2025 jazz Junos: nominees and people of our scene
The 54th Junos will happen here in Vancouver on Sunday, March 30. Nominees got published on Tuesday, including some of us
The Juno nominees for this year's 54th awards, which will happen here in Vancouver on Sunday, March 30, got published on Tuesday.
Back in 2022, when what is now Subscriber Fridays had just launched and I was casting about for subject matter, I covered the jazz Junos a few times: predictions and snubs and storylines and winners.
After that, I became a Juno juror in some of these jazz categories – but I'm not voting this year, so we're back to coverage! Let's run through everyone in our extended universe who got a nomination. Our local stories are the bookends.
Vocal jazz album of the year
Oh Mother by Andrea Superstein (Cellar) - obviously I'm biased and rooting for her, Cellar, and all the contributing musicians to win. An interesting project that doesn't sound like what I'd usually listen to, but surely stands up as an honest artistic statement by a talented leader and ensemble. I covered it indirectly in my Elizabeth Shepherd piece:
Will Chernoff
Hello! How Are You? by Caity Gyorgy (La Reserve) - Gyorgy to me is Patrick Mahomes; even if she and her team might lose once in a while, as we all do, I try not to bet against her. It's her fourth consecutive nomination, which includes two victories. I wrote last year about how this album cuts through the glamour and noise that you might perceive to be around her, remaining a direct statement in her own words as well as an accurate depiction of hearing her live with a piano trio.
Will Chernoff
Winter Song by Kellylee Evans: not to be confused with the album below on this list of nominees, it's a Christmas album out of Ottawa. I'd never heard of it or heard it until the nomination here. Evans, though, happens to be in town headlining a show at the Anvil Centre – with Krystle Dos Santos opening – tomorrow night. She surely won't be playing the holiday music of this record; the tickets are maybe half sold.
Wintersongs by Laila Biali: having been performed in December at the BlueShore, this project is a broader, less out-and-out Christmas statement than the similarly named one above. Biali has now been nominated six times, including last year for Your Requests. (Trivia: she made the cut twice in one year – in 2019 she won with her own self-titled record and also got nominated for Sun Songs with Jodi Proznick.) It's ambitious, including a string quartet and a few featured guests – in particular for me, two tracks with Jane Bunnett. But I don't think either wintry album will win.
Magpie by Sarah Jerrom (TPR) - from the small label of publicist Ernesto Cervini, his sister Amy Cervini, and her husband Oded Lev-Ari, it's a follow-up to Jerrom's previous album which Rhythm Changes covered during the pandemic (link below). Jerrom only has one speed as a bandleader: sweeping, elaborate, detailed. This large-ensemble album is very much in the mix. William Carn and Tara Davidson, who appear in a category below, are among the musicians.
Chris Fraser
Jazz album of the year (solo)
Montreal Jazz Series 1 (Échanges Synaptiques) by André Leroux (Disques BG) - Hadn't heard it before the nomination, still haven't listened to it; news of Franco-jazz doesn't reach me too well. I'm intrigued to see the creative bassist RJ LeBlanc on it.
The Head of a Mouse by Audrey Ochoa (Chronograph) - I'm not a fan of the rockier, more compressed production style that this album brings. But I can't deny that Ochoa's playing is strong, she brought together an Alberta-and-beyond ensemble cast, and they all seem like they're having a blast. Ochoa hasn't been nominated before; this is her fourth album, released in late 2023.
Portrait of Right Now by Jocelyn Gould - I reviewed this album before Gould played Frankie's last fall. She's one of the artists whose work I try to keep reviewing. It's her third nomination, which includes a victory on her first outing. I actually find Gould more tightly-curated, more brand-ish than even Caity Gyorgy right now. Her career's moving fast, and she's focused on what works. She's a consummate pro whom I've enjoyed taking friends to come hear whenever she comes through town.
Will Chernoff
Slice of Life by Larnell Lewis - hadn't heard it before the nomination. It's cute and family-oriented with bits of dancehall beats, percussion solos, and vocal features. Short, only 31 minutes. Looks like there's crossover with Jeremy Ledbetter's album in the next category, at least on paper.
The Antrim Coast by Mark Kelso (Modica Music) - hadn't heard it before, on Roberto Occhipinti's label. Based on the track titles, I was hankering for some folk crossover stuff like Matt Carmichael and Fergus McCreadie; but no, it's finely tuned middle-of-the-road contemporary jazz.
Jazz album of the year (group)
Time Will Tell by Andy Milne and Unison (Sunnyside) - hadn't heard it before, still haven't heard it. Looks like there's a heavy personal story with it, continuing on from Milne's previous record, that to me doesn't come across as Juno-bait. I can appreciate the narration of personal parts of your story through improvisation and musical documentation: still trying to do that myself, after all.
Reverence by Carn Davidson 9 - it's the third nomination for the Toronto-based nonet led by William Carn and Tara Davidson. The retrospective theme functions as excellent Juno-bait, even if they didn't necessarily intend it to be so. It'd be easy to call them the odds-on favourite in this field.
Harbour by Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra (Justin Time) - to fully throw back the curtain, I voted for Jensen's album Day Moon last year (in the Solo category) at rank 1 on my ballot, it won, and I want someone else to win this year. There you have it! Of course, her work is of the highest calibre. You can hear her at the BlueShore at the end of this month.
Gravity by Jeremy Ledbetter Trio - Larnell Lewis is in the trio; they came to play the Shadbolt last fall. Here we find the balls-to-the-wall fusion that Lewis' own nominated album eschews. The electric bass playing is that shredder stuff. That said, it's driven by acoustic piano.
Jaya by Raagaverse (Rhea) - yes, here's the big story for us in Vancouver. First of all, it's a highly intelligent choice, if it indeed was a choice, to enter the Group category instead of the Vocal category. My personal intuition – again, I haven't spoken to any of the band members about it – is that the 2023 nomination of The Ostara Project (in Vocal) may have informed that choice. (It almost worked last year for Ostara-mate Allison Au's Migrations, which is an essentially vocal album featuring Laila Biali but got nominated in Group. I didn't vote in that category last year, though.)
How can those in Juno-land pass on celebrating Shruti Ramani, on home turf, at the end of March? Then again, Ramani and co. are long-term builders at Raagaverse, with new albums and plans surely already in designs: it's not now-or-never, they're rising regardless. How about establishing Jodi Proznick's Rhea Records as a known label on the national scene? That's possible too. This is our people, swinging for the fences.
Some other nominations:
- The self-titled album by Toronto-based, electronic-minded band Disaster Pony is up for Instrumental Album of the Year. A jazz publicist pitched it to me last year, so why not include them in this roundup?
- New Orleans Sessions by BC-based Blue Moon Marquee, who often play at jazz and folk festivals alike, is up for Blues Album of the Year.
- The experimental Montreal artist Kee Avil, whom Vancouver's own Amélie Malissard represents via her act/art/mgt firm, is up for the album artwork category with Spine.
- Strange Medicine by Kaia Kater, whom I heard on tour Tuesday night at the York, got nominated for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year.
