Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Maria Schneider and Gregory Porter are among the winners of this year’s Downbeat critics poll, the 63rd in the US jazz magazine’s history.

Iyer, whose trio album Break Stuff was released earlier this year, won for jazz artist of the year and jazz group. His friend and regular playing partner for many years Rudresh Mahanthappa won in the album of the year category for Bird Calls and also in the alto saxophone and rising star/composer categories.

Lee Konitz entered the Hall of Fame. John Coltrane’s Offering: Live at Temple University was voted the historical album of the year.

Maria Schneider won in the composer-arranger section. Female singer of the year was Cécile McLorin Salvant and the male singer poll topper was Gregory Porter.

See the August edition of Downbeat for full details of all the winners plus accompanying artist profiles.

Vijay Iyer, above. Photo: Jimmy Katz