Italian Jazz Awards


The Italian Jazz Awards are an independent musical review created in 2006 by Andrea Causi and managed by the ACM in collaboration with the American Management Agency. The purpose of the IJA is to reward the best Italian jazz musicians, chosen by an Artistic Board and voted on by the audience on the IJA Official Website. The awards are dedicated to the memory of the Italian jazz pianist Luca Flores, who died in 1995.
Andrea Causi created the awards while a student of the Jazz Graduation Course of the Conservatory of music G. F. Ghedini in Cuneo. The first edition of the IJA started in 2007 along the lines of the American Jazz Awards.
The awards consist of four categories with four nominees chosen by an Artistic Board. The Board changes every two years, and is formed of jazz musicians and journalists, tasked with picking four finalists, who then pass to the final phase of the contest: the public polls.
The only one of the awards not voted on by the audience but chosen by the Artistic Board is the Honorary Award, assigned to the most important Italian jazz musician of Europe and the world.
In February 2008, American jazz pianist Uri Caine was the special guest of the IJA'07 red carpet show.

Winners

2007 Genoa

Artistic Board: Freddy Colt, Maria Grazia Scarzella, Melania Renzi, Samuel J. Morris.

2009 - Alessandria/Bari

Artistic Board: Tiziana Ghiglioni, Patti Wicks, Freddy Colt, Paolo Longo, Adriana Isoardi, Renzo Coniglio, Massimo Epinot.

2010 - Mola di Bari/Locorotondo/Bernalda

Artistic Board: Barbara Flores, Guido Di Leone, Freddy Colt, Paolo Longo, Adriana Isoardi, Massimo Epinot.

2011 - Rome/Udine

Artistic Board: Barbara Flores, Guido Di Leone, Eva Simontacchi, Stefano Maurizi, Roberto Chiriaco.