Inside/Out Jazz Awards – A Celebration of the Seattle Jazz Scene!

The Inside/Out Jazz Awards brought the Seattle Jazz community together at Benaroya Hall on May 31st to celebrate all that is good about our scene. The night was a huge success all around, with 13 amazing performances of music, dance and spoken word, and awards handed out in 13 categories (see below for photos and a list of the winners).

Sponsored by LUCID Jazz Lounge, the I/O Awards sprang from the same idea as LUCID – that the Seattle jazz community needs to build itself from the inside out. The mission statement is:

A call for individuals to share their personal authenticity with the life around them. This is a call to not be afraid of sharing and giving the gifts inside oneself for the pleasure and betterment of those on the outside. When these gifts are released, like a permission slip, the receiver can do the same, thus fostering a community that promotes creativity and nurtures a positive quality of life.

The IO Jazz Awards will honor those individuals, groups and organizations in the Seattle jazz community and beyond who exemplify this quality of sharing what is on the INSIDE, OUT.

I was honored to host the event, and perform with 3 other Seattle trumpet players in a tribute to Miles Davis. It was amazing to be on stage at Benaroya Hall, which is home to the Seattle Symphony. What amazing acoustics!

All the nominees were worthy of awards, but of course there was only one winner in each category. Here is the complete list:

Outstanding Vocalist: Flora McGill
Outstanding Lyricist: Darrius Willrich
Latin Jazz Album: Manghis Khan
Mixed Genre Album: Gravity – “Grimy”
Outstanding Stage Presence: Owuor Arunga
Outstanding Instrumentalist: Eric Verlinde
Free Jazz Band of the Year: Speak
Band of the Year: The Teaching
Straight Ahead Album of the Year: Hadley Caliman – “Straight Ahead”
Most Dynamic Concert: Evan Flory-Barnes’ “Acknowledgment of a Celebration”
Composition of the Year: Evan Flory-Barnes’ “Acknowledgment of a Celebration”
Contribution to the Community: Clarence Acox
Rising Star: Brendan O’Donnell

100% of the Proceeds from the event went to Strength Through Unity, a non-profit organization started by LUCID owner David Pierre-Louis to help rebuild neighborhoods in his native Haiti. Please follow the link for more information on how you can help.

We’ve already begun the planning for 2011’s I/O Awards, which will be even bigger and better than this year’s. Our efforts to bring the Seattle jazz community together and then to bring it out to the public at large will continue with this and many other events throughout the year. I’m honored to be part of this movement.

Some Seattle press wrote previews of the event:

Seattle Times Article
Seattle Weekly Article

Here’s a few photos from the evening:

Photos by JW Photography Studio, Robert Wade Photography and T. Ling Photo.