Festival Award winners 2023
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Oliver-Jones Award: Édelène Fitzgerald
The Oliver-Jones Award was created in 2019 for the 40th edition of the Festival to honour and recognize the young university student musicians who consider themselves members of a visible minority, to which Stingray is proudly associating its Stingray Rising Stars program.
Édelène Fitzgerald is the third artist to receive the Oliver Jones Award. The award was created in honour of Oliver Jones, a Montréal jazz icon who left an indelible mark on the history of the Festival and who today stands as a success story for Montréal’s Afro-descendant communities and a source of inspiration for all of Canada’s cultural communities. It is because of this connection and this history that the Oliver Jones Award is given to young university-level musicians who identify as members of visible minorities or First Nations communities. In addition to her show on July 8 in Le Studio TD, Édelène Fitzgerald will also receive a Stingray Rising Stars award worth $5,000. Created in 1998, the aim of the Stingray Rising Stars Program is to discover, encourage and champion young Canadian music talent. Since it was launched 25 years ago, more than 1,000 awards have been handed out to artists from across Canada. Édelène Fitzgerald has studied jazz vocals and trombone, and is a versatile multi-instrumentalist and performer. She has shifted her focus from trombone to singing, and can perform in musical styles the likes of jazz, blues, R&B, funk, pop and more. This Cégep de Drummondville jazz trombone graduate is now pursuing her undergraduate degree in jazz vocal interpretation at the Université de Montréal under Malika Tyrolien.
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Antônio-Carlos-Jobim Award: Marisa Monte
The Antônio-Carlos-Jobim Award was created on the occasion of the Festival’s 25th anniversary to honour artists distinguished in the field of world music and whose influence on the evolution of jazz and cultural crossover is widely recognized.
Marisa Monte is the 18th winner of the Antônio Carlos Jobim Award. Created for the Festival’s 25th anniversary in 2004, the award is handed out to an artist who has shone in world music and whose cultural mixes have had an undeniable influence on the history of jazz. This Brazilian singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer is considered one of the greatest voices of her generation. Her expressive, opera-trained alto blends samba and música popular brasileira with jazz as well as pop, funk and soul. In 2021, on the evening of her 54th birthday, Monte release Portas, her first studio album in a decade. Recorded in four countries during the pandemic, all 16 songs abound with songwriting and producing collaborations.
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Miles-Davis Award: Avishai Cohen Trio
The Miles Davis Award was created for the Festival’s 15th anniversary in 1994 to honour a great international jazz musician for the entire body of his or her work and influence in regeneratingthe jazz idiom.
Avishai Cohen is the 28th winner of the Miles Davis Award. Created in 1994 for the Festival’s 15th anniversary, the award pays homage to a world-renowned jazz artist, their body of work and innovation in the genre. Over the past 25 years, legendary bassist, singer and composer Avishai Cohen has become a fixture on the contemporary jazz scene, with a repertoire rivalling that of jazz’s biggest legends. With his sublime and edifying Shifting Sands, he proves once again that he’s not one to sit on his laurels.
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Ella-Fitzgerald Award: Stacey Kent Trio
The Festival created the Ella Fitzgerald Award for its 20th anniversary in 1999, annualy conferring it upon a jazz singer of significant talent who has had a major impact and influence on the international scene.
Stacey Kent is the 23rd winner of the Ella Fitzgerald Award. The Festival created the award for its 25th anniversary in 1999 to celebrate an outstanding jazz singer that has had a major impact on the global stage. With her warm and lyrical voice and the poetic sensibility that she brings to standards, Stacey Kent is the epitome of jazz sophistication. A New York native, Kent has a loyal fan base and received rave reviews for her 1997 debut album Close Your Eyes. Since then, she has released 19 albums that have garnered her many awards as well as a GRAMMY© nomination. With her trio, she will be treating us to tracks from Songs from Other Places from her latest album released in 2021.
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Montréal Jazz Festival Spirit Award: George Benson
The Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award underlines a popular artist’s extraordinary contribution to the musical world.
George Benson is the 13th winner of the Montréal Jazz Festival Spirit Award, which recognizes the quality and innovation of an artist’s body of work as well as their impact on global pop music. Quite simply one of the greatest guitarists in jazz history, George Benson is an incredibly versatile musician whose virtuoso skills allow him to switch seamlessly from “classic” jazz to contemporary R&B. Not only does he boast consummate taste, a beautiful round guitar sound, breathtaking speed, a spellbinding logic in how he builds solos and an insatiable appetite for swing, but Benson has a luxurious and moving tenor singing voice with stylings reminiscent of Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway.
