JJA Jazz Awards 2020: June 2011

6/13/11

Photos from 2011 JJA Jazz Awards

All photos by Fran Kaufman; all rights reserved.
For i.ds, view full screen (click arrows at far right),then click "show info".
Satellite party photos below.

2011 JJA Jazz Awards: A Video Report

A video report prepared for eyeJAZZ.tv by Lindalee Lawrence.

2011 Winners JJA Jazz Awards

Thanks to all who attended or watched the live webcast of June 11, 2011 JJA Jazz Awards presentation at City Winery. JJA President Howard Mandel gives a full report of the day's events at JJA News. The winners of this year's awards in 39 categories of jazz music-making and journalism are listed after the jump.

2011 JJA JAZZ AWARDS COMMITTEE

Howard Mandel, producer

Yvonne Ervin, associate producer, planning

Colleen Growe, associate producer, onstage director

JoAnn Kawell, associate producer, online media

Maryclaire Sullivan, associate producer, staging

Joshua Jackson, master of ceremonies

Gala Assistants

Judy Balos, Nancy Barrell, Susan Brink,
Steve Dalachinsky, Jim Eigo, David Goldman,
Alan Hershowitz,Rosie Mandel, Carolyn McClair,
Yuko Otomo, Joseph Petrucelli,Marianne Pillsbury,
Emilie Pons, Joanne Robinson Hill, Arnold Jay Smith,
Marquia Walton, Joan Watson-Jones,Adina Williams

Publicity/Media

Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services, nominees liaison

Don Lucoff, DL Media, public relations

Kim Smith, KSmithPR, public relations

Forrest Dylan Bryant, JJA art director

Ilana Esquenazi, program book layout

Webcast production

iB Creative: G.Byron Speight, Ilan Lieman

Team Twitter (Awards social media)

Alex Rodriguez ( Chief Twitter-er)
Michael J. West,Jared Negley, Matthew Kassel

Gala Photographer

Fran Kaufman

Satellite party organizers/hosts

Yvonne Ervin/ Susan Brink
Pauline Bilsky (Boston), Omrao Brown (D.C.),
Michele Drayton (Chicago),Michael Eldridge(Arcata),
Herb & Lorene Ely(Phoenix), John Gilbreath(Seattle),
Craig Havighurst (Nashville), Susan Muscarella (Berkeley),Mark Niemann-Ross (Portland), Giovanni Russonello (D.C.),Clarence & Gerri Seay (Tallahassee),
Walcott/Poindexter Family (Boston),Floyd Webb (Chicago)

Awards/Ballot Committee

Neil Tesser, chairman, ballot committee

Laurence Donohue-Greene, ballot committee

John Abbott, photo awards consultant

Bret Primack, video awards consultant

Floyd Webb, video awards consultant

Thanks to our Sponsors/Supporters

Alma Records
Blue Note Jazz Club
BMI
CityArts
High Note/Savant
Jan Matthies Music Management
Mack Avenue
Motema Records
North Coast Brewing
Pi Recordings

Blue Note Records
Fully Altered Media
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz Corner
Jazz Foundation of America
JTE Spirits
Paulette Dozier
WBGO-FM

Absolutely Live
ASCAP
Delmark Records
Detroit Jazz Festival
ECM
Jazz Education Network
The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music
The New York City Jazz Record
Resonance Records
Sunnyside Records
Tanglewood Jazz Festival

6/11/11

JJA JAZZ AWARDS: TODAY IS GALA DAY

WATCH THE JJA JAZZ AWARDS **LIVE** FROM CITY WINERY IN NEW YORK CITY STARTING AT 1PM EDT

Free video chat by Ustream

Performer lineup and gala highlights
Click black rectangle at lower right of viewer to view webcast FULL SCREEN.
You can even watch the webcast on your smart phone with a Ustream app.
Join the online chat at http://www.ustream.tv/jjajazzawards
On Twitter: Include #jjajazzawards in your tweet about the Awards
We'll be LIVE TWEETING the winners as they are announced @jjajazzawards
Please consider making a donation to support the Awards and the year-round educational and new media work of the JJA--all aimed at building new audiences for jazz.

6/10/11

2011 Satellite Parties

2011 JJA Jazz Awards Satellite Parties
Arcata CA | Berkeley CA | Boston | Chicago | Nashville | Portland OR | Seattle | Tallahassee FL | Washington D.C.

