Young stars triumph at jazz awards

Award winner Claire Martin presents Radio 3's Jazz Line Up

A younger generation of musicians has been honoured at the Hamlet British Jazz Awards in London on Wednesday.

Trumpeter Steve Fishwick, 25, won the rising star award while Gerard Presencer, 30, won in the trumpet category.

Presencer, who won the rising star award in 1992, has had pop success with dance outfit US3.

Lyttelton, who recently turned 81, was host

He emerged as a teenage prodigy in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO), which also won an award in the Big Band category.

The awards lunch in the capital's Pizza on The Park was hosted by BBC Radio 2 jazz presenter and trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton.

Other winners included Dave Newton, 44, on piano, Tommy Smith, 35, on tenor saxophone, Mark Nightingale, 35, on trombone and 34-year-old Claire Martin in the vocal category.

An older generation of jazz musicians was represented by bassist Dave Green and alto saxophonist Peter King, who won in their categories.

It was Green's 8th award and King's 9th.

Talent

The world-respected jazz and funk guitarist Jim Mullen won the guitar award.

Multi-instrumentalist Alan Barnes won twice - for miscellaneous instrument and arranger/composer - and demonstrated his talent by giving a performance of his arrangement of Bach's well-known Air on a G String.

King has run Ronnie Scott's single-handed since Scott's death in 1996

The small group award went to Martin Drew's Celebrating the Jazz Couriers - a band which pays tribute to the 1950s group led by the late saxophonists Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes.

The manager of Ronnie Scott's club in London, Pete King (no relation to the alto saxophonist) was also honoured for services to British jazz.

Two awards were sponsored by John Dankworth.

The Dankworth award for talent deserving wider recognition went to saxophonist Julian Siegel, while the award for longstanding talent went to another saxophonist, 75-year-old Tommy Whittle, who started his musical career in the 1930s.

And journalist Alyn Shipton won the jazz writer of the year award.