Mica Millar Wins Jazz FM 'Soul Act of The Year' Award alongside Jools Holland and Marcus Millar

The winners of the Jazz FM Awards 2022 were announced at an awards ceremony at Shoreditch Town Hall on Thursday 20 October with rising Soul star Mica Millar taking the prestigious 'Soul Act of The Year' award alongside Jools Holland (renowned blues-boogie woogie pianist and presenter of his long-running BBC show Later...) who won the 'Impact Award', US bassist Marcus Miller known for his tenure as Miles Davis’ producer for the last decade of the iconic trumpeter’s career who took home the 'Gold Award' and internationally acclaimed singer Norma Winstone who was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her immense contribution to jazz for the last six decades.

Mica Millar performed single 'Will I See You Again' to open the ceremony with her award presented by P.P Arnold later in the proceedings. Other performances came from Jools Holland who took to the stage with 'Blues Act of The Year' winner; Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram, and jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie who won 'Instrumentalist Of The Year' and was also nominated for this years Mercury Prize.

Further winners included saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael – Breakthrough Act Of The Year; Lady Blackbird – International Jazz Act Of The Year; the Questlove directed music documentary Summer of Soul – The Digital Award; jazz electronica duo Blue Lab Beats –  Innovation Award; and trumpeter/producer Emma-Jean Thackray’s album Yellow was voted Album Of The Year in the second public vote category. Scottish jazz singer Georgia Cécile took home two awards for Vocalist of the Year and UK Jazz Artist of the Year.

Presented by actor Clarke Peters (best known for his roles as Lester Freamon in the television series The Wire and Albert Lambreaux in the television series Treme) the individual awards were presented by Peter Leathem from PPL and Andrea Gray from PRS For Music, Binker Golding, Theo Coker, Mark King, Tom Watson, Judith Owen, Alina Bzhezhinska, Marcus Brigstocke, Guy Barker, Leee John, P.P. Arnold, MF Robots and Hugh Laurie.

The full list is as follows:

GOLD AWARD: Marcus Miller

IMPACT AWARD: Jools Holland

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Norma Winstone

SOUL ACT OF THE YEAR sponsored by Boisdale: Mica Millar

BREAKTHROUGH ACT OF THE YEAR: Chelsea Carmichael

INTERNATIONAL JAZZ ACT OF THE YEAR: Lady Blackbird

BLUES ACT OF THE YEAR sponsored by Imagine Cruising: Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram

VOCALIST OF THE YEAR sponsored by Hampstead Jazz Club and Lateralize Records: Georgia Cécile

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR sponsored by Yamaha: Fergus McCreadie

THE DIGITAL AWARD sponsored by Rathbones: Summer of Soul

INNOVATION AWARD sponsored by Mishcon de Reya: Blue Lab Beats

UK JAZZ ACT OF THE YEAR: Georgia Cécile 

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Emma-Jean Thackray – Yellow