Jazz happens everywhere-- and the JJA Jazz Awards will be celebrated everywhere on Saturday afternoon June 11. In a number of places, jazz fans will gather at informal "satellite parties" to watch the live webcast of the awards presentations and performances as they happen at City Winery in New York City. These parties are a way for local jazz supporters to affirm that jazz is alive and well in their communities and to share notes and plans for the coming year.
There may be a satellite party near you: Each party is different and is being organized by local hosts. Most are open to the public with no cover, cash bar and free light snacks; some will also offer free Brother Thelonious Ale, courtesy of JJA Jazz Awards sponsor North Coast Brewing Company. All promise big screens on which to watch the Awards. Check back soon if there's no party listed in your area; more are still in the planning stage. Confirmed parties are listed below, check with the organizers for more details and RSVP information.

Arcata, CA - Redwood Jazz Alliance hosts an awards webcast party at

Robert Goodman Wines Good Taste Tasting Room

937 10th Street
Arcata, CA 95521

Sat June 11 10am-2pm PDT

The winery will have a no-host bar (including mango mimosas) and brunch hors d'oeuvres available for purchase.

Berkeley, CA – Susan Muscarella, a past JJA "A Team" honoree, hosts a brunch at

The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance

2087 Addison St.

Berkeley CA

(510) 845-5373

Sat June 11 10am-2pm PDT

At this second annual Jazzschool satellite party, local vocalist Ed Reed will be honored as a JJA "Jazz Hero." Call the school for more information.
UPDATE: JazzWest reports on the party and profiles Ed Reed

photo of Ed Reed with Jazz Hero award: by Stuart Brinin

Boston, MA – JazzBoston, a nonprofit organization serving the Greater Boston jazz community, and Wally's Café, founded in 1947 and designated as a Boston historical site in 2009, are hosting a satellite party for local jazz lovers of all persuasions and jazz journalists in all media at

Wally's Cafe

427 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02118
Mass. Ave. stop on the Orange Line or Symphony on the Green Line

(617) 424-1408

Light snacks, cash bar

Sat June 11 1-5pm EDT

Elynor Walcott and her sons Paul, Frank, and Lloyd Poindexter, who own and run Wally's, will be honored as JJA "Jazz Heroes" for their decades-long dedication to providing a forum for young players to develop their craft. WGBH jazz radio hosts and former JJA honorees Eric Jackson and Steve Schwartz will present the awards to the family.

UPDATE:

Elynor Walcott receives her Jazz Hero Award from Eric Jackson and Steve Schwartz

More photos from the Jun 11 party

Chicago - Second we-hope-annual satellite party in Chicago at
Jazz Showcase
806 S Plymouth Ct
Chicago, IL 60605
Sat June 11 Noon-4pm CDT
Drummer/composer/promoter Mike Reed will be honored as a "Jazz Hero." Free admission, cash bar, snacks, more information on the Chicago - 2011 Jazz Journalists Awards Party. '
The Chicago party will be webcast on Ustream, too.
'Like' the Chicago party Facebook page.

Nashville, TN – JJA member Craig Havighurst is organizing this first ever JJA activity in Nashville. Rumours Wine Bar
2304 12th South
(in the heart of the 12 South village
615 292 9400

Sat June 11 Noon-4pm CDT
more info: craig.havighurst@comcast.net

Bassist Roger Spencer and pianist Lori Mechem, husband/wife partners who operate the Nashville Jazz Workshop, a music community education center, will be honored as JJA "Jazz Heroes." Cash bar, buy-your-own-menu. Bring jazz fan friends; enjoy lunch and the Jazz Awards webcast.
UPDATE: PHOTOS FROM THE NASHVILLE PARTY

Portland, OR – Local writer and jazz journalist Mark Niemann-Ross and Jim Conway of Doc George's Jazz Kitchen are hosting the JJA Jazz Awards webcast-watching party at

Doc George's Jazz Kitchen

4605 NE Fremont St., #101

Portland, OR 97213
Sat June 11 10am-2pm PDT

Cash bar & brunch menu available at this gathering for local jazz fans and supporters. Please RSVP via Evite

Seattle, WA – Earshot Jazz, Seattle's nonprofit music, arts and service organization is organizing a jazz brunch at

