Our new Women in Jazz Media Playlist is now out: Volume 27!
We publish a new playlist each month and try to share a wide range of women from across the world - new releases, legacy artists, new and established artists and also some women we think you should know about but maybe don't! We keep it to 15 artists per playlist to give you time to discover, listen and share these incredible women. You can listen to this month's playlist on Spotify here or You Tube here
Do please get in touch if you have music you would like us to include - either your own or recommendations. We are especially keen to share music from female instrumentalists and composers. If you have been in touch and you are not on a playlist yet, please don't worry, you will be on soon! We appreciate you sharing your music with us.
As always we would encourage you to buy directly from the artist where possible, and all the links are on our site here:
Welcome to our latest episode of ‘In Conversation With’ featuring music from Hannah Horton! You can find our podcasts at number 9 in the top 60 Best Jazz Podcasts in FeedSpot! In this episode, host Hannah Horton welcomes Jo Harrop!
Born in Durham and raised on a heady musical diet of the likes of, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin, Jo Harrop first cut her teeth as a session singer.
After moving to London, she quickly established herself as one of the most unmistakable voices in British jazz, performing everywhere from the Royal Albert Hall to sell out shows at Ronnie Scotts. Jo was nominated for two Parliamentary Jazz Awards in 2022, for vocalist and album of the year, and her songs have been playlisted on BBC Radio 2 Jo Whiley show, Jazz FM and BBC Radio 6 music.
Having signed to London-based jazz label, Lateralize Records, she recently received a raft of rapturous reviews for Weathering The Storm, her debut with guitarist, Jamie McCredie, and her first original album, The Heart Wants, which hit number 13 in the US Jazz album charts. Jo Harrop website
Hannah Horton is a British Female Jazz Saxophonist whose music is rooted in jazz, folk and funk. She has performed with many great jazz artists including Ian Shaw, Amy Winehouse, John Etheridge, Tina May, Georgia Mancio, Polly Gibbons, Natalie Williams, Esther Bennett and Irene Serra; and at venues including Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express Dean St, The 606, The Pheasantry, Love Supreme Jazz Festival, Royal Festival Hall and The Barbican. She has also toured in Europe and USA with her own and other groups. Her latest album has been going down a storm across the world. “Hannah makes the big beast of a baritone sax sound like an angel” – Ian Shaw. Hannah Horton website
Our new Women in Jazz Media Playlist is now out: Volume 26!
We publish a new playlist each month and try to share a wide range of women from across the world - new releases, legacy artists, new and established artists and also some women we think you should know about but maybe don't! We keep it to 15 artists per playlist to give you time to discover, listen and share these incredible women. You can listen to this month's playlist on Spotify
Do please get in touch if you have music you would like us to include - either your own or recommendations. We are especially keen to share music from female instrumentalists and composers. If you have been in touch and you are not on a playlist yet, please don't worry, you will be on soon! We appreciate you sharing your music with us.
As always we would encourage you to buy directly from the artist where possible, and all the links are on our site here:
Nominations announced for the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Awards 2023
7th June 2023
The nominations have today been announced for the UK 2023 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. We are thrilled to see some of our team nominated and wish a huge congratulations to Monika S. Jakubowska and Tatiana Gorilovsky for their nominations for Jazz Photographer Award and to Hannah Horton for two nominations – Jazz Newcomer and the Jazz Education for her incredible work with J Steps. Go team!
The Awards, organised by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Group (APPJG) with the support of PizzaExpress Live. The recipients of the 2023 Parliamentary Jazz Awards will be announced on Tuesday 4th July 2023. The Parliamentary Awards celebrate and recognise the vibrancy, diversity, breadth and talent of the jazz scene throughout the United Kingdom.
The award categories reflect the ever-increasing scope of talent from within the UK’s jazz scene: Jazz Vocalist of the Year; Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year; Jazz Album of the Year; Jazz Ensemble of the Year; Jazz Newcomer of the Year; Jazz Venue of the Year; Jazz Media Award; Jazz Education Award; and the Services to Jazz Award with a new category this year – the PizzaExpress Live Photographer of the Year Award
Following the online public vote for the Awards, the shortlist was then voted upon by a selection panel, that represent a broad cross-section of backgrounds united in their passion and knowledge of jazz. The winners, chosen by judging members of the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Group (APPJG), will be announced on Tuesday 4th July 2022.
