The Jazz Journalists Association has announced 46 winners of its 2025 JJA Jazz Awards, the 30th annual celebration of excellence in creation of jazz music and jazz-related media. Professional members of the non-profit JJA – the writers, photographers, broadcasters, videographers, podcasters and bloggers covering jazz and adjacent arts – hail several of the field’s most respected elders in top categories, including:
The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note Records) by tenor saxophonist-flutist Charles Lloyd, 87, in quartet as Record of the Year;
Artemis as Mid-Sized Ensemble of the Year
Cécile McLorin Salvant as Female Vocalist of the Year and Duo of the Year (Cécile McLorin Salvant – Vocals, Sullivan Fortner – Piano)
See all winners and finalists instrumental prowess and achievements in jazz photography, broadcasting, books and visual arts, at JJAJazzAwards.org.
“After 30 years, the JJA Jazz Awards is the longest running independent poll of international critics, ” claimed Howard Mandel, president since 1994 of the JJA, “and JJA members tend to revere artists whose sounds endure. We also hail new voices for what they’re saying now.” He referred to Awards winning trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, guitarist Mary Halvorson, strings player Tomeka Reid (cello), mallet instrumentalist Patricia Brennan and live-stream producer/pianist Emmet Cohen as the established next generation advancing the art form.
Informally founded in 1988 and incorporated in 2004, the JJA currently comprises 250 active members. Winners of the JJA Jazz Awards, launched in 1996, are determined in a two-stage voting process, with initial nominees solicited from members or pre-screened by committees (in the case of books, photograph and album art of the year). Jazz Awards certificates will be presented to winners at events throughout coming months. The JJA’s annual Awards initiatives include recognition of Jazz Heroes, “activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz.” The 2025 JJA Jazz Heroes were announced April 1.