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DOWNBEAT announces winners of 2019 Critics Poll

Singer-songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant was voted the winner in two categories of the 2019 DownBeat Critics Poll: Jazz Artist of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year. Salvant, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Sullivan Fortner are among the dozens of winners in the 67th Annual Poll. Salvant topped two categories: Jazz Artist of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year. She generated tremendous acclaim for her 2018 duo album, The Window (Mack Avenue), which she recorded with Sullivan Fortner, who is the winner in two Critics Poll categories: Rising Star–Jazz Artist and Rising Star–Piano.

Other winners in the Critics Poll include Kurt Elling (Male Vocalist), Kenny Barron (Piano), Mary Halvorson (Guitar), Jane Ira Bloom (Soprano Saxophone), Miguel Zenón (Alto Saxophone), Miles Okazaki (Rising Star–Guitar), Allison Miller (Rising Star–Drums) and Joel Ross (Rising Star–Vibraphone). The Historical Album of the Year is John Coltrane's Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album (Impulse!), which the saxophonist recorded with his quartet on March 6, 1963, in the studio of famed recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

2019 DownBeat Critics Poll WINNERS include;

Jazz Artist: Cécile McLorin Salvant

Historical Album: John Coltrane, Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album (Impulse!)

Big Band: Maria Schneider Orchestra

Soprano Saxophone: Jane Ira Bloom

Piano: Kenny Barron

Violin: Regina Carter

Female Vocalist: Cécile McLorin Salvant

Male Vocalist: Kurt Elling

Composer: Maria Schneider

Arranger: Maria Schneider

Record Label: ECM

Producer: Manfred Eicher

Rising Star–Jazz Artist: Sullivan Fortner

Rising Star–Jazz Group: Sons of Kemet

Rising Star–Clarinet: Shabaka Hutchings

Rising Star–Piano: Sullivan Fortner

 

(Photo: Mark Fitton)

READ THE FULL DOWNBEAT Critics Poll ARTICLE