Umar Zakaria and Anita Schwabe were recognised for their contributions to jazz music this week.
The New Zealand Jazz Awards coincided with opening night of the Wellington Jazz Festival.
Bassist and composer Umar Zakaria was awarded the prestigious Recorded Music NZ Best Jazz Artist Tui. He was recognised for his album Fearless Music.
Anita Schwabe won the APRA AMCOS Jazz Composition of the Year award for her composition ‘Spring Tide’. She’s launching her album Eat Your Greens during the Jazz Festival.
Anita is a jazz pianist and composer who has been a lecturer at the jazz school in Wellington since 1995. She has performed with musicians such as Gordon Brisker, Kenny Wheeler, Harvey Wainapel, Dale Barlow and Eric Marienthal, with her own groups and with other musicians.
Nick Tipping will be featuring Umar Zakaria and Anita Schwabe, as well as all the other finalists, on Inside Out this Saturday from 5-7pm on RNZ Concert; and he’ll be chatting with Umar on Upbeat on Monday June 11.
More Jazz from RNZ Music
Nick Tipping brings you classic recordings and modern masterpieces from the world of jazz on a weekly basis.
RNZ Music recorded some of the hottest performances at last year's festival, so you can listen at will.
A collection of recordings and interviews about jazz
The evolution of jazz across the decades from the early 1900s to the 1990s and beyond.
And these new live recordings of Anita Schwabe and friends, made in partnership with SOUNZ