Egan's Ballard Jam House

1707 NW Market St 98107

Sat June 11 10am-2pm PDT
John Gilbreath, director of Earshot Jazz and radio broadcaster extraordinaire, will be honored as a JJA "Jazz Hero" at this second annual JJA Jazz Awards satellite party organized by Earshot Jazz.
UPDATE: Report by Doug Ramsey (a previous Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism and Blog of the Year winner)

Tallahassee, FL – Clarence and Gerri Seay of B Sharp's Jazz Club, located in a historic building that still serves the community through the presentation of jazz, one of America's greatest art forms, are hosting the party at

B Sharp's Jazz Club
648 W Brevard Street Tallahassee, Fl 32304 850-681-2400
Sat June 11 1-5pm EDT
We're pleased to say it's the first JJA Jazz Awards party in Florida-- Gerri says there'll be "cash bar, snacks and our B Sharp's Gumbo for as long as they last. All B Sharp's customers and any other area jazz lovers are invited!"

Washington, D.C. – Two movers and shakers in the newly burgeoning Washington, D.C. jazz scene: Giovanni Russonello of Capital Bop, and Omrao Brown of Bohemian Caverns are organizing the party at

Bohemian Caverns

2001 Eleventh Street N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20001

202.299.0800

Sat June 11 1-5pm EDT

Cash bar and snacks.

Omrao Brown, managing co-owner and curator of the Caverns, will be honored with a JJA "Jazz Hero" award presented by JJA member WPFW-FM radio jazz host Rusty Hassan.
UPDATE:

Rusty Hassan giving Omrao Brown his Jazz Hero award.

2010 JJA Jazz Awards Satellite Parties were held in:

6/9/11

2011 Jazz Heroes

JJA 'Jazz Heroes' are activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz who have had significant impact in their local communities. The 2011 'Jazz Hero' awards were presented on June 11, 2011 in conjunction with the presentation of the Jazz Journalists Association's Jazz Awards honoring significant achievements in jazz music and journalism.

2011 JJA Jazz Awards 'Jazz Heroes'

Omrao Brown
Peggy Cooper Cafritz
John Gilbreath
Don Z. Miller
Dr. Maitreya Padukone
Ed Reed
Mike Reed
Roger Spencer and Lori Mechem
Elynor Walcott and Sons

Omrao Brown

Omrao Brown, co-owner and manager of Bohemian Caverns in Washington, D.C., has garnered a local and national reputation as best jazz venue in the capital for a club celebrating its 85th anniversary in 2011.

Omrao grew up in Connecticut and Massachusetts, immersed in jazz from birth as son of Dr. Leonard Brown, an accomplished saxophonist and musical scholar at Northeastern University. Surrounded by the music and its practitioners, he dabbled in violin and saxophone, but after graduating from Northeastern embarked on a career as a computer engineer, his work for nearly a decade. In 2006, however, Brown decided to reinvest in his love of music —"I figured it's best to do it when you're young," he says — and joined a partnership to purchase Bohemian Caverns.

Five years later, under Brown's stewardship, the Caverns balances weekly spoken-word and open-mic nights with a full schedule of jazz legends, up 'n' coming national acts and a steady rush of homegrown District talent. His support of local musicians has brought a particular charge to the D.C. scene. With the establishment of the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra as the house big band, an artist-in-residency project and a weekly late-hours jam session led by a rotating cast of players, he has created a de facto headquarters for area musicians which gratifies loyal audiences every night.

Brown operates three successful businesses out of the same building: the Caverns in the basement, the Tap and Parlour bar and restaurant on the ground floor and the hip-hop nightclub Liv on the second floor. His activities, musical actuity and focus on regeneration make him not merely a club owner or an entrepreneur but a jazz hero. Still, Brown demurs. "I'm a pretty simple guy," he says. He'll receive his JJA Jazz Hero award at a Jazz Awards satellite party at Bohemian Caverns on June 11. – Mike West

Mike Janssen produced this video portrait of Omrao Brown and Bohemian Caverns

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Peggy Cooper Cafritz

Peggy Cooper Cafritz has been a significant jazz – and education -- hero in Washington D.C. at least since 1971, when she co-founded the Duke Ellington School of the Arts with Mike Malone. She served the school and its non-profit affiliate the Ellington Fund from then until January 2001, when she became the first publicly elected president of the District of Columbia Board of Education (and served two consecutive terms).

