Jazz Journalists Association Awards Announced

Ornette Coleman and the late Andrew Hill were the big winners at the 2007 Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) Jazz Awards, given out at the Jazz Standard in New York City on June 28.

Saxophone legend Coleman, 77, who in April won the Pulitzer Prize in music for his most recent album, Sound Grammar (the first purely improvised live album to win that esteemed honor), took home four JJA awards: Musician of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year (for Sound Grammar), Small Ensemble Group of the Year (for the Ornette Coleman Quartet) and Alto Saxophonist of the Year.

Pianist Hill, who died of cancer on April 20, was awarded JJA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Composer of the Year and Pianist of the Year.

In other major awards, Anat Cohen was named both Up and Coming Artist of the Year and Clarinetist of the Year, ECM was named Label of the Year and Maria Schneider was awarded as Arranger or the Year. Among the musicians gathering awards for individual instruments were Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Pat Metheny (guitar), Dave Holland (acoustic bass), Steve Swallow (electric bass), Roy Haynes (drummer) and Dave Douglas (trumpet). Kurt Elling won for Male Singer and Roberta Gambarini for Female Singer.

New York Times contributor and JT columnist Nate Chinen was awarded for Excellence in Newspaper, Magazine or Online Feature or Review Writing, aka the Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award.

JJA is a non-profit professional international organization comprised of writers, broadcasters and photographers.

Following is the complete list of all 41 JJA Award winners for 2007:

Lifetime Achievement in Jazz

Andrew Hill

Musician of the Year

Ornette Coleman

Up & Coming Musician of the Year

Anat Cohen

Jazz Album of the Year
Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar)

Ornette Coleman

Jazz Reissue of the Year, Single CD
Music Written for Monterey 1965 Not Heard: At UCLA 1965 (CME-Sunnyside)

Charles Mingus

Jazz Reissue of the Year, Boxed Set
The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings (Riverside)

Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane

Jazz Record Label of the Year

ECM

Jazz Events Producer of the Year

Patricia Nicholson Parker

Vision Festival/Arts for Art, Inc.

Jazz Composer of the Year

Andrew Hill

Jazz Arranger of the Year

Maria Schneider

Male Jazz Singer of the Year

Kurt Elling

Female Jazz Singer of the Year

Roberta Gambarini

Latin Jazz Album of the Year
Simpatico (ArtistShare)

Brian Lynch & Eddie Palmieri

Small Ensemble Group of the Year

Ornette Coleman Quartet

Large Ensemble of the Year

Charles Tolliver Big Band

Trumpeter of the Year

Dave Douglas

Trombonist of the Year

Wycliffe Gordon

Player of the Year of Instruments Rare in Jazz

Scott Robinson, multi-reeds

Alto Saxophonist of the Year

Ornette Coleman

Tenor Saxophonist of the Year

Sonny Rollins

Soprano Saxophonist of the Year

Dave Liebman

Baritone Saxophonist of the Year

Gary Smulyan

Clarinetist of the Year

Anat Cohen

Flutist of the Year

Frank Wess

Pianist of the Year

Andrew Hill

Organ-keyboards of the Year

Joey DeFrancesco

Guitarist of the Year

Pat Metheny

Acoustic Bassist of the Year

Dave Holland

Electric Bassist of the Year

Steve Swallow

Strings Player of the Year

Regina Carter

Mallets Player of the Year

Bobby Hutcherson

Percussionist of the Year

Cyro Baptista

Drummer of the Year

Roy Haynes

Jazz Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award

Francis Davis

Excellence in Jazz Broadcasting

The Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Award

Bob Porter

Excellence in Photography

The Lona Foote-Bob Parent Award

Gene Martin

Excellence in Newspaper, Magazine or Online Feature or Review Writing

The Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award

Nate Chinen

Best Periodical Covering Jazz
JazzTimes

Best Web site Concentrating on Jazz

AllAboutJazz.com

Best Book About Jazz
The House That Trane Built: The Story Of Impulse Records (W. W. Norton)

Ashley Kahn

Best Jazz Photo of the Year

John Abbott

A Team Awards (for activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz) to:

· Leslie Johnson, publisher of the Mississippi Rag;

· Bob Koester, owner of Chicago’s Jazz Record Mart and Delmark Records;

· Orrin Keepnews, record producer and writer;

· Donald Harrison, artistic director, and Bill Taylor, executive director of

the New Orleans-based Tipitina’s Foundation;

· Clint Rosemond of The World Stage for inner city-outreach programs

Mark Masters of the American Jazz Institute;

· Dr. F. King Alexander, the President of the Cal State University of Long

Beach, chairman of the Board of KJAZZ 88.1 FM;

· Jose Rizo and Councilwoman Jan Perry for their work with the Board of

the Dunbar Economic Development Corporation in support of the Central

Avenue Jazz Festival.

Los Angeles-based A Team Awards inductees will be recognized at a JJA Los Angeles Jazz Awards party later this summer. Further information from [email protected].

Originally Published July 6, 2007