John Spellar MP, Co-Chair of APPJG, said: "These awards are a great opportunity to celebrate the talents and energies of the great musicians, educators, promoters, record labels, jazz organisations, blogs, jazz magazines and journalists who helped kept jazz flourishing. These shortlists demonstrate the wealth of talent and commitment that exists in the British jazz scene. Now in its 18th year, the Parliamentary Jazz Awards honour the best of British jazz. MPs and Peers in the All Party Group are grateful to PizzaExpress Live for supporting the event.”
The full list of nominees is as follows:
Jazz Vocalist of the Year
Emma Smith
Jo Harrop
Georgia Cécile
Elaine Delmar
Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year
Alcyona Mick
Art Themen
Camilla George
Gary Husband
Jazz Album of the Year
Ubunye: ‘Ubunye’
Trish Clowes: ‘A View with a Room’
Jo Harrop and Paul Edis: ‘When Winter Turns To Spring’
Jazz Ensemble of the Year
Ubunye
Alex Hitchcock and Ant Law Quartet
Julian Siegel Big Band
Jazz Newcomer of the Year
Sultan Stevenson
Amy Gadiaga
Hannah Horton
Jazz Venue of the Year
The Verdict, Brighton
Jazz at the Blue Lamp, Aberdeen
Magy’s Farm, Dromara, County Down, NI
Jazz Media Award
Kevin Le Gendre
Jazzwise Magazine
The Jazz Rag
Jazz Education Award
Tomorrows Warriors
Hanna Horton: J Steps, Saffron Centre For Young Musicians, Saffron Walden
Karen Gourlay: Head of Leeds Junior Conservatoire
Jazz Photographer Award
Monika S. Jakubowska
William Ellis
Tatiana Gorilovsky
Services to Jazz Award
Janine Irons
Danielle White
Tony Haynes and the Grand Union Orchestra
The All Party Parliamentary Jazz Group (APPJG) currently has over 110 members from the House of Commons and House of Lords across all political parties. Their aim is to encourage wider and deeper enjoyment of jazz, to increase Parliamentarians’ understanding of the jazz industry and issues surrounding it, to promote jazz as a musical form and to raise its profile inside and outside Parliament. The Group’s officers as at the Annual General Meeting on 15th March 2023 are Co-Chairs, John Spellar MP and Lord Mann, Secretary, Sir Greg Knight MP, Vice Chairs, Alison Thewless MP, Chi Onwurah MP, Lord McNicol and Patrick Grady MP, the Treasurer is Ian Paisley MP. Officers are Lord Alton and Sarah Champion MP.
Created to support the development of outstanding female Black artists in the early stages of their careers and to support the creation of ground-breaking, genre-bending and alternative original music, our Kicking Down The Door Creator Fund aims:
To break down assumptions and stereotypes within the music industry by encouraging role models for future generations of female Black Alternative artists
To raise awareness of the female Black artists creating genre-bending and exceptional new music
To increase the profile of female Black Alternative Music
To encourage the creation of authentic music creation outside of industry stereotyping and assumptions
Huge shout out and thank you to everyone who submitted an application! Everyone who applied was amazing and it was incredible to see so much inspiring work by so many women! Sadly, this time around, we only have enough budget to support three applicants but we do want to shout out to you all and thank you for applying. We will hopefully be opening the fund again and everyone is welcome to apply again, even if you applied before and were not successful.
The Kicking Down The Door Creator Fund has been created by team member Ashaine White ‘I’m so honoured to be able to be a part the journey of these 3 talented artists! Women in Jazz Media aims to support artists being themselves, authentically - inspiring women making brave music, it’s truly a pleasure to represent the black alternative music space!’
'I am buzzing and full of so much gratitude. Thank you to Women in Jazz Media and Ashaine White, I'm so excited to use this funding to support an intimate live show where I will be sharing new music and use the studio time to finally record final versions of my new project. The support will really make an impact on my music journey'. Mary Sho
‘I am so excited to be acknowledged by such a wonderful organisation and community that I have followed for so long. With the fund, I am planning to improve my home studio set-up which is well overdue an upgrade! Big thank you, can't wait to start working together.’ Olympia Vitalis
‘The support from Women in Jazz Media has given me the confidence to believe in my artistry and carry out the next steps to release new music as an independent artist. I'm glad this fund exists.’ Rybes
Much to more to follow, but you can support these artists already by following on the links below:
We are hugely grateful to Barnes Code for sponsoring this initiative and whose funding has made this project possible. Barnes Code has great expertise in the music industry and specialises in bespoke software development and we are proud to have them as an official sponsor.