This is but the top layer of Ms. Cafritz's arts community activism and doesn't touch on her journalistic background: She was an Award-winning programming executive and documentary producer for Post-Newsweek Stations and WTOP-TV (now WUSA) during the mid 1970s, and after leaving those positions executive director of the Minority Cultural Project, with Harry Belafonte and WQED/Pittsburgh working to develop a dramatic literary series for the Public Broadcasting Corporation. Starting in 1986, she had a 14 year tenure as WETA's "Around Town" arts critic – for which she received an Emmy Award. Besides many educational positions, she chaired the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and in 1993 was appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton to serve a vice-chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. From 1989 to '90, she co-chaired the Smithsonian Institution's Cultural Equity Committee, initiating greater racial and cultural diversity to the Smithsonian's personnel and programs.

She has been a longtime art collector, has sat on the boards of many significant arts and cultural institutions, always working to have minority artists receive equitable consideration in exhibitions and financing. Youth is also an important focus on her work and life – she now concentrates on refining her collection to emphasize younger artists, and she gives college scholarships to three Duke Ellington School of the Arts students every year, in honor of her own children.

Thanks to the great good works of Peggy Cafritz, the world is a more colorful and musical place for everyone. This certainly qualifies her as an exemplary Jazz Hero, and she will be honored as such at the JJA Jazz Awards June 11 gala in New York City. – Howard Mandel
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John Gilbreath

John Gilbreath is the executive director of Earshot Jazz, Seattle's non-profit jazz-support organization, and by thinking globally, acting locally, he has demonstrated the attributes of a genuine jazz hero. Gilbreath is responsible for Earshot Jazz, a monthly publication; various educational programs and services to the community, and the presentation of more than 100 concerts annually, including the highly regarded Earshot Jazz Festival, now in its 23rd year as a major annual Seattle event.

Gilbreath serves as artistic director of regional jazz initiatives such as the Bellevue Jazz Festival and the Art of Jazz series at Seattle Art Museum, and has programmed the Anacortes Jazz Festival, Experience Music Project's Jazz in January series, and myriad other events. He's also a busy radio programmer, six days a week hosting a mix of jazz and international music on KBCS-FM's morning weekday show "The Caravan," bringing new and adventurous jazz to "Jazz Theater," Sunday nights on KEXP-FM.

An active member of the Western Jazz Presenters Network, Gilbreath has become an important activist and collaborator even beyond the Pacific Northwest, without ever forgetting his home base. His ideas and activities extend beyond Washington state, though his activities are focused on what Seattle and its environs need and can best support. The JJA is proud to honor John Gilbreath as a Jazz Hero and will do so at the JJA Jazz Awards satellite party in Seattle on June 11.. – Yvonne Ervin
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Don Z. Miller

Don Z. Miller is Arizona's jazz impresario, an active producer, advocate and supporter of live music for four decades.

Founder and president of Concerts and Music Productions Inc., Miller has booked top-name musicians for 34 years of the annual Paradise Valley Jazz Party -- world-renowned stars of the swing, bebop, hard bop and modern eras. He's also one of nine founders of Jazz in Arizona Inc., a 34-year-old nonprofit jazz-support organization. From 1989 through 1992 he produced the Phoenix and Scottsdale Jazz Festivals, featuring a stylistic range from the Lionel Hampton Big Band to Spyro Gyra, Rebirth Jazz Band, Dave Brubeck Quartet and the Clark Terry-James Moody Quintet, among others. For Jazz in AZ, he conceived and produced "Treasures of Jazz" concert series, with artists such as Ellis Marsalis, Danny Barker, Bud Freeman, Dave Frishberg and Art Van Damme.

He's also organized and led tours to jazz festivals in Europe and produced several Festivals de Jazz in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico. Don was proclaimed "Arizona's First Citizen of Jazz" by Gov. Bruce Babbitt of Arizona, and named "Promotor Turistico" by the State of Sonora Tourism Department in Sonora, Mexico. He is author of two non-fiction books and publisher of music-instruction books.

The seeds of both the Paradise Valley Jazz Party and Jazz in AZ were sown during a 1976 series with live music by local professionals and Arizona State University students at the University Club of Phoenix; Don produced those in conjunction with weekly jazz-history lectures by ASU music professor Wally Rave. Since then, he has been responsible for bringing hundreds of major jazz stars to the state. Such jazz activism, without parallel in Arizona, makes Don Z. Miller a true Jazz Hero and he will be honored on June 11 at a private gathering in Phoenix. – Patricia Myers
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Dr. Maitreya Padukone

Dr. Maitreya Padukone moved to the United States in 1977 and opened his dental practice on the Upper West side of Manhattan in 1981. From that base, he has treated pro bono numerous musicians referred to him by the Jazz Foundation of America, become president of the New York County Dental Society, and has also been able to pursue his passion for music, continuing studies and performing on tabla, traditional tunable Indian drums. He is both a world music maven and a jazz hero.

