The nominations for the Jazz FM Awards 2025 have been announced.
This year's ceremony, which will be presented in collaboration with PRS for Music and PPL, will be held at KOKO in north London on 24 April.
Celebrating both emerging and established talent within the jazz world, the Jazz FM Awards have today (6 March) recognised the likes of Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia and Michael Kiwanuka by naming among the nominees for this year’s awards.
2023 Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective are up for UK Jazz Act of the Year and Album of the Year for their record Dance, No One’s Watching, while Nubya is also up for the same two awards (the latter for her album Odyssey). Michael, meanwhile, is nominated in the Soul Act of the Year category.
The winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Gold Award and the Impact Award will be announced in the coming weeks, with those three awards recognising ‘individuals who have not only shaped jazz history, but continue to inspire new generations of musicians and audiences’.
Speaking about the nominations announcement, Nick Pitts, Content Director of Jazz FM and Magic Classical, said: ‘This is a true reflection of the class of 2025 covering off the great and the good of the jazz, soul and blues world today. The Jazz FM Awards with PPL and PRS for Music's ceremony this year will surely provide a defining moment in the genre with such a superb selection behind the winners that will be announced then. Good luck to all of our nominees!’
You can see the full list of nominations for the Jazz FM Awards 2025 below.
UK Jazz Act of the Year
corto.alto
Ezra Collective
Nubya Garcia
Album of the Year
Alice Zawadzki, Fred Thomas, Misha Mullov-Abbado - Za Górami
Ezra Collective - Dance, No One's Watching
Meshell Ndegeocello - No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin
Nubya Garcia – Odyssey
Samara Joy – Portrait
Shabaka - Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace
Breakthrough Act of the Year
Mama Terra
Ni Maxine
Sultan Stevenson
International Jazz Act of the Year
Lakecia Benjamin
Meshell Ndegeocello
Samara Joy
Vocalist of the Year
Alice Zawadzki
Bryony Jarman-Pinto
Lucy-Anne Daniels
Instrumentalist of the Year
corto.alto
Emma Rawicz
Mark Kavuma
Soul Act of the Year
Allysha Joy
Jalen Ngonda
Michael Kiwanuka
Blues Act of the Year
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Shemekia Copeland
Toby Lee
The Innovation Award
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Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band
Orii
The Collaboration Award
Queer Jazz
Take Five by Serious
Women in Jazz
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