Congratulations to Cécile McLorin Salvant, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Mary Halvorson, all of whom have won JJA Jazz Awards from the Jazz Journalists Association.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, won two awards: Female Vocalist of the Year—which she also won the past two years—and, with pianist Sullivan Fortner, Duo of the Year, which they won last year. Salvant’s album With Every Breath I Take, her first with orchestra, featuring The Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley, is due June 26 on Nonesuch. Salvant and the ensemble perform timeless songs—by Coleman, Coward, Ellington, Sondheim, Strayhorn, and Salvant—newly arranged by Darcy James Argue. You can hear the title track and pre-order the album here.

Ambrose Akinmusire has won Trumpeter of the Year, for the third year in a row. His new album, due June 12, is Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings, a duo record with Mary Halvorson, who has won Guitarist of the Year, also for the third year in a row. Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings features four new compositions by each musician plus one collaboration. The duo, long admirers of each other’s musicianship, began playing together periodically back in 2009. They rehearsed the music on Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings in January 2025, just before performing it at the NYC club The Stone; they recorded the album the next day at Sear Sound. “I think it’s partly a shared aesthetic and an ease of communication. I feel comfortable to try whatever,” Halvorson says. Akinmusire concurs, “I think it’s rare to find an improviser that all goes and nothing has to go at all. It’s rare to feel like you don’t have to do anything and you can do anything. And that’s what I love about playing with Mary.” You can hear two tracks and pre-order the album here.

Professional journalist members of the JJA made open nominations in a first-selection round; those who received the most nominations advanced to the finalists’ ballot, and JJA’s professional members voted on them to arrive at these honorees.