Originally inspired and initiated in the art of tabla playing by the late Indian percussionist and musicologist Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, Dr. Padukone has presented solo performances in New York City, accompanied diverse Indian vocalists and instrumentalists, presented lecture-demonstrations at senior citizens centers, performed in Damrosch Park and at the Turtle Bay Music School with bansuri flutist Steve Gorn. He has promoted musicians himself, as vice president of the Raga Music Circle of New York. One has to have rhythm to be a tabla player, precision to serve as a dentist and deep humanity to offer his talents to musicians as generously as Dr. Padukone has done. He's an exemplary Jazz Hero, and will be honored for this at the June 11 JJA Jazz Awards gala in New York City. – Joseph Petrucelli
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Ed Reed

"I believe that everybody is born to be blue," says Ed Reed, the 82-year-old, Richmond, California-based jazz singer, who made his recording debut just four years ago. "We need to acknowledge that." After 40 years of heroin addiction and incarcerations in San Quentin and Folsom prisons, the singer – now clean and sober for 25 years -- proves with music and extra-musical activities, too, that such recognition is a step towards better days.

"The good stuff takes care of itself," Reed continues. "It's the sad stuff that you really need to pay attention to, 'cause it'll really drag you through the mud if you don't acknowledge it and let it go. So many of us hold onto our sadness, but we need to shout about it, sing about it."

Reed (no relation to JJA Jazz Hero Mike Reed) emphasizes such insights as a substance abuse educator at Kaiser-Permanente's Chemical Dependency Recovery Program in Vallejo, California, and at other health agencies. "This work," he says, "is as important to me as music."

He fell in love with jazz on Los Angeles radio around 1940. Introduced to heroin while in the army, Reed tried to launch a singing career upon discharge but was undermined by his addiction. He kept singing while jailed, but didn't emerge publicly until the early '90s, gigging at Bay Area restaurants. In 2005, Reed impressed JazzCamp West instructor Peck Allmond, who co-produced his initial release, Ed Reed Sings Love Stories. His follow-ups are The Song Is You and Born to be Blue.

Coming to terms with pain and sadness has been key to Reed's recovery, as he relates in his health lectures and the songs he sings. "Until you have the blues and allow yourself to acknowledge them, you're stuck," he says. "You're stuck because you keep choosing to be stuck. You keep walking down that street full of mud puddles." As a truth-teller, Ed Reed is a Jazz Hero and will be recognized as such at the June 11 JJA Jazz Awards satellite party at the Jazzschool in Berkeley. – Terri Hinte
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Mike Reed

Drummer/composer/promoter Mike Reed has played a significant role in Chicago's music scene for the past 15 years. More concerned with driving a band than producing virtuosic fireworks, and with becoming a presenter to innovatively support local efforts, Reed's projects have come to gratifying fruition.

At age 36, Reed leads People, Places & Things, a quartet paying tribute to Chicago jazz of the mid-to-late 1950s, and the quintet Loose Assembly, in which he explores spontaneously and collectively shaped and structured music. Besides his musical achievements, in 2001 he started co-curating with cornet player Josh Berman the Sunday Transmission Series at the Hungry Brain. Since then, he has been involved with the indie rock Pitchfork Music Festival -- now a major summer event for the Windy City – and the Umbrella Music Festival, which promotes exchanges with fellow improvisers from Europe and elsewhere. He has also served on the programming committee of the Chicago Jazz Festival.

In 2005, Reed became a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the organization founded in 1965 by Muhal Richard Abrams, among others. As vice-chairman of the Association, he has helped refresh an esteemed entity. Concurrently, he has been one of the rare Chicago musicians to successfully bridge the southside and northside segments of the local jazz community. Chicago needs more jazz heroes with the multi-tasking abilities of Mike Reed. – Alain Drouot
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Roger Spencer and Lori Mechem

Roger Spencer and Lori Mechem would have given more to Nashville's jazz scene than most had they merely served as dedicated educators and players since their arrival in Music City in 1988. But they've gone much further, becoming true jazz heroes. Their crowning accomplishment, the non-profit Nashville Jazz Workshop, turned ten years old last fall, and the city wouldn't be the same without it.

