Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker (pictured), Dianne Reeves and HighNote Records were among those honored at the 5th annual JazzWeek Awards on Saturday.
Hancock won for instrumentalist of the year, Brecker for record of the year (the posthumous Pilgrimage) and JazzWeek awarded Reeves with vocalist of the year.
HighNote won label of the year and the distinction of the most Top 10 releases on JazzWeek’s chart between May 1, 2007 and April 30, 2008.
The JazzWeek Awards are voted on by the publication’s readers and were held during the JazzWeek Summit in Rochester, NY.
The Duke Dubois Humanitarian Award, named for the legendary promoter, went to Brad Stone. The award-chosen by past winners, not JazzWeek readers-recognizes contributions to jazz and jazz radio. Stone, of San Jose’s KSJS, also won radio programmer of the year in markets 26 to 79.
In other awards, Palmetto Records’ Terry Coen was named company promotion representative of the year. Detroit’s Dr. Jazz Operations earned the award for independent promotion company of the year.
JazzWeek breaks radio station markets up into three categories: markets 1 to 25, 26 to 79 and 80-plus. Newark, NJ’s WBGO won radio station of the year in markets 1 to 25. The winner of markets 26 to 79 was New Orleans’ WWOZ. WAER in Syracuse, NY won for markets 80-plus.
Boston-based WGBH’s Eric Jackson won radio programmer of the year for markets 1 to 25. The award for markets 80-plus went to Bob Stewart of KCCK in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The Summit took place during the final three days of the Rochester International Jazz Festival, which more than 125,000 people attended, according to a press release.
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