Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
Hyde Park Jazz Fest on Chicago’s South Side to Present 20th Edition
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
George Coleman (left) and Keith Jarrett are among the 2023 JJA Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Award finalists.
(Photo: Courtesy JJA)The Jazz Journalists Association has announced finalists for the 2023 JJA Jazz Awards, the organization’s 28th annual celebration of excellence in jazz and jazz journalism. Of thousands of nominees proposed for awards in 49 categories by professional voting members of the JJA in first-round submissions, dozens claiming the most mentions are presented to those same JJA members now as finalists for consideration of their works in calendar year 2022. Photos, album art, jazz documentaries, books, podcasts, publications and streaming platforms are among the media categories, while awards for recordings and performance range from vocalists and big bands to players of every kind of instrument, including electronics.
Lifetime Achievement Awards for Jazz Journalism cite Nate Chinen, Ashley Kahn, Will Friedwald and Gene Seymour. Lifetime Achievement in Jazz finalists are tenor sax standard-bearer George Coleman, solo and ensemble piano recitalist Keith Jarrett, wind and reeds playing composer/bandleader Charles Lloyd and composer/trumpeter/educator Wadada Leo Smith.
Records nominated for best of the year are Ghost Song (Nonesuch), by Cécile McLorin Salvant; Música De Las Américas (Miel Music), by Miguel Zenón Quartet; New Standards Vol. 1 (Candid), by Terri Lyne Carrington; and Mesmerism (Yeros7 Music), by Tyshawn Sorey Trio.
Zenón, Carrington and Lloyd have been nominated for the Musician of the Year award, along with guitarist Mary Halvorson.
See all nominees for the journalism and media categories here; nominees for jazz recordings and performance awards here.
Winners of the 2023 JJA Jazz Awards will be announced May 17, with an interactive online experience with awardees to be scheduled, along with in-person presentations. For further information including sponsorship opportunities for the JJA Jazz Awards, contact association president Howard Mandel, president@jazzjournalists.org. DB
A solo concert by saxophonist Joshua Redman will close the first night of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Sept. 26.
Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
“It was just that suddenly … I could hear it,” Ravi Coltrane said of an epiphany he experienced during his late teens regarding his father’s music. “And it was almost like a calling, like something saying, ‘Hey, man, come on. It’s time to get serious.’ And the first time you really tune in and dial in and focus like that, it can be very life-changing.”
Sep 22, 2026 1:39 PM
Editor’s Note: Tomorrow, Sept. 23, is the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth. In honor of the tenor and…
Camille Thurman took to the stage alongside bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Tommy Campbell for a rendition of Johnny Mercer’s “I’m An Old Cowhand” that recalled Rollins’ epochal 1957 trio outing Way Out West.
Oct 6, 2026 1:33 PM
As emcee Mark Ruffin noted at the commencement of an epic tribute to saxophonist Sonny Rollins at the Cathedral of Saint…
Kurt Elling, Katherine Russell and Emmet Cohen (host on the 2027 Jazz Cruise) share a laugh at sea.
Sep 8, 2026 11:52 AM
It began in 2001. A travel agent named Anita E. Berry had been booking clients on “partial” jazz cruises that took…
Sep 17, 2026 11:00 AM
The 2027 DownBeat College Guide is an invaluable resource for music students, especially jazz students, to find a school…
