New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Jazz Journalists Association has announced the nominees for the 2022 JJA Jazz Awards, including Rhiannon Giddens, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Mary Halvorson, and the record label International Anthem.
Rhiannon Giddens has been nominated as Player of the Year of Instruments Rare in Jazz for her banjo performance. Her Grammy Award-winning album They're
Calling Me Home, released in April 2021, was recorded with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ireland. The two expats found themselves drawn to and comforted by the music of their native and adoptive countries of America, Italy, and Ireland, which they recorded at a spare studio on a working farm outside of Dublin. The result is a twelve-song album that speaks to the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical call "home" of death.
Cécile McLorin Salvant has been nominated as Female Vocalist of the Year. She made her Nonesuch Records debut with the release of her new album,
Ghost Song, in March of this year. The New York Times calls it "her most revealing and rewarding album yet." Uncut says she is "one of the most daring and resourceful vocalists in jazz—or any other genre, for that matter." The Arts Desk exclaims: "The treasure trove of marvels that is
Ghost Song exceeds all expectations." Nonesuch Store LP and CD orders include an exclusive, limited edition signed artwork by Salvant while they last. Cécile McLorin Salvant will give the album its New York premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater on May 12 and 13.
Mary Halvorson is up for Guitarist of the Year. The Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer, and MacArthur fellow makes her Nonesuch debut with two albums, Amaryllis and Belladonna, due later this month. The two suites, which Halvorson describes as "modular and interlocking," come in a two-LP vinyl set or as two separate CDs and digital albums, produced and mixed by John Dieterich. Amaryllis is a six-song suite performed by a newly formed sextet of master improvisers; the Mivos string quartet joins for three of the songs, making this the largest ensemble for which Halvorson has written to date. Belladonna is a set of five compositions written for Halvorson on guitar plus the Mivos Quartet, whose parts are through-composed and augmented by Halvorson's guitar improvisations. Other nominees in this category include Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny, who has also been nominated for Jazz Musician of the Year. Halvorson has also been nominated for Duo of the Year for her work with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier. Halvorson will perform music from Amaryllis and Belladonna at
National Sawdust in Brooklyn on May 18.
International Anthem has been nominated for Record Label of the Year. Nonesuch has partnered with the Chicago-born label to release a number of albums, including, thus far, two albums by Jeff Parker - ForFolks and Suite for Max Brown—and Ben LaMar Gay's Open Arms to Open Us and Rob Mazurek's Dimensional Stardust.
Nominees were chosen by the votes of the Professional Journalist Members of the Jazz Journalists Association. For more information and to see the complete list of nominees, visit jjajazzawards.org.
