Singers Norma Winstone MBE, Georgia Mancio and Claire Martin, drummer Jas Kayser and saxophonist Nubya Garcia are among the recipients of the Parliamentary Jazz Awards 2021, announced in an online presentation streamed from Pizza Express, Dean Street.

Norma Winstone, who has been at the forefront of the European scene for more than fifty years, received the Services to Jazz Award. Georgia Mancio received the Jazz Vocalist of the Year Award in the wake of her acclaimed Quiet is the Star album, her second recording with Grammy-winning pianist and composer Alan Broadbent. And Claire Martin, in partnership with arranger Callum Au, won Album of the Year for their Songs and Stories release.

Saxophonist Nubya Garcia won Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year, following the release of her Mercury Prize-shortlisted debut album, Source, and London septet Kokoroko, whose vibrant mission to fashion new languages using the medium of Afrobeat has won them Best Group at the Urban Music Awards and an appearance at the 2020 BBC Proms, won Jazz Ensemble of the Year.

Jas Kayser, the 24-year-old drummer and recent NYJO appointee who has toured the US with the late drummer Ralph Peterson’s big band and Grammy-winning singer Luciana Souza, won the Jazz Newcomer of the Year Award.

Nottingham Jazz Club Peggy’s Skylight won Jazz Venue of the Year. Women in Jazz Media, the international organization of writers, photographers, painters, musicians, presenters, journalists, producers, and editors, won the Jazz Media Award. The Original Jazz Summer School, which began in Barry, Glamorgan in 1966 and launched an online school earlier this year, won the Jazz Education Award and The Globe in Newcastle upon Tyne won the Lockdown Innovation Award for its heroic determination to keep live music going during the pandemic.

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The Awards are organised by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group (APPJAG) with the support of PizzaExpress Live to celebrate and recognise the vibrancy, diversity, talent and breadth of the jazz scene throughout the United Kingdom.

There were special APPJAG awards for cornetist, writer and broadcaster Digby Fairweather and for Lord Colwyn, the Jazz FM founder and APPJAG stalwart, who secured funding from PPL for the Parliamentary Jazz Awards on their inception in 2005.

John Spellar MP, Co-Chair of APPJAG, 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 kept jazz flourishing, in spite of the challenges they faced in 2020. In a year of hardship, unparalleled in the last 76 years, these shortlists demonstrate the wealth of talent and commitment that exists in the British jazz scene. Now in their 16th 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.”

Chi Onwurah MP, Deputy Chair of APPJAG, commented: “This has been another really strong year for the Parliamentary Jazz Awards in terms of talent and nominations. The well-deserved recipients are a veritable who’s who of names that have made a real impact on the music and helped make the UK one of the world’s leading jazz territories.”