Our 3 successful applicants each get: £500 towards music project, 2 x 4-hour recording sessions, 1-1 mentoring/artist development discussions, networking opportunities, live performance opportunities, one photo shoot, interview published in our Women in Jazz Media magazine and promotion on our social media platforms.
Watch this space!
We are open and transparent in all the work we do and always happy to discuss any aspects of our work including decision making. If anyone would like to explore this or has any questions, please do get in touch. We are here to support.
Welcome to our monthly team news! We like to share some of the work the team have been doing both inside and outside of their Women in Jazz Media work and we have all been very busy as always.
For some of our general news, we are busy working on our next magazine which is due to be published in July, so do look out for that. You can read our last edition here
We have held quite a few events since our last update and were thrilled to support the brilliant JAM String Collective launch their new album in partnership with Tomorrows Warriors at Toulouse Lautrec.
Our new ‘Kicking Down The Door’ initiative created by team member and Ivor’s Academy nominated Rising Star Ashaine White, has now closed. Created to support the development of outstanding female Black artists in the early stages of their careers to support the creation of ground-breaking, genre-bending and alternative original music. We will be sharing more news about this in our next magazine!
Big Mama, Aydenne Simone and Fiona Ross recently visited the Music Relief Foundation to explore some exciting projects and how we can further support their work.
Kim Cypher has been busy in the studio recording the final few tracks for her forthcoming 'Brighter Tomorrow' album featuring Liane Carroll, Ashley Slater, Antonio Forcione and Karl Vanden-Bossche. She has also been rehearsing for her performance in the Grand Finale of the hugely anticipated Barbara Thompson Memorial Concert, together with an ALL-STAR lineup, at Union Chapel on 2nd June. Click here to BOOK TICKETS NOW or stream 'live'.
Diana Torti’s new album has been causing quite the stir and received amazing reviews.
Fiona Mactaggart for Jazz in Europe explains ‘Never before has an album’s deep lyrics contrasted so markedly with the lightness and sheer beauty of its sound.’ You can read the full review here. Nick Lea on Jazz views tells us ‘An album to luxuriate in as Sabino de Bari and Diana Torti embrace jazz, improvisation, contemporary classical and ancient music in an intoxicating and eclectic programme’ You can read the full review here. The brilliant Sarah Chaplin also interviewed Diana for JazzLondonLive and the incredible Sandy Letham, who is a huge supporter of female artists, played the new album on his Abbey 104 show. Album cover photo by our very own Monika S Jakubowska!
Paulette Jackson has been featured in two wonderful magazines recently The Lyfe Magazine and Pump It Up Magazine Paulette also attended a 2 day conference for entrepreneurs and creatives where her business, SCORP Lady Ventures was one of the businesses featured in the NDustri Magazine with actress Viola Davis on the cover, along with being a guest author panelist for a discussion about self-publishing at one of her local libraries.
Tatiana Gorilovsky has been capturing stunning moments around London and here are a couple of recent photos: Carminho, (Maria do Carmo Carvalho Rebelo de Andrade), one of the best Portuguese Fado singers and brilliant Alice Zawadski opening for her at Union Chapel, in London recently.
Esther Bennett is busy performing all over the UK and her upcoming gig at Sicily looks like a real treat! June 16th tickets here Esther is also excited to be part of The Music Mix’s final concert of the season on 18th June, Sunday, at William Loveless Hall in Colchester. Tickets here. We are also looking forward to physical copies of Esther’s brilliant CD Home is Where the Art Is which is coming soon!
Isabel Marquez had the opportunity to attend both the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and XJazz! Festival in Berlin as a reporter for Women in Jazz Media/Jazz in Europe! 'I got to interview some of my all time favourite musicians and enjoy some fantastic music'. You can read her Cheltenham Jazz Festival here and XJazz is coming soon!
And last but not least, we are all excited about new music coming from Lara Eidiwho is set to release her new album ‘Sun’. It’s a huge project with a lot of heart, so Lara has launched a crowfunding campaign which you can find out about here:
So much more, but thank you for reading some highlights!
