Trumpeter Reuben Fowler, who earlier this year was announced winner of the Royal Academy of Music’s Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize, has just been confirmed as the latest recipient of the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award.

Fowler began in what is proving to be a career in music with the Doncaster Jazz Association as a teenager, later joined NYJO, and made good showings this year with the Academy Big Band when Dave Douglas performed with the student band in the Academy’s Duke’s Hall in January, and as a member of Troyk-estra in March at Ronnie Scott’s during the Jazzwise 15th anniversary week of gigs. Fowler’s debut album will be released by Edition Records in early-2013.

The Whittingham is well known as a strong indicator of significant fresh new talent on the verge of breaking through, for instance the hitherto little known Roller Trio got the nod last year, and has since garnered further acclaim and wider recognition at both the Mercury awards and the MOBOs, while other previous winners have included World Service Project, Soweto Kinch, and Gwilym Simcock. The award of £4,000 is named after Peter Whittingham, an expert in survival medicine who died in 1987, and whose family established a trust in his memory with the award administered annually by the Musicians Benevolent Fund.

Stephen Graham

Reuben Fowler pictured top