Winners history
Oliver-Jones Award
- 2022 : Christina Beaudry-Cárdenas
- 2019 : Jacob Do
B.B.-King Award
- 2022 : Colin James
- 2019 : Buddy Guy
- 2018 : George Thorogood
- 2017 : Charlie Musselwhite
- 2016 : Taj Mahal
- 2015 : James Cotton
- 2014 : B.B.-King
Ella-Fitzgerald Award
- 2022 : China Forbes
- 2019 : Melody Gardot
- 2018 : Ben Harper
- 2017 : Lizz Wright
- 2016 : Gregory Porter
- 2015 : Erykah Badu
- 2014 : Diana Ross
- 2013 : Holly Cole
- 2012 : Liza Minnelli
- 2011 : Sade
- 2010 : The Manhattan Transfer
- 2009 : John Pizzarelli
- 2008 : Aretha Franklin
- 2007 : Harry Connick
- 2006 : Etta James
- 2005 : Al Jarreau
- 2004 : Tony Bennett
- 2003 : Bobby McFerrin
- 2002 : Dianne Reeves
- 2001 : Diana Krall
- 2000 : Dee Dee Bridgewater
- 1999 : Diane Schuur
Montréal Jazz Festival Spirit Award
- 2022 : The Roots
- 2019 : Joni Mitchell
- 2018 : Ry Cooder
- 2016 : Brian Wilson
- 2014 : Elvis Costello
- 2012 : James Taylor
- 2011 : Robert Plant
- 2010 : Smokey Robinson
- 2009 : Stevie Wonder
- 2008 : Leonard Cohen
- 2007 : Bob Dylan
- 2006 : Paul Simon
Miles-Davis Award
- 2022 : Robert Glasper
- 2019 : Joshua Redman
- 2018 : Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
- 2017 : Jack DeJohnette
- 2016: Kenny Barron
- 2015: Al Di Meola
- 2014 : Terence Blanchard
- 2013 : Charles Lloyd
- 2012 : Ron Carter
- 2011 : Stanley Clarke
- 2010 : Sonny Rollins
- 2009 : Ornette Coleman
- 2008 : McCoy Tyner
- 2007 : Mike Stern
- 2006 : Brad Mehldau
- 2005 : Dave Holland
- 2004 : Keith Jarrett
- 2003 : Joe Zawinul
- 2002 : Chick Corea
- 2001 : Michael Brecker
- 2000 : Charlie Haden
- 1999 : Cassandra Wilson
- 1998 : John Scofield
- 1997 : Herbie Hancock
- 1996 : Wayne Shorter
- 1995 : Pat Metheny
- 1994 : John McLaughlin
Antônio-Carlos-Jobim Award
- 2022 : Bebel Gilberto
- 2019 : Omara Portuondo du Buena Vista Social
- 2018 : Zakir Hussain
- 2017 : Buika
- 2016 : Lila Downs
- 2015 : King Sunny Ade
- 2014 : Paco de Lucía
- 2013 : Amadou & Myriam
- 2012 : Emir Kusturica
- 2011 : Youssou N’Dour
- 2010 : Richard Bona
- 2009 : Toots & The Maytals
- 2008 : Gilberto Gil
- 2007 : Angélique Kidjo
- 2006 : Salif Keita
- 2005 : Khaled
- 2004 : Ibrahim Ferrer
Oscar-Peterson Award
- 2022 : Ranee Lee
- 2019 : Wray Downes
- 2018 : Renee Rosnes
- 2017 : Christine Jensen
- 2016 : Karen Young
- 2015 : Jim Galloway
- 2014 : Ron Di Lauro
- 2013 : Alain Caron
- 2012 : Peter Appleyard
- 2011 : Jean-Pierre Zanella
- 2010 : Don Thompson
- 2009 : Susie Arioli
- 2008 : Dave Young
- 2007 : François Bourassa
- 2006 : Yannick Rieu
- 2005 : Bernard Primeau
- 2004 : Diana Krall
- 2003 : Kenny Wheeler
- 2002 : Lorraine Desmarais
- 2001 : Moe Kofman
- 2000 : Charles Biddle
- 1999 : Maynard Ferguson
- 1998 : Guy Nadon
- 1997 : Rob McConnell
- 1996 : Nelson Symonds
- 1995 : Michel Donato
- 1994 : Paul Bley
- 1993 : Fraser MacPherson
- 1992 : Vic Vogel
- 1991 : UZEB
- 1990 : Oliver Jones
- 1989 : Oscar Peterson
Bruce-Lundvall Award
- 2022 : Stanley Péan
- 2019 : Manfred Eicher
- 2017 : Michael Bourne
- 2016 : Jim West
- 2015 : Bill Milkowski
- 2014 : Jean-Philippe Allard
- 2013 : Tommy LiPuma
- 2012 : Michael Cuscuna
- 2011 : George Wein
- 2010 : Herman Leonard
- 2009 : Bruce Lundvall