June
2020

IN THIS ISSUE:

Detroit Winners in Jazz Journalist Awards

The Jazz Journalist Association has released their winners of the 25th Annual Jazz Journalist Association 2020 Awards. Some of the winners were from the Detroit area or are such frequent visitors here they seem like locals. For example, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington was chosen Musician of the Year and Drummer of the Year. She is now the Artistic Director of the Carr Center in Detroit, but resides in New York City.

Ann Arbor Jazz Hero for 2020 was Deanna Relyea of the Kerrytown Concert House. She founded her eminent concert space in 1984 and it was named one of the best jazz venues in the world by DownBeat. One indication of the renown of KCH is that a large number of the award winners of the JJA Awards have played there. Relyea is also a moving force in Edgefest which was launched in 1997 by Dave Lynch and Relya as a two-day event at KCH. It is now an annual event lasting four days (except this year) with performers and audiences coming from all over the world of free/avant garde jazz.

Mark Stryker’s book Jazz From Detroit (University of Michigan Press) was chosen as Jazz Book of the Year by this select group of jazz journalists. We reviewed the book in our October 2019 issue.