Sunday, June 12, 2011

2011 JJA Awards were Sonny side up

Saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins either won or figured prominently in four categories at this year's JJA Awards event in New York. Kudos for that , and to all of the musician, journalist and photography winners at yesterday's Jazz Journalists Association event at City Winery in Manhattan.

Sadly, this was another year when my schedule did not permit a trip to the Big Apple for this tremendous jazz industry event.

Rollins won Musician of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year. Producer/director Bret Primack won Best Short Form Video of the Year for "Sonny Rollins: Getting It Back Together" and photographer John Abbott won Photo of the Year honors for yet another of his masterful images of Rollins.

An extra shout out to Jimmy Heath. The saxophonist was voted this year's winner of JJA's Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Award. And "I Walked With Giants: The Autobiography of Jimmy Heath" by Jimmy Heath and Joseph McLaren (Temple University Press) was voted Best Book About Jazz.

Here's a link to all of this year's winners.


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