The Third Story with Leo Sidran
Livestream Producer of the Year
EMMET COHEN, LIVE FROM EMMET'S PLACE
Photo of the Year
Gregory Hutchinson by TATIANA GORILOVSKY
Finalists:
- Street Beat Brass by Ljupcho Hristoski
- Cyrus Chestnut and Stacy Dillard by Antonio Porcar
- Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few by Andrea Rotili
- Paolo Fresu and Omar Sosa by Jarek Wierzbicki
Album Art of the Year
BIRDLY SERENADE
DAVID MURRAY QUARTET, artwork by Kyledidthis (Impulse!)
Finalists:
- A Mountain Sees a Mountain, Hamid Drake/Pat Thomas (Old Heaven Books), artwork by Liu Qingyuan, design: Lin Xi (Studio Laixin)
- Clone Row, Ches Smith (Otherly Love), artwork by John Herndon
- Hurricane, Peter Brötzmann Trio (Old Heaven Books); artwork by Liu Qingyuank, design: Lin Xi (Studio Laixin)
- Interaction, 3 Cohens/WDR Big Band (Anzic), artwork & design by Sean Smith
- Sun Eaters, Alberto Novello/Rob Mazurek (Hive Mind), artwork by Giulia Spanghero
2026 AWARDSFOR PERFORMANCE & RECORDING
2026 Winners for Performance and Recordings
Congratulations to all 2026 Winners for Jazz Performance and Recordings of the 31st annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards.
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