So will it be Christine Tobin’s year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, which are held tonight in the Terrace Pavilion of the House of Commons?

The singer has been nominated in two categories of the 2013 Parliamentary Jazz Awards but faces strong competition in the jazz musician of the year category as trumpeter Guy Barker, a newly announced associate composer of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and Soft Machine Legacy guitarist John Etheridge have also been nominated this year at the most prestigious awards in the UK jazz calendar.

Sponsored by royalties body PPL, and support organisation Jazz Services, in the album of the year category Tobin also received a nomination for her acclaimed album Sailing to Byzantium; while Jazz FM Awards album of the year winner Saltash Bells by John Surman and Walking Dark by Phronesis are also nominated.

The jazz ensemble of the year nominations are Beats & Pieces Big Band from Manchester; Anglo-American supergroup The Impossible Gentlemen, soon to release their second album; and completing the nominees, prog jazz guitar-organ-drums pacesetters Troyka who were nominated in the UK jazz artist of the year section of the Jazz FM awards in January but lost out to the Neil Cowley trio.

The live jazz award of the year nominations are Café Oto, who also missed out on a Jazz FM award when Ronnie Scott’s triumphed; Herts Jazz; Manchester Jazz Festival; and the Vortex, which inexplicably has never won a Parliamentary jazz award to date. Maybe it will be the Dalston club’s year.

Jazz journalist of the year nominees are: John Fordham of The Guardian a previous two-time winner; the Financial Times reviewer Mike Hobart; and Glasgow paper The Herald’s Rob Adams, who was also nominated last year.

Jazz broadcaster of the year nominees are 6Music’s Gilles Peterson; previous winner Jazz FM Dinner Jazz presenter Helen Mayhew; and Mike Chadwick, also of Jazz FM, who has often been nominated at the awards now in their ninth running but who has never won. Jazz publication of the year nominations go to Catherine Tackley for her book Benny Goodman’s Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert; the magazine Jazzwise, a previous two-time winner; and website London Jazz News. The jazz education nominees are: Brian Moore, Jonathan Eno, Nick Smart, and Tommy Smith; while Services to Jazz nominees are free improv saxophone hero Evan Parker; outgoing BBC Jazz Line-Up producer Keith Loxam; singer Norma Winstone; and “the godfather of British jazz" himself, pianist Stan Tracey.

The winners are chosen by peers and MPs who are members of the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group. James Pearson and the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars will perform at the awards this evening, making a return appearance. MB
Christine Tobin, above