The Wire's longtime contributor Val Wilmer received the Lona Foote/Bob Parent Award for Career Excellence in Photography at the 24th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards. Announced in May on the JJA website, the awards were chaired by another Wire contributor, Howard Mandel.

Elsewhere, the Lifetime Achievement in Jazz went to Ahmad Jamal and Tomeka Reid received Violinist-Violist-Cellist of the Year. Wayne Shorter was awarded Jazz Musician of the Year and Composer of the Year while the Wayne Shorter Quartet bagged mid-sized Ensemble of the Year. Nicole Mitchell won the flute category and Bill Frisell for guitar. Historical Record of the Year went to Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album by John Coltrane (release in 2018 on Impulse!/Verve).

Val Wilmer's latest piece for The Wire, on the life and times of Nigerian trumpeter Mike Falana, can be found in The Wire 424 – subscribers to our digital edition can read the article here.