In A Mellow Tone, November 6: Funding Drive show #2 - the UK Parliamentary Jazz Awards
I’m in the studio with Heavy Ben for the last funding drive show of 2024 - featuring the winners of the 2024 awards from the Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Society
It’s the last funding drive show for In A Mellow Tone - please show your support by donating. We count on your support every year! Although the funding drive ends on November 10, donations will be accepted after the closing date.
Donations of $75 or more will be entered into a draw for a pass for two to the Ottawa Jazz Orchestra’s December 14 show - “Hot Like Harry” (featuring the music and songs of the Harry James Orchestra). The show is sold-out.
Many of us are a bit tired of politicians after the wall-to-wall election coverage of recent months. However, there are a group of politicians in the United Kingdom who have united in the common cause of jazz. Every year since 2005 they have come together “across the aisle” to identify British jazz musicians, educators and journalists who have made a meaningful contribution to the British jazz scene. This year, the musician winners are:
Jazz Vocalist of the Year: Emma Smith
Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year: Emma Rawicz
Jazz Album of the Year : Zoe Rahman “The Colour Of Sound”
Jazz Ensemble of the Year: Alina Bzhezhinska’s HipHarpCollective
Jazz Newcomer of the Year: Ife Ogunjobi (of Ezra Collective)
We will hear selections from each winner.
For the complete list of winners (including educators and journalists) see here.
Here’s a live performance from Emma Rawicz, only 22 years old.
The jazz “newcomer”, Ife Ogunjobi, has been around for a while. Here is is playing in 2019.
Emma Smith is a veteran jazz singer. Here she is in a live performance of a track from her 2022 album, Meshuga Baby.
You can listen live at 9 p.m. on Wednesday in Ottawa at 93.1 on the FM dial or online at CKCUFM.com. The show will be available for on demand streaming shortly after broadcast.
Note: the FM antenna at Camp Fortune is being repaired which may result in an interruption in radio transmission - online streaming will continue as normal.
I always enjoyed going to the Parliamentary Awards each year when they took place at the Houses of Parliament on the terrace overlooking the River Thames. It was great to see political opponents arguing passionately about their favourite Monk album or whether Chet or Miles was a better trumpeter, often only hours after giving each other a hard time in the House.