Guildhall alumni win at Jazz FM Awards 2020

Yazz Ahmed picked up two awards on the night; the Album of the year Award for Polyhymnia, as well as the UK Jazz ACT of the Year Award. Trumpet player Yazz has led her various ensembles in concerts around the UK and abroad, including at major festivals such as WOMAD, Molde Jazz, Pori Jazz and Love Supreme, and collaborated with the likes of Radiohead, Swing Out Sister and These New Puritans. Yazz Ahmed returned to Guildhall in November 2019 for an exciting collaboration with the Guildhall Jazz Orchestra, in a performance directed by Scott Stroman.

Binker Golding won the Instrumentalist of the year Award. The saxophonist is one half of the MOBO-winning jazz duo Binker and Moses, and has released four albums as a bandleader and played on countless others with rising stars of the London jazz scene.

Seed Ensemble was nominated for album of the year, which includes alumni Miguel Gorodi (Trumpet 2012), Theon Cross (Tuba 2014) and Sarah Tandy (Piano 2002) in its ten-piece band.

Recognising the best emerging new artists, contemporary jazz icons and established stars from across the worlds of jazz, soul and blues, the Jazz FM Awards took place via livestream from Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho. Presented by Marcus Brigstocke, the ceremony celebrated the breadth and diversity of the thriving global scene.

See the full list of winners and nominees on the Jazz FM Awards website, where you can also relive the awards as they happened.