Wayne Shorter Dominates Jazz Awards

Posted in News on July 8, 2003

BMI jazz great Wayne Shorter was the big winner at the 7th Annual Jazz Awards presented recently in New York by the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA). The awards were sponsored by BMI and took place at B.B. King's Blues Club and Grill in Times Square on June 25. Shorter, who was also the top winner in the recent DownBeat Jazz Critics Poll, was named Musician of the Year, Tenor Saxophonist of the Year and Album of the Year for Footprints Live!. The Wayne Shorter Quartet also took home the Small Jazz Group of the Year trophy.

Other winners included legendary jazz musician Cecil Taylor, who was honored with the Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Award, and jazz bassist Dave Holland, who was named Bassist of the Year and whose band the "Dave Holland Big Band" was named Big Band of the Year. BMI also congratulates Jim McNeeley, Associate Director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, who received a nomination for Jazz Arranger of the Year.

Wayne Shorter

The Jazz Awards represent excellence and accomplishment in performance, recording, presentation and documentation of jazz. The JJA represents more than 400 writers, broadcasters, photographers and new media professionals worldwide.

BMI's 2003 Jazz Awards Winners:

Lifetime Achievement in Jazz
Cecil Taylor

Musician of the Year
Wayne Shorter

Album of the Year
Footprints Live!
Wayne Shorter

Historical Box Set of the Year
Charlie Christian, Genius of the Electric Guitar

Jazz Composer of the Year
Andrew Hill

Reissue of the Year
A Love Supreme
John Coltrane

Small Jazz Group of the Year
Wayne Shorter Quartet

Male Jazz Vocalist of the Year
Andy Bey

Jazz Trombonist of the Year
Roswell Rudd

Miscellaneous Jazz Brass of the Year
Steve Bernstein (Slide Trumpet)

Jazz Soprano Saxophonist of the Year
Jane Ira Bloom

Jazz Clarinetist of the Year
Marty Ehrlich

Jazz Pianist of the Year
Kenny Barron

Jazz Electric Bassist of the Year
Steve Swallow

Jazz Organ-Keyboardist of the Year
Dr. Lonnie Smith

Jazz Drummer of the Year
Matt Wilson

Big Band of the Year
Dave Holland Big Band

Trumpeter of the Year
Dave Douglas

Tenor Saxophonist of the Year
Wayne Shorter

Bassist of the Year
Dave Holland

SOURCENews TAGS Blues Jazz Artists Steve Bernstein John Coltrane B.B. King Wayne Shorter