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Kurt Elling: Jazz Journalists Association 2012 Male Singer of the Year

Once again the Jazz Journalists Association has named Kurt Elling its Male Singer of the Year! The sixteenth annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards ceremony was held June 20, 2012 at the Blue Note in New York.
This is Kurt’s eighth JJA Jazz Award. He previously won in 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Other nominees for 2012 Male Singer of the Year were Freddy Cole, Giacomo Gates, and Gregory Porter.

The 2012 JJA Jazz Awards ceremony was hosted by WBGO’s Josh Jackson, who was also honored with this year’s Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Award for Broadcasting, and Angelika Beener of Alternate Takes.

Again this year, the JJA Jazz Awards were live tweeted on the Internet, and satellite parties were held in thirteen cities, all celebrating those who make and document jazz at the highest levels of excellence.

The complete list of winners is here.

Voting for the Jazz Awards for achievements starts with the JJA’s professional members being asked to submit up to three nominees in each category. Nominees accumulating the most votes are finalists; ties in some categories result in fewer or more than five nominated finalists. Finalists are voted upon by JJA professional members in a second round to determine Awards winners, who are invited to receive their personalized statuettes onstage.

The JJA presents all its Awards as an assertion that informed, professional, independent coverage of jazz across genre is vital to the preservation and promotion of contemporary music, for new and established audiences alike.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees, and especially to Kurt!