A school for mid-career pros and advanced amateurs and a live venue with a unique vibe, it has become the gathering place for a community of jazz players and fans. Roger and Lori's genial but demanding journeyman/apprentice teaching style, establishment of visual arts exhibits and performance series and support of other local jazz educational and performance events has built the NJW into an irreplaceable institution in a town where, due to an abundance of talent and activity across many genres, jazz has to fight hard to be heard.

Roger attended Indiana University to study jazz under David Baker (a JJA "A Team" member), and graduated from Indiana State with a Bachelor of Music Education degree. Bassist for Les Brown and His Band of Renown, Harry James, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Terry Gibbs and Buddy DeFranco, among others, he's also performed and recorded with Lori, is a longtime member of the Beegie Adair Trio and is on Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music faculty. At the NJW, Roger is responsible for administration and financial management, and teaches improvisation, theory and ensembles.

Lori, a pianist also from Indiana, received a BA in Jazz Studies from Ball State University and has collaborated with a long list of stellar jazzers, Dizzy Gillespie among them. Her well received recordings Welcome to Brazil, a Nashville Music Awards nominee of 1997. At the NJW, Lori concentrates on curriculum, student advisement and special events. She teaches vocal, instrumental, and keyboard classes. Together, she and Roger are an inspiring and productive team, helping Nashville thrive as a jazz city, too. They will be honored as Jazz Heroes at a June 11 JJA Jazz Awards satellite party in Nashville.– Craig Havighurst
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Elynor Walcott and Sons

Elynor Walcott and her sons don't seem to consider themselves "jazz heroes," only people who've had a great time carrying on a family tradition. But to the thousands of music fans and musicians who have been to Wally's Cafe Jazz Club, the funky and storied, no-cover Boston music room run by Elynor and her progeny, 'heroes" sounds exactly right.

Wally's has been a family operation from the time Elynor's father Joseph "Wally" Walcott, an immigrant from Barbados, opened it as Wally's Paradise in 1947. Today Elynor is fulltime CEO, sharing responsibility with sons Paul, Frank and Lloyd Poindexter for a business that has become an official cultural treasure. The Bostonian Society has marked Wally's as a historic site, on a list with Faneuil Hall and Old South Meeting House.

In 2009 Elynor told the Boston Herald, "My father and mother told me they brought me there in a basket when I was a baby." Jazz royalty, including young Roxbury native Roy Haynes, graced the place from early on, and Wally had the idea of hiring music students from Berklee, New England Conservatory and the Boston Conservatory to perform, a practice that continues. So well before moving across Massachusetts Avenue in 1979 to its current location, Wally's ushered new generations into jazz.

"My father was a pioneer, but as a little girl I didn't know that," said Walcott. "I did know that he was a very hard worker. He was always at Wally's, working so hard. Our mission - myself and my three sons - is to be legacy-keepers for my father. He created Wally's, along with my mom."

"These kids are the future," Frank Poindexter, Elynor's middle son, recognizes. "We have to do everything we can to make sure they can develop their craft. We've dedicated decade after decade to that. . . Jazz is the great American art form, and we've got to take care of the garden." Wally's, tended by Elynor Walcott and sons, is fertile ground. For all of this, they will be honored as JJA Jazz Heroes at a June 11 JJA Jazz Awards satellite party held at Wally's. – Bob Young

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6/7/11

Sat Jun 11 JJA Jazz Awards Gala: Participate wherever you are

The JJA Jazz Awards gala is coming up fast: Saturday June 11, 1-5pm EDT at City Winery in New York City. This star-studded event, m.c'd by Josh Jackson of The Checkout from WBGO, will feature presentation of 39 awards for high achievement in jazz music and journalism as well as performances by Randy Weston, Wallace Roney, Gregory Porter, Jane Bunnett and Hilario Duran and the Hammer Klavier Trio. Tickets are going fast, so buy them now .

Not going to be in NYC? You don't need to miss any of it . . .

More JJA Jazz Awards Satellite Parties: Chicago, Nashville, Arcata CA

Just confirmed! Jazz fans and supporters will gather in Chicago, Nashville and Arcata, California to watch and celebrate the June 11 JJA Jazz Awards. These satellite parties are in addition to the previously announced parties in Berkeley CA, Boston, Portland OR, Seattle, Tallahassee FL and Washington D.C.

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